I am a printmaker and a textiles artist based in Wales. I am interested in how I can translate my work into alternative objects. I am always drawn towards presenting my work in different ways, through stitched books, altered books, decorated boxes or sculptural pieces.
When I came across the Treasure Box Project I was intrigued with the concept and ordered a box. I remained in curious anticipation for what my little box might contain. As an artist you select your items carefully for a project, happy accidents often happen but your subject matter is very specific. Often I stumble across something that inspires me to create a piece or body of work but it is rare that an artist is given items and asked to create something from them – so I was intrigued….
Inspiration:
My box arrived and upon opening I found old book pages, two pieces of card with graded tones of brown and grey sample yarns, numerous sized pieces of sandpaper, a foam piece of sandpaper, a large and small piece of foam mount card, two wooden rectangles, a small plastic ladder and a small St Pauls Cathedral ornament. What a mix of items! Immediately I was drawn towards the book pages and the yarn samples, but no ideas or inspiration surfaced. I packed the items away so I could deliberate on them for a while. Every few days I would pick up the box and take out the items, rearrange them on the table to see if inspiration would hit.
On the last occasion I looked in the box, I was again drawn towards the book pages and the yarns but this time also the sandpaper. It was then I decided that these items would form the criteria in which to base my Treasure Box project on. The colour pallet of these items also worked well together and complimented a project I was developing which included items I had collected from the beach. The book pages also tied in with a recent book binding and altered book course I had taken part in. So all the pieces were now coming together.
Printing:
Using the sandpaper and the yarns with some of the objects found on the beach, such as seaweed, shells, pebbles, and debris I created a number of textured collograph plates from which I created prints. The collograph plates varied in size and detail and from these plates I printed blind embossed prints as well as multiple colour prints. I then developed the theme further by making and printing photopolymer etchings incorporating my detailed close up photographs of shells and sea urchins. I lastly printed monoprints inspired by the objects found on the beach.
Once I was satisfied with my collection of handmade prints I set about planning the best way of displaying them. The concept of my prints being part of a Treasure Box helped me focus. All of these prints would form the pages of a handmade concertina book which would fit inside the box-each time the box was opened the treasure would be revealed. The concertina book also complimented incorporating the book pages included in my original Treasure Box items. Â Specific sentences or words were cut from these pages along with paragraphs of text and these were secured to my printed pages. To finish the book I added covers from a second hand book and added final hand drawn details of sea spray and water marks in an opposite colour with screen-printing, thus concluding my Treasure Beach Book.
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