Jotta profile is live!

As a graduate of the University of the Arts London I have the privilege of creating a profile and portfolio on the Jotta networking website - and the site is a super design and has prompted me to organise my art work in a coherent manner!

Here is my new Jotta profile :-)

Festive Season's Greetings to my Readers, one and all :-)

Here is my greeting card for 2011 to wish you all a very 

Merry Christmas & Happy & Healthy New Year

and to say thank you for reading my blog and posting comments - I look forward to creating posts to inspire for 2012....

A new print | Dole(r)

Inspiration Monday | Folk Music

A little audio inspiration this week :-)

I enjoyed attending the Colchester Folk Club's gig on Monday with Bella Hardy on her Bright Morning Star tour.

Bella is accompanied by concertina player Chris Sherburn (Last Night’s Fun) and award winning guitarist Anna Massie (Kate Rusby Band) and the three musicians engaged in amusing and entertaining banter in between the excellent choice of musical performances.  Bella sang a number of new compositions and traditional Christmas songs - including a fabulous rendition of a song from Wind in the Willows :-)


A great evening!

 

Illustration Friday | Brigade

In response to the Illustration Friday brief this week, I have visually depicted a military 'brigade' as defined by Wikipedia.

Note that two brigades (up to five brigades) form a division.  Each brigade comprises five batallions and these represent the personnel listed in the illustration (or alternative combinations of personnel groups).  I have chosen to use the colours of camouflage gear to complete the image.

The two smaller icons, on the left and on the right, illustrate that the batallions are either cavalry or armoured soldiers.

A Beautiful CV

A visual representation of my twenty year career to date....

Fairy Tales

I created the data visualisation design work above to represent the language content of a series of folk tales, written especially for my project 31 Tales 31 Words and collected from around the world.  Language and design - the perfect combination!

Feeling the love....

I am so touched by readers' comments, visits to my blog, 'likes' and 'shares' on Facebook and word of mouth feedback and would like to say a hello and thank you to all readers - regular or drop in - worldwide....

HELLO & THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Bookbinding Part I: Notebook, journal, diary - you decide!

Bookbinding Part I:  Notebook, journal, diary - you decide!

A creative workshop with Mary Pullen | Between the Leaves

To book a place please contact 

Mary Pullen at mary.pullen@yahoo.co.uk or call 07941 594 888

Venue:  Fifteen Queen Street, Colchester, CO1 2PH
Date:    Saturday 21st January 2012
Time:   10am - 4pm
Price:   £50 per person + £5 (materials fee) (payment in advance)

Embark upon a journey into the wonderful world of book arts & crafts with book artist Mary Pullen and create your own hand-bound, hardback book to treasure or give as a gift. 

Trained in the at the London College of Communication (formerly London College of Printing) Mary is on a mission to pass on her knowledge of the fabulous craft of bookbinding to one and all.

In this workshop you will learn to manipulate paper, create a multi-section text block using a traditional hand-stitched French binding technique, and make a hard cover to case in your book.

This workshop is suitable for beginners and is open to adults over the age of 18 (and children over the age of 11 accompanied by an adult).

The use of specialist tools, all materials and light refreshments are included.

Places are limited to maximise the quality of tutor input to each individual participant.

To book a place please contact 
Mary Pullen at mary.pullen@yahoo.co.uk or call 07941 594 888

Cancellations made eight or more days before the beginning of a workshop will receive a full refund minus a £5 administration charge. Cancellations within the week prior to the workshop (excluding the day of class) will receive a 50% refund minus a £5 administration charge. No refunds are possible on the day of the workshop or for no-shows. In the event that Mary Pullen cancels a workshop, students will receive a full refund. Cheque refunds generally take 4-6 weeks.

ETSY shop open!

Greetings one and all!

I am proud to announce that my ETSY shop Between the Leaves is OPEN with the first lovely items for sale :-)

In a similar way to the maker of Joseph's technicolour dream coat and Tita's cooking in Como Agua Para Chocolate, I channel my passion and contentment at creating beautiful pieces into my work and hope you love the items as much as I do :-)

Photographs of festive felt!

