New lead monoprints and an air rifle

I've made another lead plate, with a braille version of a Heidegger quote 'Tell me how you read and I will tell you who you are'

Initially I inked the smooth lead and placed paper over it with the braille mock up on top. I shot through into the lead again with lead shot in the air rifle. The lead is 150cms long by 24cms wide.

 Some of the shots actually went right through the lead and dented the wooden floor.

The top sheets came off and left the monoprint, some with the pellets still stuck in the holes in the paper. I think this one particularly shows the whole conceal and reveal philosophy of Heidegger.

The second print form this roll, I inked and hand printed. The first one was the most enjoyable print I have made so far, and nearly the most stressful, the layers of texture from just a simple monoprint are great. I had no idea what these prints would come out like, but they will fit really well with the rest of the prints and books for the show.

The lead also looked amazing so I took some photographs while the ink was wet and then when the lead was cleaned.

Nearing show completion - another lead book

I decided to make another book with the lead covers that turned out to be too small for the first book. This time not a pull out concertina, just a folded book. I wanted to bring back some of the excitement I had using original braille paper in my initial research experiments so I glued braille paper (the lovely buff coloured stuff) to the sheets I was to print on and re ran the original 'Point Blank Pages' extended print but singularly.

Unfortunately the pages cockled  and no amount of flattening, ironing or being cross uncockled them.

Printing on them helped but sadly they are not perfect, the braille paper does however give another dimension to both the colour / shade and also to the texture.

These are the front and back of the book, indented with lead pellets from the front and raised on the back.

This book will be fully opened for the first time at the show, I think if I open and close the pages too often they will eventually break. This and the last book will stand as much as a piece of sculpture as of a book. The lead covers will make it difficult to handle and dangerous to handle without gloves.

Health and Safety procedures and health risks in journal.

Lead book with concertina pages - Artist's Books

I reprinted the full second set of collagraph plates on individual pieces of paper (as printing them on one long roll took hours and had a big chance of major disaster half way through) and attached them all together with paper tabs including tabs on the first and last page to attach them into the book- I googled how to do this as I had never made a concertina this big before.

 This concertina now measures 3.5 metres like the long prints.

What I didn't realise was that the second set of collagraphs are slightly bigger than the first set and therefore when I folded them ready for the covers the concertina was too big and I would have had to catch every page in the binding and not be able to pull out the concertina from the covers.

As you can see the covers only overlap the book block by about 0.5cm.

New covers please!!!

Next problem was that I only had one piece of lead left the right size to make a cover for the book block so I had to improvise with grey board, graphite and varnish. Remake both covers, the front one much simpler.

The covers are connected by brass pillars through back board, front and back tabs, 2 sheets of glassine to protect the print from the lead and a graphited wood block to provide support.

I haven't opened the book yet, it's virgin opening will be at the show. In Heidegger's phenomenological context, the visual language (originating in braille) discloses concealed meaning, and the opening of the book discloses or 'un-conceals' where the narrative meaning is held in concealment. Un-concealment reveals 'presenced' truth of Being (alethia).

further......lead book covers and lots of ink

I finally finished the second set of collagraph plates and the second 3.5metre print.

This piece is the braille version of a Martin Heidegger quote 'Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.'

Again I'm very pleased with the result!

I also made the lead covers today for the book and took prints from them too.

I shot two lead plates together with the air rifle this is the back plate, the front has the pellets embedded in it.
Inked up they were quite stunning!

....and the front cover hand printed

I love the rich gloopy nature of the ink with the delicate print of the pellet edges. Shot and printed leaves me with little control over how it comes out and I think this work is better for it, otherwise I would have contrived this to be neater, smoother and much more controlled.

I love print!

Lead books, braille and an air rifle

Inspired by the enamel book looking like it had been shot, I started looking at lead, partly because old bullet were / are made of lead and partly because of its maleability.
I shot air rifle pellets into lead and through paper, carefully of course, with proper safety equipment!

At the same time printing with lead, some used and bashed up lead and some new

Old used strip of lead with second print behind

New piece of lead

 Fantastic deep black almost velvet quality of the new lead is very different from the bitty beaten up quality of the old, you can see old hammer and tool marks, creases at the edges etc.

From these experiments I decided to make a book with braille collograph pages and shot lead covers (which I may or may not get prints off before they become the covers).

The pages are made from card and paper, punched through and then varnished repeatedly, each measures 30cms by 56cms, as the covers are 30cms x 30cms and the concertina will need to fit within the covers

This is plate 2 inked up and ready to print (obviously backwards)

I have cut down a roll of Fabriano 220hp to 50cms (perfect size to fit through the press and cut down further later) I cut it on the chop saw to keep the edges as neat as possible and save unrolling it in advance......

......and have printed on a roll nearly 3.5 metres long, lifting the barrel of the printer and hauling it through, rolling the print up with tissue paper to keep it clean.

 The unveiling of the final full print

 

 OVER THE MOON!! I thought I would have to do this at least three times to get one good one, remembering I will only get about about three prints before the plates have been too squashed.

All I have to do now is sit on my hands and not touch it until it is completely dry before I fold it into the concertina for the book.

I also want to use the plates for something, I have left them with ink on as they have taken the colour and feel of lead.

Now for the covers..........

I have hand printed the initial pellets into lead to see how it would turn out before I shoot and print the lead covers, I think I will print the covers before I use them on the book

Plan / template for the front cover with brass screw posts.
The cover also in braille reads POINT BLANK PAGES

More to follow.................

Artist's Books - Sarah Patterson - the latest books

This book is 10cms square and the covers are enamel. Shot through paper.

Concertina double cover, the roll of pianola paper with the keys under and the fingerprints of chords cut out.

Unfinished maquette piece with curved mirror back and concave and convex lenses. Looking at ones self through distortion / several steps removed?

Braille eye test reflected in mirror (shortlisted for the Kunsthuis Gallery International Summer Exhibition)

 Maquette for lens book, ever decreasing in size and off centre so only a tiny space is left to look through.

 Tunnel book, pages are loose in concertina sides and can be moved and rearranged, pages white one side and black the other, mirrored back, looking at self through black hole (can see the rings of the other pages in mirror also).

Braille poem on curved back, book unopenable, one concave, one convex lens to read poem through
(shortlisted for the Kunsthuis Gallery, International Summer Exhibition).

Artist short films, hands making and unmaking

I found these films quite difficult to make, they expose my hands at work, making and unmaking in a way that I have never watched from an outside perspective before.

I have continued the black and white of my prints and books into the films to preserve a continuity and consistency of technique.

I particularly like the heavy dark industrial side of this film in juxtaposition to the delicacy of paper with holes which is usually to play music, suddenly it has a substrate use rather than its original use.