Daily Word poem book

 

Whilst at the cottage I have been doing the preparatory work for the publication of a small poetry book. I'm going to use the Blurb platform. I'm going to get our friend Kim H to assist with the actual final layout and publication.

To date I have decided on a few design features including using my own photo images as backgrounds to title pages and the actual poems. I have decided to convert my photos to silver tone to create a softer look and to enable the print to stand out. The 21 images I intend to use are in the screen shot below. Regarding the photos I have written on the mockup to identify the dates and subject matter of the photos so they can be more readily accessed and checked by Kim and myself.

I have made a mockup of the book and identified where the different images, titles and text will fall.

I think I'm now in a good position to work with Kim on this when I return to Maleny.

Daily Words - hammered metal bowls

 

As many are aware one of my regular creations is the Daily Word sets (see above) made up of one shallow mannered bowl and 7 leaf forms with inspirational words stamped on the.  The bowls vary in texture as they are cut from recycled silver plated metal. 

In addition to the Daily Word Sets I have printed a limited addition of my 7 Daily Words prose poems (see images below) that stand alone or can  be purchased to complement the Daily Words set.. The poem booklets are $39.95 each.

Checking gallery- shop inventory recently revealed I had two complete sets of Daily Words and two sets of word leaves so I decided to hammer out a few more bowls. Process photos follow.

Images of completed highly polished bowls follow.

So now there are four Daily Word Sets ($75 per set) available.

Betrayal and Loss - published

 

I have published Betrayal and Loss, my small book (17cm square and 50 pages) on the history and making of my solo exhibition in Strathnaver Museum Annex in September 2023. I took delivery of a small stash of the books - some of which you can see in the photo above. The book can be purchased here online through Blurb.

I wanted to publish the book to add to the telling of the story about the Strathnaver Clearances; and honour the Museum for hosting the exhibition and for purchasing Loss as part of its permanent collection.

 As you can see in the first photo below, the book covers: the background history, a description of each of the works, the process of making each of the works and working with Farr High School in the making of the public art piece the Fishers Post.

The following photos give a bit of an introduction to the book. I thought that the photos taken by Fiona and myself was the best way to share the story of the exhibition.

As I said at the beginning of this blog post - Betrayal and Loss the book can be bought online from the Blurb store. If you didn't want to buy the book you can purchase a PDF version of the book.

Daily focus - continuing the series

 

For many years now I have made and sold silver-plated Daily Leaf Words sets. The sets are made up of a small metal bowl with seven formed leaves each stamped with a different word. The idea is that one choses at random a leaf at the beginning of the day. That may help one to be calm and maintain a gentle focus with through meditation or just reflection through the day. See photo of a couple of sets below. Daily Leaf Word sets can be purchased on my online shop.

I have complemented these sets with a small pamphlet stitched publication where I wrote words that might inspire or add a bit more focus to the day. I did all the letterpress set up, printing and binding myself - a limited edition of 25. See some photos below. The booklet can be purchased on my online shop.

I'm now planning to print a 7.5cm square concertina book on Kardi cotton paper. The opening photo is me comparing a number of letterpress fonts including narrow wood 2.5cm high type. I have chosen to go with Empire 72pt - the bottom font - very elegant and quiet. The following photos show some of the process of me setting out and choosing fonts, layout and ink.

I'm looking forward to printing this little pocket-purse book even though the concertina nature of it will make it a bit of a challenge on the letterpress press.

Latest publication

 

Today I started the final task of stitching the Daily Words 'poetry' booklet. The photo above shows a few of the booklets standing strong.

This publication (25 copies) has been quite a long time in the making including the writing of the words - see the photos at the end of the blog for the words on: love, hope, peace, joy, wonder, dream and shine. This booklet can be used to complement the Daily Leaf Words sets I make; or can stand alone.

A couple of photos of the original mock up of the booklet - it has been well used and written on as a record of the publication.

I'm pleased with the outcome of this booklet on both the words. and publication fronts.

The original words for each of the daily words 

The first of these booklets sold today - hot off the press.