Monthly Dispatch
Welcome to the Monthly Dispatch, in which I look back over the last month and share a few stories with you all. The Monthly Dispatch is for free and paid subscribers alike and will hopefully add new depth to the journey we are taking together.
Last Month in the Van Build:
I’ve gone as far as I can go without a garage. There are a few small jobs that need doing and things that need fixing before I start construction. In theory this should be quick, but instead it’s taken all month and the van isn’t even at the garage yet. First, I had to find a garage, which was easier said than done, though I eventually got a local recommendation. Now I need someone to drive the van to the garage for me, as I can’t drive it yet. It’s all a little frustrating but I also know it’s worth waiting for and that my frustration is simply that I am excited to start building.
On the plus side, the driving lessons are going well and I’m getting closer to never having to wait for someone else to drive my van again.
My Art:
I mentioned in the last Monthly Dispatch that I am working on a book proposal. It’s an interesting process and one I’ve never done before. I’m reading a great book on how to write book proposals and it’s really helping. One of the challenging things about being an artist is that we must also be our own curator, press and marketing team, administrator, technician, studio manager, art handler, archivist, social media manager, website designer, application writer and more all at once. It isn’t easy, and I often wish I didn’t have to, but it also leaves one with an amazingly diverse set of skills. Skills which are currently coming in handy as many of them can be applied to crafting a book proposal. Over the last few weeks, I have begun editing the photographs from my project, whittling them down from hundred to the small number needed for my proposal. There is still some way to go yet, and miles to go in writing the proposal, but I feel a renewed sense of excitement for my work that I haven’t felt since the pandemic began last March. I shall keep you all updated.
Other Thoughts and Stories:
I’ve been thinking over what I’ve written about in this newsletter and wondering what else you might like to know about me, and it occurred to me that while I’ve been sharing my photography there are other aspects of my artistic work I haven’t shared yet- namely my book art.
I did my MA in Book Art, and it is an art form that can be hard to pin down or define. The easiest way I’ve found to explain it is to consider the book as the piece of art, as opposed to a vehicle for sharing other pre-existing art. Every aspect of the book and its content can work in harmony to express meaning and ideas, from the paper to the binding style.
It was during a workshop in the second year of my undergraduate degree that I fell in love with book binding. I had been making books my entire life. As a child my Mum would help Kim and I turn our stories and drawings into books. As we grew my Kim and I would make our Mum a book every year for her birthday. We still do, we’ve never missed a year, even when away at Uni or on different continents we’ve managed to make Mums book.
What happened during the workshop in second year was that someone introduced me to proper hardback, cloth bound, book binding. They opened the door to a world of craft that allowed me to take this childhood love of books and turn it into part of my art. From that day on almost everything I’ve made has ended up in book form.
I spent six years running an arts and literary journal called Elbow Room, I founded as artists’ book press called As Yet Untitled, I spent three years as the Creative Director of turn the page Artists Book Fair and Symposium. For a long time, book art has been the foundation of my career. That has begun to change recently but books are still one of the most important aspects of my work.
Knowing how to bind books has helped me in other ways over the years. It has helped me earn money, helped me pay rent and buy food. I have made and sold notebooks at Spitalfields Market, I make notebooks as merchandise for one of my favourite creatives - Amanda Palmer, and I still make and sell notebooks online a few times a year. Now is one of those times. Each notebook is handmade and unique. The Rescued Series sees the pages of old books, comics, maps, sheet music, and more rescued from being pulped and up-cycled into notebook covers. The inside features 160 blank A5 pages, ready and waiting for all your inner thoughts and doodles.
I use these notebooks for everything. Kim has been using them to write her novels for years. They’ve travelled the world. I received a message once from a friend who was volunteering at an Orangutan Sanctuary - one of the other volunteers had one of my notebooks.
I’ve just put up a collection for sale, with something for everyone. So, if you love words or science or gardening or music or maths there is a book for you. Or if you know someone who happens to like writing or drawing or keeps a journal, I have the perfect Xmas present ready and waiting.
Monthly Recipe
In honour of my book proposal and all this talk of book binding and book art here is one of my favourite recipes, which for many reasons my family named Publish Me Pie. All my pies have fun names in homage to the incredible film Waitress. Sadly, I don’t currently have a kitchen so I can’t bake this for you and take proper photos, but I do have an old photograph that happens to be from a day of bookbinding and baking.
Publish Me Pie
Ingredients
For the Pastry
250g Flour
150g Cold Unsalted Butter
100g Icing Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
For the Filling
150g Unsalted Butter
180g Set Honey
180g Light Muscovado Sugar
80ml Double Cream
Vanilla Extract
140g Dark Chocolate
200-220g Walnuts and Pecans
Method
Pastry
Mix the flour and icing sugar
Chop the butter into cubes.
Add the butter and the egg yolk to the flour.
Using your fingertips work until the ingredients are fully combined.
Wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan assisted)
Once chilled turn the pastry out onto grease proof paper or a lightly floured surface. I like greaseproof paper as it makes it easier to lift the pastry once rolled.
Using a rolling pin roll until thin.
Lift and place neatly into the pie dish.
Cover in grease proof and fill with baking beans or rice.
Place into the oven and blind bake for 10 mins
Lift the greaseproof out carefully, keeping all the baking beans in it and place in a bowl to cool
Bake for 5 more minutes.
Take out and set aside.
Filling
Melt the butter in a pan
Add the honey and sugar.
Pour in the cream and vanilla, about a quarter of a teaspoon depending on the quality.
Boil hard for about two minutes
Remove from the heat
Fold in the chocolate and the nuts until evenly mixed
Pour the filling into the pie casing
Place back into the oven and bake for 20 minutes
Remove and allow to cool fully before serving.
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