GEMMA BLACK : ARTIST / CALLIGRAPHER

These photos taken by Marg Peachey in the Canberra class on the weekend were from a demonstration creating the gestural letter quickly then a slow build up of the compound form. Thanks Marg!

The little exposed spine, blanket-stitch book is finished. It is so sweet. How lovely it is to get so much pleasure out of just making a little book! What is lovely about this binding is that the whole book at every opening lays perfectly flat.

The little book is all but finished.  The covers are in the press (heavy books stacked one atop the other) and will be ready thisafternoon for strapping & gluing. Yay! A little card for Olive for her help with the stitching. We found the stitch in Kieth Smith's Non-adhesive Bindings. And the apples have been stewed and are the best I have ever tasted!

Can you believe it. These are the second & third apples from our darling little apple tree. We ate the first one! We shared it so that there would be no Adam & Eve syndrome in this household!

Flowers presentded to David Nuttall upon completion of the concerto March 10, 2012 It has been a wonderful and busy few days with the family visiting. David performed the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra on Saturday after which there was much fun and frivolity! A marvellous effort which did not go unrewarded. Well done David!  His flowers above! A couple of pics to share: Ellen & Shane in the Tahune Forrest where the rivers Picton & Huon meet. Amy, not a great fan of the swinging bridges but she braved it for the cause. And there were two of them sprung high above the raging rivers. She knew there was no going back. Shane ... troublemaker on the bridge! Two little wood nymphs! The view from Mount Wellington, spectacular. This is where I live. David & me up on the pile of rocks holding the trig station. Amy, Ellen & Shane on the boardwalk lookout over Hobart, Mount Well...

Derwent pencil on gessoed & painted 3mm MDF board I am not sure where these are heading, perhaps for another coat of gesso!

They started like this. Three pieces of 3mm MDF board, first gesso then I melded the inks, then crackling molding  paste now this: A little bit more work (nearly there) then ready for the calligraphy ... back to the drawing board!

I was given this gorgeous little book by one of my students last week in Canberra. I am trying to find the maker but there are no more details yet.  When I do get the deatils I will acknowledge her here immediately. I know it is a lass.  I love the sewing technique so much I have asked my friend Olive if we can study it and reproduce it together. As we live quite a distant apart (three hours by car), in a couple of weeks we will be getting together to create the covers and sew the book but this is what I have come up with so far. The text block is arches text wove and the spine fold decorative papers are roo-poo papers that I have decorated, from the Burnie Paper Mill. So far my measurements are: text block 130mm x 165mm, the spine length is 130mm, the spine width is 11mm. This last measurement can be flaxible depending on the paper weights. Watch this space!