Replenish and Rejuvenate

Our lifestyle choice of traveling for 3 months or so at a time does sometimes stifle my creative flow sadly.  At least I think its that - maybe it's just me lol.  Either way it is good to get to grips with a new skill every so often and so last week found me sat with a lovely girl in Shrewsbury where she taught me the art of bookbinding.  I've had my eye on this for a while and have 'saved' quite a number of Instagram posts on this very subject.  However, for once, I have refrained from buying ANY equipment until I had tried it out with an experienced book binder.  At this point I must introduce Naomi of Briar Rose Books.  I contacted Naomi following a post of hers on Instagram/Facebook advertising a workshop that I really fancied but couldn't make the date.  She didn't have any future dates planned at the time but did offer me a one to one session at her studio.  Fast forward to earlier this week where I spent a fabulous 5 hours crammed full of 'making'. It was wonderful.  Naomi is very talented and knowledgeable and quite willing to share this with her students.  At the end of the workshop I had these two wonderful books that I am absolutely over the moon with (in fact days later | still find myself stroking them occasionally). 

Aren't they beautiful?  I know I'm biased but I also know how I created these step by step.  From the folding, punching and sewing of the papers into the booklet, to the choosing of papers, book cloth and endpapers, to attaching the ribbon and the lovely little details at the top and bottom of the booklet spine, to the gluing of all the elements together to ensure a working, sturdy notebook was produced - and I loved it all.  My long term idea was to create books that used my own designs/artwork and I would still very much like to do this BUT there's no way I can make it cost effective I don't think.  To recoup material costs and cover my time would make the notebooks too expensive - certainly to sell locally - and so, although I'm desperate to make more, I think I need to sit back and think a while longer.  Just look at this detail though.

So, whilst handmade books remain a possibility for the future I have started to restock my affordable art in Rebel Vintage.  Quite a few pieces sold whilst we were on our last travels and so I do need to replace these.  So far, 3 new works are available with more to follow hopefully.

Serenity 2/20 - A digital combination of an original linocut and watercolour painting 
reproduced on high quality art paper  - Framed - £15

Iris 2/20 - A digital reproduction of a watercolour painting, printed on high
quality art paper - Framed - SOLD

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of Iris framed. She's mounted on antique white board and framed in light gold.  This one is created from a watercolour painting that has been digitally overlaid with itself and then printed onto high quality art paper.

Likewise the picture below has also been framed and can be seen in Rebel Vintage.

Big Leaf 2/20 - A digital reproduction of a large leaf print - Framed - £15

What's nice about both Iris and Big Leaf is that they can be hung in any direction to suit the customer.  They are therefore signed on the back of the print itself only.

Thanks for reading, if you see anything you like or have any questions please don't hesitate to get it touch.

Wendy xx