This book /installation piece is part of a series that deals with repeated pregnancy loss. As part of this series I created a series of unique prints (mono-printing technique) and then used the results for different projects for which eggs collected is one. For this book, I placed a digital copy of one of the prints as the first layer when I made the papermache eggs. The ink of the digital copy almost completely vanished, and was then painted over with black and white acrylics to bring out the image.
In many of my maternity themed works I use the image of birds as the longing for freedom. The egg has a tradition of standing for fertility.
For those who are struggling to conceive and carry a child an early pregnancy scan is both a very hopeful moment. You know you are pregnant. But at the same time, when you already had multiply miscarriages, it’s also the start of a worry. And often, an early scan is only made if and where there is a reason to worry.
The eggs in which these scans (or rather abstract images made to resemble an early pregnancy scan) are placed are not intact. They are open.
I found the experience of having a pregnancy scan, while hopeful and interesting, also weirdly intrusive, like I am looking at something that shouldn’t be seen.
Nothing Matters is an existential crisis of a book. Its subject matter is ‘Nothing’ and it is made so that nothing is as you would expect: the pages can be outside the covers, or inside, and can swivel to be in any orientation. The making is exposed – cord and tape bindings, a hand-made headband forms the swivel binding joint. One section is sewn askew. The contents have the usual sections found in a book: contents, epilogue, colophon, chapter headings, diagrams, text and so on, but none are in the correct places. Mostly it is light-hearted, but there are some nuggets about the importance of Nothing as a philosophical and numerical construct. Mostly, I had a lot of fun making it.
The concept of ‘Fragments’ evolved out of my fascination for a tiny fragment of bracelet which was one of many extraordinary things excavated from the Bronze Age burial cist (circa 1730 to 1600 cal BC), on White Horse Hill, Dartmoor in 2011. The artefact is braided with 13 double strands of cow hair. This has provided a rich metaphor for the construction of the book which includes 13 etchings, 13 double strands of text with 13 syllables in each line, and a fragment of 13 double strand wire braiding.
The burial cist, in which the artefacts were found, was constructed with six granite slabs: a base, four upended sides and a cap stone set above. Hence the blue card folder has a base, four sides and cover.
For detailed information on the ‘Whitehorse Hill’ excavation, the publication ‘Preserved in the Peat’ (Jones 2022) provides the narrative of the cist’s discovery. The prehistoric armlet is archived in the Box Museum, Plymouth.
Cotton rag paper prints beautifully but is soft and needs a sympathetis subject to bring out its best qualities. I’ve always felt that Autumn is a softer season, slightly melancholy and well suited to this type of limp binding. Using environmentally- printed papers with their soft natural colours seems to work well with the poem, and I enjoyed bringing the ripeness of the season to the book. A hand made book with concertina spine on cotton rag paper. Collaged pages with cut shapes, some from natural dyes, some ink and painted pieces. Printed with the opening stanza of John Keats poem ‘ To Autumn’.
I initially produced this book as a response to a serious illness, when it seemed to me that the only thing left when everything seemed lost was hope. The contents of the book are a quote from the poem by Emily Dickinson entitled ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’. I have found this to be both an inspirational and a consoling quotation, something to hold into in dark times, and others have also found it to be so. The structure is simple yet unusual in that there is only one page which opens out completely flat, enabling one to read the whole quotation with no page turning required. This is a folded book bound in Italian and British printed paper, with a watercolour paper insert that opens to an A4 sheet. The page is printed with the poem extract and a pattern of feathers
The concept of ‘Fragments’ evolved out of my fascination for a tiny fragment of bracelet which was one of many extraordinary things excavated from the Bronze Age burial cist (circa 1730 to 1600 cal BC), on White Horse Hill, Dartmoor in 2011. The artefact is braided with 13 double strands of cow hair. This has provided a rich metaphor for the construction of the book which includes 13 etchings, 13 double strands of text with 13 syllables in each line, and a fragment of 13 double strand wire braiding.
The burial cist, in which the artefacts were found, was constructed with six granite slabs: a base, four upended sides and a cap stone set above. Hence the blue card folder has a base, four sides and cover.
For detailed information on the ‘Whitehorse Hill’ excavation, the publication ‘Preserved in the Peat’ (Jones 2022) provides the narrative of the cist’s discovery. The prehistoric armlet is archived in the Box Museum, Plymouth.
The concept of ‘Fragments’ evolved out of my fascination for a tiny fragment of bracelet which was one of many extraordinary things excavated from the Bronze Age burial cist (circa 1730 to 1600 cal BC), on White Horse Hill, Dartmoor in 2011. The artefact is braided with 13 double strands of cow hair. This has provided a rich metaphor for the construction of the book which includes 13 etchings, 13 double strands of text with 13 syllables in each line, and a fragment of 13 double strand wire braiding.
