The 10th Manchester Artists' Book Fair

Manchester Artists' Book Fair is one of my favourite fairs I do.  The hall it's set in (The Holden Gallery) is just lovely, with a great big sky light giving everyone natural light to display their products in.  The people are awesome, sellers and shoppers alike - everyone is friendly and asks questions about my work.  It's really nice to think I'm helping to inspire todays art students - young and old alike!

Best sellers this year - book marks and magnets!  Lucky Dip bags went down well, and my buildings all got a lot of attention.

I've signed up for more Artists' Book Fairs next year so fingers crossed you might see me in a city near you!  If you have one to recommend, do leave a comment and let me know.


You can find more information for the fair on their website : www.manchesterartistsbookfair.com

Badges, magnets and pocket mirrors

I've been a fan of a nice badge ever since I can remember.  And as soon as I started doing book fairs, it was something nice to have on your table to break up all the paper.  I've since branched out to pocket mirrors, utilising both my watercolour and screen printed illustrations.  Now I have something new again!  Not only have I new designs on my trusty badges and pocket mirrors, but I am also doing magnets.

HURRAH!

my little range of book related pocket mirrors

This year my pocket mirror range has really expanded and I'm proud to display 9 designs out on my table at markets and fairs, as well as 3 sets of 4 magnets and a couple of individual designs and 4 new badges.  Anyone would think I've been busy!

Book Print

Three colour ways - fluro pink, gold and blue all with a purple outline

This book pattern print came about because I wanted to make some nice bags to give out with purchases at Manchester's Artsists' Book Fair.  Turns out it's actually quite versatile!

 Various colours and sizes of bags

 I stuck to one colour with the tote bags and aside from trying to print it in lime green, am really chuffed with how they've come out.  The more I print the more I learn!

 Drying in the rack and being folded into books

I've printed this amazing folding style book before (back in uni, see the background of the blog, and in this post here) and I've often felt that people buy it a lot for the fun of the fold!  I've been selling them rather cheap for the amount of design work and concentration that goes into them - just £5!  So, as I'm coming to an end of my stock of the current book I've given this fold a re-vamp for those who are interested in the fold, and perhaps print, but weren't too keen on the illustrations.  For £5 you can now grab one of these beauties!  In either 2 or 3 colours, an edition of 30 books with the book print on them are now available - hurrah!

I had a few off cuts and hate to see paper go to waste so I'll be popping these book marks into people's bags when they purchase something at book fairs and craft markets.


Keep an eye out for this pattern popping up on other items as well :)

Book Fair coming up in October!

The Eighth Manchester Artists' Book Fair

My table at last years fair.

HURRAH it's back again!

The Manchester Artists' Book Fair happens every year and this is my 3rd year exhibiting - I'm excited to be going back!

Read about previous years here:

2011

2012

The Hot Bed Press - a printmakers studio in Salford - organise and put on a great 2 days of Artists' Books.  The Holden Gallery is full of creative loveliness spread over each Artists' table.  It's lovely to see everyones different take on the 'Artist Book', meet new people, catch up with customers and friends and enjoy little bits of Manchester for the weekend.

2013 will be held at The Holden Gallery on the 18th and 19th October - come say hi!

Have a browse on the website and keep an eye out for updates on Twitter - find me @charlsvallance.

www.manchesterartistsbookfair.com

BABE - Bristol Artist Book Event 2013

BABE - The Bristol Artists' Book Event - happens every two years and I am so pleased to be a part of it!  It's always a great weekend full of inspiring people and work.  It's a great excuse to meet up with friends in the area as well as catching up with book art people from around the country!

My next door neighbour at BABE for the weekend was the lovely Kate Bufton of 'Book Transformations'.  Her table was a wonderland of books, folds, little stories, and great pieces.

This amazingly bright and cheery table is Karoline Rerrie's.  It was lovely seeing some of her new pieces up close after having seen them online.  And of course having a good chat!

My neighbour from the last book fair in Manchester last year (read about here) is the awesome Sarah Bryant of 'Big Jump Press'.  Back in October Sarah had gorgeous books and prints on display.  This year, she's added to it with awesome postcards and notebooks...of which I picked up a couple - great for little gifts or having in your hand bag for that 'note to self'!

Coffee Club Collective is a great group of illustrators who have just published their first litho printed 1000 books full of illustrations to do with the circus.  I got my copy and I love it!

Were you there too?  Get in touch and maybe we'll be neighbours at the next BABE!

Down Your Street : York

YAY I'm back with a new artist book!  It's been over a year since I made one of these.  In the same style as '(Delft) Blue' & 'Down Your Street : Old Amersham' this little book opens out in an accordion fashion to stand open on a shelf, table or mantle.  Folded, it's not even A6 in size and is printed in 2 colours, the perfect treat for yourself or as a gift.

I recently visited York to see my Aunt while she was living up there but also mainly to see all the gorgeous buildings and streets the city has to offer.  It's such a mix of lovely styles and architecture it was hard to know where to look first!

Available in my online shop here for £16.

The 7th Manchester Artist Book Fair

What a great weekend!

