Daily paintings to music - new Instagram project

Hello hello! So I said I wasn't going to do any more online marketing this year until I had a larger collection of art, but hey I've changed my mind!

I'm currently mainly Pinteresting my new works here: https://uk.pinterest.com/Lauralongprint/laura-long-prints

Feel free to follow me and pin away. I have also just this week become addicted to the wonder that is Instagram and am using that to document my latest daily project, a painting a day.

My printmaking is quite detailed and 'tight' and I've not been painting for ages now. So I've come up with this looser outlet where I paint my own intuitive response to a song of my choice everyday. The photos aren't perfectly polished Insta shots, but that's not the point. They are quick, real photos taken often at night on my phone of my equally quick paintings. I'm hoping to go deeper with my abstract watercolours and maybe come up with some inspirational ideas to bring into my printmaking.

If you want to follow my daily paint splodges I'm @lauralongprint on Instagram. Here are a few taster photos of the week so far:

New work in 2015

Hello anyone who is still out there reading this. I've not posted for some time now but I hope you're all still out there. Christmas 2014 was crazily amazing, I co-organised my first print fair, helped set up a Christmas pop-up shop full of local artists and designers and sold out of a couple of editions of prints! (well they were short runs..)

It was my best Christmas yet for exposure and sales, but I have to tell you that I still need to work a 'day' job to pay the bills, and in November last year it was also time to start a new 'day' job. This has meant much less time for art-making, but I hope it will work out to be a more sustainable way for me to live in the long-term.

As a result of all these changes, I have decided to make 2015 all about getting better at my art and focusing on new personal work. This means this little blog will probably be even quieter and I am going to pretty much abandon all forms of marketing until I have a decent body of work to show you.

In the meantime, here are a few peeks of works in progress and some breathtaking mountains that I recently climbed.

Axolotl in progress

Pen-y-ghent - playing with colour
© Laura Long 2015

Red Tarn - The Lakes
© Laura Long 2015

© Laura Long 2015

© Laura Long 2015

Lunar Lumber, 2015 - woodcut
© Laura Long 2015

Leeds Print Fair at The Corn Exchange - 1st November 2014

So I've been a little quiet on the old blog lately, but for good reason as I am now pleased to present to you my newest creation, the Leeds Print Fair!

I've gathered together the best printmaking talent in Leeds to bring you fine art linocuts, screenprints, etchings, monporints, printed textiles and much more. There will be prints and homeware gifts priced to fit every budget which will make treasured gifts – one off pieces that nobody else will have.

For further details see www.facebook.com/leedsprintfair or our blog leedsprintfair.wordpress.com

Only 3.5 weeks to go, I'm getting so excited about this now I might burst!

Chapel Allerton Arts Trail 2014

Just a quick update to say I'm taking part in the Chapel Allerton Arts Trail. Opening night is tomorrow, 6 - 9pm at Inkwell. See local art in 18 venues along Harrogate Road, from Inkwell to Further North, plus street theatre and music tomorrow evening.

The trail runs until Sunday 31st August and I have some work up at venue no.11 Crust & Crumb Bakery. Go here for a trail map: arts trail map 

 Come along and sample some tasty cake, see some of my new works and even enjoy some free music on the main festival day, Saturday 31st August. See you there!

Recent Press on running a creative business

I was recently interviewed by the lovely Cristina from Sombras Blancas Art & Design about my experience of running a creative business. She made my fab logo when I was starting out as logo design is not my strong point. She was wonderful to work with and if anyone needs a new logo, I'd recommend her! Check out the full interview here

Shop Local! Etsy Team Leeds Pop-Up in Fabrication, The Light, Leeds

Exciting news folks, for this July I'm going to be selling some of my wares in a real bricks and mortar shop! My books and prints will be featured along with 11 other lovely sellers from Etsy Team Leeds at Fabrication Crafts in The Light Shopping Centre, Leeds.