The burial cist, in which the artefacts were found, was constructed with six granite slabs: a base, four upended sides and a cap stone set above. Hence the blue card folder has a base, four sides and cover.
For detailed information on the ‘Whitehorse Hill’ excavation, the publication ‘Preserved in the Peat’ (Jones 2022) provides the narrative of the cist’s discovery. The prehistoric armlet is archived in the Box Museum, Plymouth.
This is a concertina book with folded origami pockets made from specially selected papers. Each pocket contains a quote on the subject of women and/or pockets, some amusing and some thought-provoking. There has been much debate of late around the subject of women’s clothing and its lack of pockets, entailing a need to carry bags of some sort. This especially came to light around the time of Covid 19, when cash was hardly used and a credit or debut card was all that was needed, and who needs a handbag for that? It turns out that women have been thinking about the need for pockets for many years, and the quotations I found inspired me to make this book, which has been very well-received, mostly by women of course! It is a part of my practice looking at women’s issues in general, although hopefully in a playful manner. A variable unlimited edition.
This is a concertina book with folded origami pockets made from specially selected papers. Each pocket contains a quote on the subject of women and/or pockets, some amusing and some thought-provoking. There has been much debate of late around the subject of women’s clothing and its lack of pockets, entailing a need to carry bags of some sort. This especially came to light around the time of Covid 19, when cash was hardly used and a credit or debut card was all that was needed, and who needs a handbag for that? It turns out that women have been thinking about the need for pockets for many years, and the quotations I found inspired me to make this book, which has been very well-received, mostly by women of course! It is a part of my practice looking at women’s issues in general, although hopefully in a playful manner. A variable unlimited edition.
This is a concertina book with folded origami pockets made from specially selected papers. Each pocket contains a quote on the subject of women and/or pockets, some amusing and some thought-provoking. There has been much debate of late around the subject of women’s clothing and its lack of pockets, entailing a need to carry bags of some sort. This especially came to light around the time of Covid 19, when cash was hardly used and a credit or debut card was all that was needed, and who needs a handbag for that? It turns out that women have been thinking about the need for pockets for many years, and the quotations I found inspired me to make this book, which has been very well-received, mostly by women of course! It is a part of my practice looking at women’s issues in general, although hopefully in a playful manner. A variable unlimited edition.
This is a concertina book with folded origami pockets made from specially selected papers. Each pocket contains a quote on the subject of women and/or pockets, some amusing and some thought-provoking. There has been much debate of late around the subject of women’s clothing and its lack of pockets, entailing a need to carry bags of some sort. This especially came to light around the time of Covid 19, when cash was hardly used and a credit or debut card was all that was needed, and who needs a handbag for that? It turns out that women have been thinking about the need for pockets for many years, and the quotations I found inspired me to make this book, which has been very well-received, mostly by women of course! It is a part of my practice looking at women’s issues in general, although hopefully in a playful manner. A variable unlimited edition.
For many centuries, family life in Ireland centred upon the cutting of turf, on the peat bogs, for fuel and cooking and the essentials of daily living. This book is about the formation of the peat bogs of Ireland and the treasures they hold.
Exploring themes of cultural heritage, memory, identity and loss in very personal ways. Creating and constructing a family album based on my impressions from home and my town Ahvaz in Iran.
My multidisciplinary approach to the artists’ book and other mixed media work involve photography, illustration, painting and textiles. All of which are employed to explore themes of cultural heritage, memory, identity and loss in very personal ways.
A one-off handmade book with an online printed A6 limited edition. The handmade book is a traditional hardback book made for the theme Gather and exploring the things we collect and hold onto that are both worthless and priceless.
This handmade book presents as a traditional hardback with a drum leaf binding which facilitates engagement with the subject matter with pages opening flat.
A handmade second edition of an earlier handmade book which was processed into an online printed limited edition made in response to the theme Alphabet.
Fibonacci is a book that celebrates the brilliant mathematician who changed our world, and the wonderful things in nature that show the beauty of the Fibonacci sequence to which he gave his name.
This tells the story of the Mexican festival of Day of the Dead, which takes place on the 1st and 2nd of November. Researching the subject took me back 3000 years to its origins in Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica and rituals of honouring the dead.
I wanted to incorporate movement into this book and so landed on the idea of pop-up and a flock of birds taking flight. The book only consists of one double spread page and end papers. The mechanism for the pop-up is a basic acute angle V fold, with 3 of these one behind the other.