I was really happy with my recent photoshoot carried out for Michele English to create images to promote her lovely feltmaking workshop in December.

Treading carefully around the inspiring grounds of Cuckoo Farm Studios, Michele carefully positioned her creative felt baubles and robins and I snapped away to get these festive images....

A Little Book of Hello

I mentioned my workshop at Kings Place interact weekend in a former post and here's an update....

A Little Book of Hello showcases the imaginative and creative work made at my workshop held at the King's Place Interact weekend in July 2011.  Each participant was invited to create a two page spread illustrating a country of their choice and passing on the greeting 'hello' in a chosen language.  Those who took part ranged in age from 3 to adult and represented diverse nationalities as seen in the art work in the book.

As is often the case in my creative workshops, I was surprised and inspired by the participants interpretation of the activity and choices made.  The vast majority chose to represent the country of their heritage including England, Jamaica, Poland, Ireland, and Turkey and the book includes one holiday destination - Greece.

I have hand bound A Little Book of Hello using a traditional Japanese stab binding technique and the book is to be archived at King's Place, London.

15 Queen Street

There is so much creativity going on in my town and this well designed blog, managed by Alex Davis from 15 Queen Street, presents a selection of the events and highlights.  Check it out....

Creating a commission

Working on a lovely illustration commission for Wine Boutique.  

Very exciting meeting!

I have just returned from a very exciting meeting - discussing super ideas and workshops for 2012 :-)  Watch this space....

Fantastic Creatures Big Draw 2011: Here are the photos!!!!!!

Fantastic Creatures Big Draw 2011: Here are the photos!!!!!!: Click here to view all the images of the event. Thank you to photographer Jonathan Doyle for surreptitiously taking this set of great sh...

Colchester Institute bookbinding workshop

I spent a fantastic day running a bookbinding workshop with art and design degree students studying at Colchester Institute.

Each student hand folded and stitched multiple sections to house in their hand made hard bound cover.

Here are some images of work in progress and the finished items...

Colchester Institute bookbinders - hello!

This post is intended for my Colchester Institute bookbinding workshop participants - but will be useful to anyone with a passion for finding out more about the wonderful world of Book Arts!

 

Here are some interesting links....

For bookbinding supplies visit http://www.hewit.com/

 

For luxury papers visit http://www.johnpurcell.net/

To view and read about amazing artists' books browse or visit the V&A at http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/a/artists-books/

Discover the book arts bookshop near Old Street tube http://www.bookartbookshop.com/docs/contents.htm

Read the Book Arts Newsletters past and present here http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/banlists.htm

and check out the book arts books in Colchester Library!

Congratulations on your amazing hand bound books :-)

Fantastic Creatures Big Draw 2011: What a fantastic evening :-)

THANK YOU to the Fantastic Creatures Big Draw 2011 team - you were fantastic  creatures! - you know who you are (and readers, if you're not so certain then head here to follow links to our websites)

Jonathan Doyle was busy snapping away and a link to the event images will be posted soon....

In the meantime here are a few of my humble efforts (illustrating only a very small part of the event)

Book arts with Years 1 and 2

In June and July, I had the great opportunity of devising and running book arts workshops in a local primary school.

Invited by Prettygate Infant School, I met with the Headteacher to discuss the class and schools' requirements.  The resulting workshops evolved....

Following an initial, whole year group discussion about bookmaking and bookbinding, all the pupils in Year 2 (not all at once, I hasten to add!) created a fabulous single section, pamphlet stitched, hand bound book with pockets and bookmark.  A centre-fold image of a painting by Juan Miro was included in these books as they were destined to be used to house work produced during a project looking in detail at the painting.

The workshop day with Year 1 began with a similar discussion and the pupils each made a similar book structure, entitled 'My Summertime Diary'.  These books were designed to aid the children's transition from Year 1 to Year 2.  Close to 100% of the books were brought in to week one of Year 2, filled with text, photos, drawings and objects detailing the summer holiday experiences of the children!

The pupils were all enthusiastic and very keen.  The work produced was amazing and inspiring.  The staff were very welcoming and supportive.  Thank you Prettygate Infant School!