This year Hot Bed Press managed to secure us two days in the lovely Holden Gallery, within the Manchester School of Art.  This meant that on Friday we saw lots of students and Saturday bought in people having a browse - I even recognised a few faces from last year!

I was honoured with one of the first tables as you walk in the room - can you believe it?!  Myself and Sarah, of Big Jump Press had our tables set up to welcome people in through the doors and to bid them a good journey on their way out too.

Over the two days I did manage to leave my table for long enough to enjoy a look around everyone else's tables, however, I only got photos of mine and Sarah's! Oops.

I had two new releases for this fair, my 'Down Your Street : York' screen printed book and my 'Lucky Dip' bags.  Both went down great and I had some awesome feedback.  I love hearing what people have to say about my work, it's even more fun when people are really not holding back.  I was lucky enough to hear my table be described as an 'Illustration Wonderland' - how gorgeous does that sound!? As well as '...and shit that's amazing!'  I also managed to get stocked up with more lovely stripy paper bags for future fairs in return for an Amsterdam card.

You can find a list of all the contributors here, be sure to check them out, some really stunning works.

p.s. everything on my table is available to buy and will be found in my shop here.  If it's not in the shop, send me a message and I can do a custom listing specially for you at no extra cost.


You'll find posts about the 7th Manchester Artists Book Fair on many other blogs, but after this one, you can have a look at Fishink's blog fishinkblog.wordpress.com :-D be sure to let us know if you got here from the other!

Workshop at The Royal Masonic School for Girls

All forms of Book

I was contacted by RMS's textile teacher Mrs Bloomfield Proud, to come into the school and do a workshop for the girls working on a Children's Book project.  They have to take a cultural, traditional, children's story and interpret it how they will and produce a textile piece.  After seeing the work I've done which involve books, she was inspired to get me to inspire the girls!  

I took along examples of my work, in all different book forms to talk through with them.  As a bonus, I took along the children's book that I developed in my 2nd year at University as well as some of my favourite children's books that i have for *ahem, research and reference.

I demonstrated how to make a couple of books that involve only folds and cuts rather than stitching (as this is the option I normally go for myself) but also showed them a bit of stab binding as it's a good bind to know if you have numerous loose pages to put together and is relatively straight forward.

Hopefully the girls came out of it a bit more knowledgable and full of inspiration and ideas on how to possibly incorporate their current ideas into a book format.

A little something for you!

Hello All!

So since joining Twitter, Facebook and having a Blog, I have entered a fair few competitions, met loads of people (some in real life as well!), enjoyed supporting other illustrators and artists, and I am so grateful for the support that you also give me.

As a little thank you, and as it is the season for giving...for a lucky participant I shall put together a little package of goodies for you to get through the post.  If you have any special requirements then you can let me know but ultimately it will be a surprise!  And yes, I shall post to ANYWHERE!

In order to be chosen you need to leave a comment on this blog post, or tweet to me ( @charlsvallance ) which of the following books is your favourite, and tell me why, as well as why you would like to win!  I shall choose the winner the old fashioned way by putting everyones names in a hat and selecting one :-)

Row of Houses

Wake up and Smell the Coffee

(Delft) Blue

Birds, Boats & Buildings

(THE AMAZING FOLDING BOOK!)

Buildings

Statues of Europe

You have until Sunday 18th December 12noon :-)

Thank you everyone!

X

Wake up and Smell the coffee

This Drypoint printed Artists Book was inspired by my time spent working at Seasons Cafe Deli in Old Amersham, near were I live.  It consists of a front cover, 6 prints of different coffee and a contents page on the back page which tells you of the contents of the different coffees seen in the book.

I've used drypoint printing technique with Chine Colle to attach tissue paper/newspaper to areas of each print.  To do this I apply glue to the tissue and pass it through the press with the print plate when it gets printed.  The whole book is actually on one sheet of paper.  This makes making the book less time consuming, meaning that if you are interested in buying a copy then it works out cheaper than it may of done!  Nice huh?

I made an edition of 12, last year infact, I think it didn't get talked about because I was giving one as a Christmas Present!  However, now you can buy it as a gift too.  It's for sale in my Etsy shop HERE.

The Red Gallery aka Material

My lovely little '(Delft) Blue' Amsterdam book has made it into a shop - HURRAH!  Lucy, from The Red Gallery spotted it at The Whitechapel Gallery, London Art Book Fair and got in touch to sell it at both their London shop and their Ludlow shop too.  I am so excited about this!  I got to the shop quite late so the photos are a bit dark, but you can see what a nice space they have and all the other great books and artwork they have for sale by various artists.

You can find The Red Gallery @ 1-3 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DT

And the Ludlow shop @ 131 Corve Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 2PG

Alternatively you can have a browse on their website: www.materialmaterial.com

The Amsterdam book has had the pleasure of being in this shop a month or so now, it looks like it's made itself at home nicely.  This week I dropped off a few of my 'Down Your Street - Old Amersham' books as well as a selection of my Christmas cards for some lucky Londoners!

All of these are also available in my Etsy shop if you can't make it to The Red Gallery or are not local, which you can find at www.etsy.com/charlottevallance


Thank you for reading,

X