Mixed Media Art Books with Maggie Tweed

I had the most wonderful two days at Missenden Abbey doing a 2 day art class.  We had been told to go along with a theme to which to work, so I had the Women's Work idea, along with a selection of the spoon and potato peeler monoprints I had made.  Maggie told me that I had booked the last place on the course, and I was very glad to have got the booking.

We started by making a selection of simple paper folds in squares of paper, using mountain and valley folds.  I chose to make a star book as this was the one that appealed to me.  I could see that this had the potential to have front and back surfaces, or to put it another way, an outer and a lining.    I chose to use sturdy papers in black, grey, blue, purple and pink, as I have recently made bramble jelly and jam making can be part of women's work.

In the afternoon, I started cutting up some of my monoprints to stick to the inside pages of the book. Each square was overlaid on part of the previous page and this created a pleasingly fractured look.  Then on the reverse of each page I wrote repeatedly  a positive word and a negative word about women's work: skilled - mundane; unseen - essential; never ending - comforting.

The following day, I made blackberry coloured cords and added the covers, which were a bit bigger than the book.  I had reduced some of the monoprints on the photocopier and used these for the cover as they were stronger paper.  At this point I realised that if this were made from fabric, it would make a well padded cushion (which is another symbol of women's work - our work often makes life more comfortable and cushions people from life's hard realities and knocks).  The bigger end pieces could be secured by a button on each corner, thereby securing the lining pages inside, to maintain the cushion form.

Then having started thinking about how I could create a layered cushion via folding, I had a look at some origami folds.  there was one, non-symmetrical one that I found very exciting.  A square piece of paper folded into a partial crescent shape.  Cushions do not have to be square!  Cushions can be folded from a sheet of quilted fabric, so that the lining is largely hidden or unseen.  Women's work involves quite a lot of folding!  Folding clothes, sheets, laundry etc.  Another element of symbolism!

We had a group review and I was very pleased that they instantly understood where I was coming from, with my concept how linings and cushions represented the way in which women's work supports, enhances and comforts all sorts of life experiences.  I like to get this understanding and recognition of what I am trying to do.  Although I was pleased with the way my star book had come out, I think the black printers ink of the monoprints is not to my taste.  I am now considering how to bring the concept of celebration into the work by the use of colour.  More thought required.