I'll be in the shop on Thursday 10th July between 10.30am - 3.30pm if you'd like to come have a chat and see my work in the real.

Louise Billingham from MLSoW (My Little Shop of Wonder), part of Etsy Team Leeds has written an article which showcases each featured maker. Click on the image below to find out more.  I particularly like Louby Kapow's comic book bows.


As Louise says, "you know it's good because it's made with love!"
 
Check out the Team Leeds pop up shop page at:
www.facebook.com/events/300593800107798/

Having a great time at my first bookbinding workshop & scaling big big heights for some new work

So far June has been crazy in an amazing way. I'd been thinking about running some creative workshops for a long time, and then one day someone just said to me, 'why can't you just set up your own workshop?' And I realised, there was nothing stopping me apart from me! So I put up a sign, and in the end people came!

We had a lot of fun and my students made loads of lovely little books. I'm so impressed at their productivity. Having to move the venue to my home/studio actually worked really well too. It was relaxed, cosy and great to be able to have tea breaks out in the garden with the birds singing in the trees.

Here's some pictures from the day. Can't wait to build on this further at my next workshop for the Leeds Waterfront Festival. I'll be there on Sunday 29th June doing a free taster workshop from 10 - 12am!

I also climbed Steel Fell, Calf Crag, Gibsons Knott & Helm Crag last week up in the Lake District. Now I'm brimming with inspiration for an art series about walking in the wilderness. Watch this space!

An invitation to learn the art of bookbinding

I've been a little quiet recently as I've been busy working on lovely commissions, meeting up with  our first ever Etsy Leeds Team and hatching exciting plans for July.

The most exciting news though is a new workshop I've created: Bookbinding for Beginners

4th June 2014 – 10am until 1pm – Meeting Room, Farsley Library

This workshop is a great chance to learn the art of traditional bookbinding. You will be introduced to basic bookbinding concepts and will create single section sewn books using pamphlet stitch and Japanese stab binding. These can be used as your own sketchbooks, notebooks or artist books.
Suitable for complete beginners, you will take home at least 2 beautiful books that you have made yourself and as many more as you can make in the time! Learn in a small group with plenty of tea, coffee, juice and biscuits to keep you going. All tools and materials are provided but you’re welcome to bring your own papers for covering and constructing your books.

This will be a brilliant opportunity to try your hand at bookbinding and learn a new craft in a small and supportive group.

£15 per person. Get your tickets here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookbinding-for-beginners-tickets-11659896063

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How to survive an outdoor craft market

Last Saturday, I dusted off my tablecloth and packed up all my things, eager for the first craft fair of the year. I was a little nervous as it was my first outdoor craft market, but hoped the weather would not be too mean.

Well, that taught me not to try and sell paper goods in the middle of March outdoors in Yorkshire. What a wash out! The rain wasn't so bad, but the wind ws a nightmare with all my delicate paper prints and handbound books. Hooray for pegs at least.

When it wasn't raining, a few people stopped by and I did manage to sell a few things for Mother's Day and received some kind comments. But generally the market was dire, there was barely anyone passing by. Half the people passing were headed straight for clothes shops or a fancy coffee place and it was freezing!

It's always a gamble with fairs, will anyone come, will they like my stuff? Will my future patron turn up and take me away from this life of standing in the street hawking my wares? But at the end of the day, when its pouring down and blowing a gale, what do you do? You bring along your friend who always makes you laugh and belt out a rendition of 'you are my sunshine' with harmonica and shaky egg. That gets the public smiling, and singing along with you too. :)

Leeds International Artist Book Fair 2014

Although I was full cold and feeling a bit separated from my own body, I didn't let this stop me get to the International Contemporary Artists' book fair the other week. This year it had moved venue to the new Tetley Art gallery, formerly the Tetley brewery. Not overly impressed with this gallery when I went to the opening, I have to say that it works much better as a space for a large fair. Although boiling inside, it was much lighter that the hall at Leeds University. I also though the book fair fit really well with some of the original details of the building such as climbing the old steps next to an original grille-door lift shaft, and things like the wood panelling on the walls. It was almost like walking back into an old library.

