Blog – Page 2 – jo bund

29 July 202329 August 2023

Our new printing press!

At our last studio, we inherited the use of a lovely old printing press, but when we moved we had to leave it behind.

When we moved to our new studio we decided we’d like to get our own printing press. So we asked fellow printmakers for advice and we were directed towards Ironbridge Printmakers, based in Shropshire. They are a family-run business and have been building their own range of printing presses since 1980.

We chose their Little Thumper press as we don’t often print larger than A4 plus our studio isn’t that spacious. They would have delivered the press to us but we decided to visit Ironbridge to collect it.

We hadn’t been to Ironbridge before – it was so lush and beautiful…

At the printmakers we had booked an intro workshop to learn how best to set up the press for lino, intaglio and collagraph printing. Thank you Jenny, we learned so much!

The press dismantled into a several smaller pieces and easily fitted into the car for the journey home.

17 July 202329 August 2023

Leigh Art Trail 2023

This year I exhibited at the Leigh Art Trail with SEVEN Collective at the Refill Room. Our chosen theme for the year was ‘Seasons’ and we each produced 2 x DL concertina sketchbooks: one for autumn and winter; and one for spring and summer. For each season I also took inspiration from a different artist.

Autumn – inspired by Gustav Klimt

Using mixed media and collage, for me, Autumn is all about the rich colour palette of reds, oranges and golds.

Autumn sketchbook (inspired by Gustav Klimt)

Winter – Inspired by William Kentridge

The key visual element of winter, for me, is seeing the silhouette of skeletal trees against the sky.

I had recently visited a William Kentridge exhibition at the RA in London and took inspiration from his use of old text pages for backgrounds and his simple drawn animations.

Winter sketchbook (inspired by William Kentridge)

I created my own simple, stop-frame-animation of trees blowing in the wind which you could see via a QR code on one of my sketchbook pages.

Spring – Inspired by Flora Bowley

My spring sketchbook was heavily influenced by the ‘brave intuitive’ approach of Flora Bowley. As spring was very late to arrive this year it was a difficult sketchbook to start, so I relied heavily on being intuitive. Spring, for me, is all about seeing new life in the garden. Green shoots appear along with springtime flowers: daffodils, tulips, bluebells and my ever-favourite Fritillaria flowers.

Spring sketchbook (inspired by Flora Bowley)

Summer – Inspired by Antonio Gaudi

Summer season, for me, is seeing an explosion of bright colours and patterns in the clothes people wear. This reminded me of Gaudi’s mosaics, in particular Parc Guell, Barcelona.

Summer sketchbook (inspired by Antonio Gaudi)

The Leigh Art Trail was on from 8-16 July.

29 May 202326 August 2023

Trip to Norfolk

I haven’t been to Norfolk before except to visit Norwich, which I love, but it’s been on my bucket list for while. So we booked a few days in May to explore North Norfolk and these are some of the highlights…

Gooderstone Water Gardens is a beautiful and tranquil place where the only sound you can hear is nature. Their map gently guides you around the garden, taking you over several little bridges, into the bird hide (where you might spot a kingfisher) and along to the cafe.

When the owner lived there, back in the 1970s, the land was so wet that he decided to make the most of it and developed the land into water gardens, which he opened to the public.

Hunstanton beach has stunning, striped cliffs where you can find marine fossils. It’s also the only beach on the west coast of Norfolk.

At Wells-next-the-sea you can take a short 20 min walk from the town to the beach. This beach had golden sands and was more touristy but we were surprised to find seals sunbathing on the beach!

My much overused word of the trip was ‘gorgeous’ so I definitely enjoyed the trip and will be back!

3 April 202323 August 2023

New studio – Crouchmans Yard

I’m always surprised by how much ‘stuff’ you (I) can accumulate. The more space you (I) have, the easier it is to fill it!

Moving studio happened slowly over a few weeks. The previous studio was on the third floor (with no lift) and this was a challenge. The new studio is on the ground floor with parking outside the front door 🙂

As the space is big enough, it has become a new location for the graphic design business I run with my husband, Equilibrium Creative.

The space really echoed until we started to fill it!

And in a few weeks were in and settled…

27 March 202323 August 2023

Studio move (again)

So, in mid January this year, our studio landlord issued all the studio holders with two month’s notice to leave! Didn’t see that coming.

I was just getting settled into my new studio space (of 3 months) when I was on the move again. There was the possibility of staying but it involved endless meetings with local ‘supporter groups’ and the local council (who owned the building), without any security that the building wouldn’t get boarded up on eviction day! It was all very stressful and not a conducive environment for running a business.

I started looking around for alternative spaces, of which there was surprisingly very few. But after making some enquiries, a couple of options did come up and I went along to look at them. The second space I saw seemed like a real possibility: the space was bigger; had heating (a major plus!); had it’s own kitchenette; and there were similar small businesses on site.

It was a difficult decision to make as it meant leaving the other artists behind and moving to a studio nearly 10 miles away. But the security the new space offered was the decider.

We moved out in March 2023, the end of an era.