1.5 inch Winnicott is good to go. Tried to get him to smile but he wouldn't have it...He's heading for The Ludicrously Small Art Gallery exhibition and will be sold to raise money for the Maudsley Hospital in South London.

I'm still working my way through several old copies of WInnicott's The Child the Family and the Outside World ..  I use the chapter 'First Experiments in Independence' which relates to the creation of a transitional object as substitute for an absent mother .
The previous version,  'An object of my own making.'(see below) now becomes 'An object of your own making.'  with pattern pieces that can be popped out 'airfix' 'kit style ready to sew.

Erasure poetry is not as easy as it would seem.. If I try too hard to make meaning or resist erasing words it becomes a struggle. I find it hard to concentrate on the changes as I get involved in the original content... like getting caught in the wrong track.  It's an effort  reading two things at the same time.  

I use these like warm ups ..or textual doodling. They can take weeks or hours . It becomes a a game.  I impose rules such as trying not to have words too close together or by choosing an obscure piece of text  -just to see if I can make something out of nothing. Less it definitely more.

The idea isn't new by any means....  there are many fab examples including Tom Phillips Humument  and Austin Kleon's  Newspaper Blackout Poems .

I've worked part time as a learning support assistant for the past 20 years. Its a challenging job but I do love it. In the summer our Senco retired and I drew this for her as a memento of the children we have worked with over the years. They are composites of the many characters who have given her a run for her money at times.  A lot of them will miss her as much as I will.

 

I don't get chance to make bears often so I was particularly pleased to be asked to make this one.
As small as they are, they are fiddly and time consuming to make but it's really satisfying when you finally hold the little handful.
 

I collect old books on motherhood and parenting and was bemused and slightly disturbed to find theses notes in a 1939 copy of  'The Gift of a Child.' The writer obviously felt strongly enough to contradict what was written ..but only in pencil. Makes me wonder about a lot of things....

Le Petit Bâtard was runner up in the  Summer reads Book Art Competition held by Writers Centre Norwich and Turn the Page Artists Book Fair. Artists were asked to make a book in response to one of six 'Summer Reads' books.
I chose a (very) short story also taken from Jon McGregor's This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone like You..In just one sentence McGregor gives us a glimpse of a tale about a spreading fire that is both potentially horrifying and slightly comical, conjuring up images of the consequences of playing with matches.    

The book takes the form of a matchbook which has been made twice actual size to simulate a child's perspective of the object. 
The word bastard is said to originate in Old French but here a modern translation is used.

You can read more about the competition here.

The judges wrote " It is an excellently designed and produced , and intriguing little book object that is as minimal as the story it is based on. Quick, cunning and naughty, it uses a larger than life scale to hint at the potential destruction and unknown dangers lurking within its seeemingly innocent packaging and the quote expands on the story itself"

I was delighted that the  paper bear was chosen to feature on all the publicity for Turn The Page this year. It was strange  to see it on posters around the Norwich Forum and on the catalogues that visitors we carrying. As if that wasn't lovely enough, on the Friday of the show, one of the organisers told me that the BBC's One Show had asked for my contact details as they had seen the bear and wanted to do a piece about it. I half expected it was a leg pull but was surprised to get an  email saying the same and would I be interested. (...would I?)
How exciting I thought.. and although pretty sure nothing would come of it, I said yes. 
'Great,' emailed the researcher, 'it's for a piece called ' Fifty things to do with Fifty Shades of Grey' ?' (ok.... nothing remotely related to my usual work.. but I like a challenge) 'Sure' I tell them. 
I arrive home from Norwich on Sunday and hit the ground running - have never made anything in two days -ever and certainly not from  scratch but I do have an idea and a charity shop copy of a book which I have never read.
In the afternoon the researcher phones to get background info and tells me they need it by Tuesday morning. (oh!) He asks would I come up to be interviewed. 'It'll be filmed,' he says 'so no pressure to get it right first time.... '(don't want to do it but a gift horse and all that.. and it would only be a couple of minutes). 

I sketch out an idea and work out a pattern. I don't know much about the Shades apart from reading reviews and overheard conversations at work but my impression is of a manipulated woman. 
A puppet and a plaything is not so far removed from my usual focus but the context is worlds apart.

The book cover forms the cross bar controls.

The figure is cut from the pages.

It's stitched and  stuffed with wool.

On Monday the researcher rings again. It's decided that they won't need to interview me after all as they aren't sure where the filming will take place and it's a long way to go for 2 minutes. (He thinks he is letting me down gently but I am so relieved) They will send a courier at 8sm on Tuesday to collect.  I finish making at 1.30 that morning.  A motorcycle  courier arrives and whisks her away.

I don't tell anyone about it all as I'm still convinced it won't happen... I have thoughts of 'Drop the Dead Donkey" in my mind.  I hear nothing so email the researcher who tells me that  if it makes the final cut it will be shown on Wednesday's show.  Cautiously I tell a few friends and family. But oh! the toe curliness of waiting to see if it makes it.
The feature begins and she appears -for a few seconds at least -quite literally. How funny is that!...and not so much as a mention.

Am I disappointed? No not at all.  I stepped way outside my comfort zone in terms of subject and in what I could make in the time available. I learned that I don't necessarily need to spend weeks and months producing something. Besides you never know when or where a piece of work will be seen or what it might lead to. 
Millions of people have now seen something I made ... ( albeit for a few seconds and without the foggiest notion who made it... hahaha..) But it's all good.

If anything caused irritation (and only a little one at that) it's the fact they seemed surprised when said I wanted my puppet back. 
Too right I do -she's been on the telly.

Had a fantastic time at the Turn The Page Book arts fair in Norwich last weekend. I shared a table with  Margaret Cooter, Janet Bradley and Chris Gibson who I was with at Camberwell. There was an amazing array of books  on every stand and it was lovely to meet people whose work I have admired for a long time.

All finished and ready for Turn the Page  in Norwich.