I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked at the fair this year due to my broken body, but I did stumble upon the gem of Incline Press. They are a private press who commission writers and illustrators/printmakers to create limited edition books' typeset, printed and bound in the traditional way. I met Graham Moss, the owner of Incline press, who generously shared the finer points of his self-taught book binding techniques and was a great inspiration through my fluey headache fog.

I also bought this delightful little chapbook, 'Toad Poems.'

Inside was following poem 'warty bliggens' by Don Marquis:

In a moment of Serendipity I discovered these poems were part of a newspaper column, 'Archy and Mehitabel,' where Archy was the cockroach typing the poems and Mehitabel was his best friend, an alley cat. Now where does that name sound familiar? Yes, from my latest commission under the name of Mehitabel Press! I take this as a sign that I must be doing something right at the moment.

Behind the scenes: recent commissions

So I've been a bit quiet on here over this last month as I've been busy with lots of delightful commissions. I thought I'd share a couple of them with you and a bit about how they evolved into the finished works.

This was a really fun piece, creating a watercolour portrait for a lovely customer all the way in Tel Aviv!

But the project that has got me really excited has been this one.. I was asked to illustrate and bind a collection of poems for a lucky ladies birthday. We were having so much fun with it that it turned into my first editioned publication and the creation of the fictional Mehitabel private press!

binding up the first copy of the book

last book in the press - excuse the mess!

the finished book, buzz buzz

I hope all the recipients enjoy reading their books as much as I did making them. Here's to many more publications for Mehitabel press.

final poem

Illustration for 'Undone' © Laura Long 2014

[DIY] linocut valentine's card with How.Do

Hello, so I've been getting in the mood for love making lots of Valentine's cards, and I thought you might enjoy seeing how to make your own hand printed lovebird cards. I've created my first tutorial for a  collaboration with How.Do, a creative platform for capturing & discovering DIY micro guides. It's a free iPhone app that combines tradional handmade techniques with new technology. There are some pretty cool tutorials on there like how to make your own paper horse head! I love the fact it gives designer-makers  access to a growing community where we can share our creative work via simple but effective video tutorials. Plus I quite enjoyed pretending to be some kind of Blue Peter presenter! 

To celebrate the month of love, How.Do have brought together top DIY blogging darlings including the brilliant frankie magazine, P.S.- I Made This and top Etsy designers to create lovely Valentine-themed tutorials. All projects will be highlighted on how.do/yearofthehorse leading up to the big day.

Here's a copy of my tutorial:

draw out your design on the lino block 

 - remember to draw the image backwards if you have text

cut away around the design the areas you want to leave white

roll out some ink, until it makes a lovely crackling sounds like bacon frying

apply lots of thin layers of ink to a detailed design

place your paper over the block and apply pressure with the spoon to transfer the image

carefully peel back to check progress, keep rubbing if the image is faint

You can print several copies to send to all your beaus!

score the card in the centre to help get a crisp fold

glue the design onto your card for a finished pair of lovebirds

Take a peek at the full tutorial:

MAKE A LINOCUT VALENTINE a micro guide by Magpie Moonshine on How.Do

New hand bound books

New accordion photo album, fireworks! Plus experimenting with long stitch binding:

For sale here

For sale here

'Written in the stars' - new love quote linocut in the shop

So I've been getting all mushy in preparation for Valentine's day and I've finished this linocut monoprint. It is of a couple stargazing out in the mountains. Written in the sky is a quote by Aristotle, 'love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.' It was really fun making this, and it was my first time creating a 'rainbow' roll background. That is where you roll several colours at once on one roller.

Here's the finished print:

Available to buy here

 

 © Laura Long 2014

© Laura Long 2014

© Laura Long 2014

And these are some work-in-progress shots of cutting the block for the pine trees: