Wednesday 12 December 2012

Recent Wanderings




Recently visited some beautiful kauri rainforests
in the north of New Zealand's North Island.

Monday 19 November 2012

Renovation/Extension - Progress





Work is progressing.
 As you can see we still have a long way to go
(including a lot of painting! - 
half old colours/half new at the moment
and the shed needs painting).
The biggest bonus of putting on the deck is
that we get as much space again underneath
to play with.

Thursday 8 November 2012

Slotted Accordian Fold Book



Haven't had much time for bookmaking of late.
Very Sad.
However, 
found a few spare moments to play
around with some items at hand.
Canson card & surplus printed cards from 
my BAO project combined to create 
this slotted, back to back, accordian fold structure.
The impetus for something bigger when
more time is available.

Friday 2 November 2012

Home Extensions



The backyard is currently in a state of dishevel
due to the beginning of our first stage of extensions/renovations 
- after 8 years of thinking about it!
The first part of our grand plan is
 extending the deck which runs along the back of the house
and repositioning the stairs. 
Being mindful of tragedies that have occurred due to deck
collapses, it's all extremely well engineered and certified.


The middle photo shows where phase 2 of the plan begins -
my studio under the house.  How excited am I!?!??!?!?! 
Pablo (the dog) meanwhile is becoming very practiced in the art of photo-bombing!


Wednesday 24 October 2012

Cover to Cover - Bribie Seaside Museum

Herewith my photosynth stitched photo of the

Cover to Cover 

exhibition now on at 
Bribie Island Seaside Museum
Bongaree  Qld 

Along with artists I am yet to meet
I have a few humble works in this group exhibition
alongside some very impressive works from 
bookmaking friends
and 
Amanda Watson-Will 

The museum are also running a workshop programme
in conjunction with the exhibition.

There was a great old black and white film
from the 50's running in their little
cinemarette showing the
bookmaking processes of the day.

Thursday 27 September 2012

Book Sculpture & Photobooth

 Above is my latest
recycled book sculpture
(untitled as yet).
Standing next to my beautiful
"Tim Tam Flash" cymbidium orchid
(and my statue of Quan Yin).
Apologies for the image quality -
taken with my ipad in low light.



Also on my ipad:
Have been having great fun playing
around with the photobooth settings:
In order from top to bottom:
Kaleidoscope
X-Ray
Thermal

Sunday 16 September 2012

Spoiler Alert

 It has been an age since I posted off my little 
BookArtObject parcels
to their different destinations around the globe,
I have not heard from all the recipients,
so, if you are still awaiting your little parcel,
LOOK AWAY NOW.
For everyone else,
here is what was inside my
editions (entitled LOST) of:  "The Missing Typewriter Key".



The accompanying explanatory colophon reads as follows:

LOST
by Robyn Foster
(inspired by The Missing Typewriter Key, #69 of 100 stories in An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen (2010),  used by permission of the author, Sarah Bodman)

 an edition of 12

BookArtObject 2012 Edition 4 – Group 3


In 2010, inspired by Kurt Johannessen’s Exercises (1994), British book artist Sarah Bodman wrote 100 stories (An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen). Sarah buried these stories in a forest somewhere in northern Denmark, never to be read.
With Sarah’s permission, the titles of these  stories have provided the starting point for BookArtObject Edition 4, 2012.
BookArtObject is an annual online project in which book artists from around the globe form groups (numbering on average 8 per group for 2012), each artist makes an edition of books from a chosen topic and sends a copy of the completed book to each artist in their group, and a copy to Sarah Bodman via Sara Bowen (organizer and instigator of the project) for inclusion in possible exhibition opportunities.  

This edition of 12 handmade books  is my reaction to #69 of Sarah Bodman’s 100 stories:  
The Missing Typewriter Key.
The edition consists of 12 paper and card pocketed concertina fold books, each with 8 removable tags, tabs, red string and end papers/covers made from specially printed postcards.  Each book is housed in a slip box constructed from black Canson card. Cut circles, representing missing typewriter keys, appear throughout the books as do images relative to the theme of being missing or lost, without the probability of recovery.  I have focused my attention on a bygone era, a time that is lost to us,  in which typewriters would have been prevalent (BC: before computers). Shellac has been used to give the impression of patina and age on the removable tags. Text used is typed predominantly in American Typewriter or stencilled.




