Sometime in the naughty nineties, I enrolled at the University of Tasmania Art School. Specifically the Paper Mill with a view to learning about paper, binding and artist’s books from the inestimable Penny Carey Wells.
It was a fabulous time – not least for the people I studied with who became such friends. Most had degrees in Fine Arts and were teachers of Art. I wasn’t, but it didn’t matter because the level of paper knowledge and binding was pretty well even throughout…
In my clean out and reorganisation of my ‘office’ the other day, I found some cherished memorabilia which raised warm memories within! The story goes like this…
Once upon a time, many years ago, I met two American ladies online. We were attempting to become familiar with blogs and online life. We three wanted to raise our creative profiles so we decided to throw a virtual Masked Ball on the blog that I had just begun.
My daughter is an accomplished graphic designer. She is also a highly creative book artist. And in 2006, when her mother took on Big Business with a lawyer friend and a doctor friend to save a tiny strip of river beach, and after we had WON the case, she made keepsakes to remind us of what we had been fighting for.
Being published is tremendous, talking with one’s readers even more so. I count myself fortunate to have been able to correspond with so many readers since 2008 owing to this amazing technological world we inhabit. But one of the most exciting developments in my writing life has been establishing the informal partnership with Pat Sweet.
Cast your eyes on this picture! 
These are the prizes kindly offered by Pat Sweet from bopressminiaturebooks for the most exciting image of The Stumpwork Robe and/or The Last Stitch and it’s owner supplied to the blog. As she’s agreed to mail these delightful collectors’ pieces anywhere in the world, she’ll be the judge. I hope everyone’ll get into the spirit. The sad thing is that there is a whole potential supply of pics from those who bought the novels in standard bookstores and may not even be followers of Mesmered. Ah well…
Once upon a time, in an unfamiliar land called Eirie, a young man decided he must find out how far the land and sea stretched from his very feet. Thus began the life of Gervais the Explorer, later in the annals of Eirish history known as Gervais the Cartographer.
My friend Pat from BoPress http://bopressminiaturebooks.com/blog wrote a really interesting blog recently on her studio and then even more recently, on her tools. She’s a miniature book artist and I was in love with the space and the equipment.
I wondered how my writer’s space and my writer’s tools could ever compete. My spaces, of course, are wonderful. At the shack, the table by the window listening to the waves and in town, the family room and the big navy couch, looking out to the Derwent and over shadowed by a complete wall of all my favourite books.
Tools-wise, it’s a whole other story. I have a little white laptop, an iBook G4, a pile of A4 writing pads, a brown and white container full of pens and pencils,
Pens, especially RED ones . . .
a couple of USB’s, and a thoroughly worn out thesaurus that my husband gave me in 2003 to replace my thirty year old one and which is now falling apart.
A worn out thesaurus
I have a few different dictionaries and some special encyclopaedias. As I’m a fantasy writer, my reference books relate to myth, legend, folktale and imaginary lands.
A small selction of reference books . . .
I have a pile of journals that contain notes and inspiration, because my daughter is a bespoke journal maker and graphic designer and keeps me supplied.
My special journals . . .
I have a wireless printer, in fact wireless everything. And I have a friend called Doctor Google. I do have lots of reference files in the office, filed under the title of the book to which they relate. I was a reference librarian for a short term after I left university many years ago and that part of me says I should cross-reference everything in an effort to keep track. But at the moment I can rely on my memory to tell me where things are stashed.
My other tools are two demanding Jack Russells, a pantry filled with camomile tea, a Spode Blue Room coffee mug and the four CD’s of Cary Lewincamp, whose work I adore and which is a quiet and ambient counterpoint to whatever dramas may be going on in my brain. http://www.cary.com.au/sound-1.htm
And that’s it . . . boring, isn’t it? Compared to an artist’s space and an artist’s tools?
Now if it was embroidery, that would be a whole other story . . . and one that I just might write about one day.
Baby rug embroidered for Marcus, newborn son of English writer Simon James Atkinson Turney.
I’m in the process of the second last revision of my manuscript. I say second last because I’ve given it to two very trustworthy friends on another side of the world. Whilst they read and report I could of course, rest and re-gird my loins.
But I decided instead to revise it myself .
What makes people become collectors? Is it something that chimes in the soul? Here in Australia, we have a marvellous TV show called Collectors. It isn’t Antiques Roadshow styled, although antiques feature. Essentially it is about the collections that people make, why they collect them, even where they collect their ephemera. I collect blue and white Cornish Ware because I love the colour and the stripes and it reminds me of everything that Rosamund Pilcher has ever written about. As a child I dabbled in stamps and then model farms made by Britains (which I still have and which Dad built farm fences for. And stables and a tack room and fed shed.). I collected dolls from different countries too and when I travelled to different parts of the world, I bought a gold charm in every city. I also collect old books that appeal: childrens’ books mostly.
So much talk lately on being published and not being published.
There’s actually another sort of book: the artist’s book . A book that is conceived by an artist, formatted and bound by that artist. It may have a graphic interior, text, or it may be blank, a rendition of the old-style journal. It will often be made of the most glorious paper and sometimes will be manipulated and folded to create a different style of book: a concertina book, a pamphlet book, an octavo, a ‘fat’ book, so many different sorts. It may have a box specially created to contain the book. And then there are the bindings: a traditional single-case binding, a Japanese side-binding, a Coptic binding and hundreds of other decorative styles.
I have a penchant for artist’s books. I like that there is a creative imagination behind so much of the piece. I like the feel of it in my hand, I like the smell of the paper and the faint squeak from a binding as the book is opened. I LOVE the covers that many artists design for their books.
To illustrate my point, here is a selection of artist’s books from Salt Studio. Salt Studio has a special place in my heart because the artist concerned designed the covers for The Stumpwork Robe and The Last Stitch.
