A well needed break

Hope everyone has had a lovely easter and taken a well deserved break from the mountain of work which always seems to be looming at the minute! I definitely did and was very sad to have to return from a week in Malta. I fell in love with the country and the rustic charm the island posesses. Just thought I'd share some of the pictures with you as I need to escape back there (I am already back down to work). I just love how vibrant all of the colours were, especially as the sun never stopped shining! Also look how cute the buses are!

An Aladdin's Cave

With my ever increasing desire to make books, I thought it was time that I began to get euipped. Yet another very rainy day and armed with directions I found 'Ratchford,' a book binding suppliers. Before I knew it and with the help of a very friendly assistant I was stocked with an awl, paste brush, linen thread, needles, grey board and a large selection of book cloth and papers (which were a complete bargain). I'll definitely be venturing again to buy more supplies, I could have spent hours and probably could have gotten lost in there.

Death by pigeon...but everything was sequinned!

Today myself, Isobel and Kat braved the bitterly cold weather and took a trip to Liverpool in order to pad out the old journal and to soak up some culture in the art galleries, we visited exhibitions at the 'Walker Gallery,' 'Tate' and 'Fact' we also attempted to go to the 'Open Eye Gallery' but it was closed when we eventually found it (Kat's Duke of Edinburgh award was definitely a huge help!!). Bad times. We didn't let this dampen our spirits and we carried on walking around before we allowed ourselves to have a browse in Topshop. On our wanderings whilst being attacking by several pigeons, we walked past the offices which is where the winners of the £45 million prize money from the euro millions work and saw this sign in the window reading 'I'm Minted', which made us laugh (although since I arrived home, I've heard that the picture has already been in the news!)

I found visiting the exhibitions really useful and some pieces of work inspiring however there were pieces I really did not like and really did not understand..but I suppose art's what you make of it and you don't have to like everything!

Special Collections at MMU

It seems like every year since I began at uni on the foundation course I have taken an annual trip to the special collections on the 3rd floor in the library. Today was the day I took that trip, but today I went with an actual reason and not because 'I had to for my journal!' After my discussion with Sue regarding my dissertation and being briefed with second part of 'Silence,' I felt it was necessary to visit to especially look at the handmade artist books and the paper sculptures. I began by looking at the work of an artist called Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck, an artist who uses papercut as her main form of illustration in her own books. I can't wait to see more of her collection in a few weeks when she visits for the Manchester Artist Books Fair! I really loved her different approach to each page of her books and the attention to detail in the folding and cutting of the paper. Here are some images of her work:
Her work really inspired me, especially in relation to our current 'silence' brief. Mette, it seems makes considerations for each of the pages before she starts instead of just creating a page at a time, everything corresponds! This is something I also have to do for part 2 of our brief as I want to create a document. I then went onto look at other artists books, particularly the way they were folded and how they were presented rather than the actual themes. I completely forgot to write the names of all of the artist books and the designs...but theses are the ones I liked!

I was fascinated by this 'book in a box' called Letter's Home and the complexity of the folds in the paper, I just need to figure out how it was done.

I also found the concertina books useful to look at, I really need to practice my folding skills so they are perfect for my own books, as I would really like to explore book design especially as a form of communication. Here are a few concertinas from the library.

Finally...if this hasn't bored you enough, I got the chance to see this brilliant paper sculpture, I love the dimensions of the piece and just the general themes of the birds flying out of a book. Quite a haunting piece, seeing a real paper sculpture has furthered my interest into the use of paper which will help me express my views within my dissertation.