Saturday 25 August 2012

BookArtObject - almost revealed

Whilst I sent off my 
Book Art Object
contributions to my fellow BAO buddies
on the first of the month, I am still waiting for those
of my group in America to receive their copies.
So..... 
until I know they have opened
their little packages, and revealed the
secrets contained within, I wait patiently to
share exactly what it is that I managed to produce for this project.

I don't think I give too much away by sharing the above image 
which is of the slip boxes I made to house the books.

I am very excited too, as
Barbara Simler
has just posted on the
Book Art Object blog
that she has finished her part of the project too
and has sent her little surprises off in the mail.


Friday 24 August 2012

Thursday 16 August 2012

A Life Well Spent


A Life Well Spent
(The title of the book springs from the text contained within)
 is a little concertina fold book
I made recently using direct printing for the pages and
some of my photo images for the covers.
By stitching the pages into the
concertina folds I have
been able to weave slips of mylar through the threads 
to form a flexible spine, so the book now takes
on a traditional format.


I am extremely taken
with how delicious feathers look when
directly printed.

Monday 13 August 2012

Mabel and Friends



Recently recycled book sculpture
entitled Mabel and Friends.
For me the forms are reminiscent of 50's standard lamps,
my husband says they remind him of dressmakers dummies.

Saturday 11 August 2012

Henning M. Lederer - Animations

Browsing the internet, as I am sometimes prone to do,
I stumbled upon the sublime animations of 
on Vimeo.

The meticulous work and the beautifully created images,
with an overtone of steampunk in places,
drew me in and I stayed for a lot longer than planned.

The above image was what pulled me in,
I have done a couple of cross section human skulls
with curious interiors and am beguilled by Henning's interpretation of
 Fritz Kahn's 1927 poster 'Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace)'.
(image above).

I hope you too enjoy watching some of Henning's creations.

Thanks Henning for letting me link to your images :)

Thursday 9 August 2012

Magic Wallet Book



This was my first attempt at a magic wallet book.
The idea is you place a card inside the book on top of the ribbons
and close it up. When you reopen the book in the opposite direction,
the card is magically held under the ribbons.
Close the book, open it the other way and hey presto!,
the card is now under the other ribbon!!
Unfortunately, I don't know who the creator of the chimp image is
and as I was only using this as a sample work I couldn't resist using it.
(I did do a bit of a google search but came up schtumm)
The playing card I found at a second hand store.
I inverted the chimp image on each reverse side to help me understand
how the structure works physically - brain still working hard!!!

Monday 6 August 2012

Jacob's Ladder Books




 I have been having great fun
making Jacobs Ladder and Magic Wallet books,
BUT
even after spending quite a bit of time putting
these books together,
I still can't figure out exactly how they work!

Wednesday 1 August 2012

BookArtObject Parcels - finally winging their way around the world


Not very exciting photos, I know - but - I am excited!

Here are my little BookArtObject parcels.
They have been ready for a few weeks now,
unfortunately life has got in the way
and they have been waiting patiently to fly off to their new homes.
They are all wrapped now and  ready to post to my BAO buddies 
(Ronnie in Australia
Kalmia, Meg & Rebecca in USA
Barbara in Canada
Angela in UK
+ 1 more to UK for Sarah Bodman via Sara Bowen in Coffs Harbour,
+ 1 for my book buddy Jack who is also doing BAO this year).

Post Office line, here I come :)

I will post photos of what is inside the packaging 
for my BookArtObject project
"The Missing Typewriter Key"
as soon as I know everyone above has received their parcels.

Sunday 22 July 2012

Spectre


 "Spectre"
is one of three altered bookworks I have submitted
for the upcoming Redlands Creative Alliance exhibition 
"Linkages"
at Redland Art Gallery 
(Cnr Bloomfield and Middle Sts Cleveland Qld 4163).
Exhibition opens next Sunday.



Saturday 14 July 2012

Rrrrrrrroll

How COOL are these!
Mesmerising.
Check out more at

Once again, brought to many peoples attention by

Thursday 12 July 2012

Underwood Typewriter



(My 200th post)
If only this little beauty had come into my life
before I completed my BAO edition for
"The Missing Typewriter Key"!