No. 1  Eucalyptus Leaves
Dos Rapporté binding
Leather binding, eco printed cartridge paper. Eco printed end papers.
210 mm x 155 mm x 30 mm

No. 2  Leaf Prints
Drum leaf binding
Hand printed handmade paper
195 mm x 145 mm x 10 mm

No matter how busy it is in the day with visits to nursing homes and organising the pack up of a lifetime of memories, there is still nighttime!  I have managed to produce another 4 pages of Masters of War by Bob Dylan.  Still enjoying it very much although I may have run out of ideas.  Just have to see.

I am very excited about my new project.  I have finished two drafts of the first four verses of Masters of War by Bob Dylan and I have ideas on presentation of the next four verses.  I hope that the ideas keep coming.  It has been good fun so far. 

Just when I thought that I had come to the end with the Eco Prints!  
I spent the last couple of days inside working on the Jacob's Ladder Box or Karakuri Bako or Trick Box.   I first read up on it in 'All Things Paper:  20 Unique Projects from Leading Paper Crafters, Artists, and Designers' by Ann Martin.  Cecelia Louie contributed her take on the Trick Box in Ann's book.  Cecelia calls it the 'Mysterious Stationery Box'.   Cecelia's directions are very good.  This box is fascinating and such fun too.

Well, it might not be very visible from these photos but when I put the papers on to make the box into a Jacob's Ladder box, I stuck them on the wrong way so that although the trick box works the papers are covering up the wrong compartments. 
So, then only thing to do was modify the box into a ordinary box with three compartments - with lovely eco printed covers and linings.
One thing about this exercise is that it is a good reminder that not everything goes smoothly or perfectly but that the results can be lovely nevertheless.
I am looking forward to attempting this box again.

I had thought that I had exhausted all the uses for my gum leaf eco prints but apparently that is not the case.  This is the first time that I have made tiny books so although it was a challenge it was also great fun to have succeeded.
The books measure 3.5 x 4 cm  (or 1.25 x 1.5 inches) approximately. 
The covers and the end papers are made from my eco monoprints.  The book block is one page (not much of a block) with a greeting on it.
If I finish them all there will be 60 tiny books. 

Had a lovely day (again) with Vicki and Bev.  Vicki generously shared her knowledge, showing us both how to bind a book using the Drum Leaf Binding method.  These books turn out similar to the ABC cardboard books that we all have known as children.  They open pretty flat which makes them great for artists books and have no stitching.

As usual grain is very important to ensure that the book ends up nice and straight.  We folded and pressed the pages (in my case I was using heavy water colour paper that I had eco printed - that would be a surprise!)
Pressing the pages was a very important part of this binding especially as my pages were not totally flat.  We then pasted the spine leaving it to dry. 

Putting a piece of scrap paper to cover the front and middle pages we applied about a 25 cm stripe of glue at the spine edge, then another stripe of glue to the fore edge.  The glued pages are then smoothed with a bone folder, put under weights at each gluing as well as at the end of the process.  Leaving the book block under weights we turned our attention to the cover.
The cover for mine was a bit problematic as the heavy weight paper I had chosen seemed a bit small for the book.  Luckily with a bit of stretching we managed to wrap it around the book block and glue it into place.  Unlike a child's book I left the deckle pages of my water colour paper as I rather liked that look of it.
Next time (to consolidate my learning) I intend to photograph the entire process.
It was great fun and I learned heaps again!  Thanks Vicki.

How lucky am I that Josie's pages for the Round Robin journalling was a forest theme.  I was able to use my eco prints for the page.

These were my last  A Letter A Week 2014  letters for the  challenge co-ordinated by Fiona Dempster.  I am well overdue with my next set.   The versals (drawn with pencil) were again a challenge but I think that they have turned out OK.

Just recently I spent a lovely weekend with my fellow Canberra Calligraphers  and Elaine Witton at a weekend workshop.  Elaine often comes up with new ideas and this time she introduced us to a type of monoprinting that I had not tried before. 
We used a product called Scratch-Foam board.  It produces a form of relief printing similar to lino cutting.  But instead of the laborious task of using lino and lino cutting tools (and in my case, cutting myself on the tools) the printing plate is produced by pressing or drawing lines and mapping out areas into the soft foam surface.  The printing ink was then applied with a brayer in the same manner as for lino prints.  A piece of paper is laid on the top and pressed with a baren to transfer the ink from the board to the paper. 
Such an ingenious idea.  The Scratch-Board itself is quite soft as you would imagine and so the images produced on the Scratch-Board will not be as long lasting as lino prints and although they can be used again and again their life is limited.
We experimented with multi-coloured effects, rolling the ink on different areas of the plate producing prints after prints, including some 'ghost' prints which are the second or third print from one layer of printing ink.
I was so taken with this process that I believe I produced the most prints!
The second part of the workshop was revisiting the Carolingian script and combining the monoprinting with the script.  I have to say that my focus was all on the monoprinting so the Carolingian script came a poor second and in the end I only managed a couple of small pieces.

The Paper Road exhibition has opened at Strathnairn.  It is an exhibition incorporating handmade paper.  
It is so exciting to be part of this unusual exhibition.
I was lucky enough to be one of the artists chosen to contribute.  The exhibition runs from Friday 14 March to Sunday 30 March 2014.
In my pieces I have continued my love affair with eco printing but this time printing on the handmade paper I made at Stathnairn.