Studio Oh! No! recently printed and hand bound El Bosque.
El Bosque is a small edition of artists books written by Danixa and illustrated by Beto Jet-o. The book was printed and finished completely by hand by Jono Sandilands.
The book pages and covers were first screenprinted. This time-lapse
video shows the process of hand finishing the book: trimming, folding
and binding using the Three Hole Pamphlet Stitch with red waxed thread.
In real-time the finishing process alone took between 10-12 minutes per booklet.
This project stemmed from sketches done whilst thinking about badge designs for the recent Button Badge Design Competition.
Thinking circularly I sketched a few ideas based around character
faces, and noticed they each had facial hair, not something that was
originally planned!
Pushing this idea forward, I asked: which jobs require you to have
facial hair? It’s pretty much standard that jobs don’t really require
this so there is scope for a bit of fun, my ideas were lumberjack,
french chef, pirate and English gentleman. I don’t know if there are
much career prospects in some of these jobs, so maybe don’t come to me
for career advice.
After scribbling down the initial thumbnail sketches, I knew I wanted
to do some experimentation and practice in printmaking and work on a
larger scale than the button badges… Looking down at my glass on the
table it suddenly comes to me… Coasters! Screenprinted onto wood.
My final drawings were done on layout paper full size. I have
developed a method for art-working some of my illustration work and want
to describe it as it sort of covers a part of my background and
understanding about some past work.
First draw basic lines of the piece in reverse. Next add areas I want
coloured and shadowed in marker pen, I want it to bleed through to the
other side of the paper (which will be the front). Finally and most
laboriously I use a scalpel to cut the areas I want as black lines and
detail. I find this method to improve the quality of the line work from
my pencil lines, it’s a bit like a stencil but I am using the scalpel
like a pencil in a way… a stencil pencil? No? Anyway, the lines become
more organic and grow, from my initial basic lines into something which
just seems to work so much better than I can ever draw in pencil or pen.
I think this method is good and bad – it’s sometimes a total pain,
yet I feel attached to it in my artwork generation because everything I
do with it seems to work well. I’m trying to move away from the method,
and there is potential in some of the new printmaking techniques I am
learning on the course at UWE. Certainly as I learn more about relief
print, but also perhaps there’s something in etching.
Anyway, for now my artwork ready for the next stage:
Printing & Production
Thinking of production now, I look at pre-cut coasters, but quickly
scrapped that idea, as thought it would be too fiddly to print 2 colours
onto a circular shape and retain registration. The next obvious choice
is lasercutting.
Lasercutting has been something which I’ve always wanted to explore.
As I started researching about how it is done and where I can get them
cut – I found a few places in Bristol (forgetting about UWE at this
point as I need induction which is scheduled in January). I came by Bristol Design Forge,
a bespoke laser cutting and engraving company. Perfect. After some
advice how to set up the files from Neil, I convert my final drawings to
vectors using Illustrator.
The plan is to lasercut wood which has already been screenprinted. I
will also set the files up to etch the areas of detail into the coaster
so all that needs to be printed is the solid areas of colour. It’s an
experiment, and a learning curve but hopefully you agree, one with a
good outcome!
Artwork to be ScreenprintedLasercut vectors (red cut. black etch)First colour printed on the woodLasercutting & etching in progress
Packaging
The packaging is a box which holds the set of four together. The box is screenprinted, cut and folded completely by hand.
I worked alongside Barbara to help her realise the printmaking
potential in her work. We setup a DIY screenprint studio in Barbara’s
existing knitwear studio to experiment with different methods to
transfer the knitwear to print - including how existing knitwear can be
scanned or photographed, then processed before being output to film to
expose to the screen.
Knitting studio come DIY print studio setup...
... help from Harriet! Making sure we were doing it right :D
We also experimented by exposing a piece of
knitwear directly to the screen which gave great results. Both methods
were used in the final work.
Exposing knitwear directly to the screen
During the project I advised how one of the semi-transparent pieces
could have an interactive element, that when someone was in close
proximity to the object, a light would be activated and start pulsing at
different speeds - almost like a lighthouse or a beacon in the sea. I
used Arduino with a motion sensor and an LED within one of the pieces
which made it subtly glow when someone was nearby.
Arduino was concealed in an adapted switch box, with motion sensor on the front
First test with blue LED - before changing to white LED
Final Photography:Chloe Tallack (Process Snaps by Jono)
The Art of Ping Pong will be exhibiting from 14 April - 6 June 2014 as part of Platform 14 "Connecting..." at the Engine Shed, Bristol.
Platform14 is a new exhibition space for imagination and innovation –
allowing us to connect to the world around us through creative
experimentation.
Connecting… forms the first exhibition on this new platform. It’s a
journey through a circuit of shapes and colours, of art and technology,
of past and future – through inspiration and collaboration.
It explores the relationship between creativity and technology, our
engagement with the world and the potential for creative development.
Featuring work by Florrie James and Nick James, Hannah Blight Anderson,
Jono Sandilands, Kim Brunner, Arthur Buxton, Olivia Jones and Sarah
Jeffs
14 April - 6 June 2014
Monday-Friday 8.30am-5.30pm
Free Entry
Delighted to announce four of my submissions to the 9th Annual Button Badge Design Competition #STBBDC by Stereohype have won the Special Stereohype Prize (set of 4) for 2013. The designs, which can be seen below, are four of the total of the 30 badges produced for this year and join the amazing and growing collection by Stereohype.
Co:Lab have come together after a bit of a break to release some new Halloween inspired screenprints. Prints by New Dead Language, Beto Jet-O and myself who form the 3 team members of the Co:lab outfit.
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