design | Beth Emmott

This is the archive for the ‘design’ Category

and now it’s 2022…

January 10th, 2022

Last post was in November – then Thanksgiving and after that my exhibition at iMPeRFeCT Gallery ended. There was work taking it down etc. and December was busy – someone snuck some holidays in there and now it’s 2022. Decorations are down, it has snowed, and now it’s very, very cold outside.

First snow 2022 – A perfect time to get back to work.

I’ve been working on various projects and I had signed up for a workshop online with the English artist Alice Fox. It’s dealing with rusty dyeing which I do a lot of but I love her work and wanted to take this workshop with her. Also I can sometimes use a kick to get me going.

So, last Friday was the first day and mainly Alice gives how to’s and and suggestions on experimenting – then you have the week to work on it before the next set of information. You can get feedback via the web.

I did a lot of tests on different types of papers and fabric. Was happy with some and others not so much. But one thing I’m trying to wrap my head around is when I’m learning something and experimenting, don’t just put the results in a drawer but do something with them. So… I decided to make a book of my samples and as they were all different sizes I had to work with that. The result is different than my regular books and it added to the project.

The top paper on the front of the book is much thinner than the others and I like the way the wrinkles add texture, contrasting with the rest of the book. After all this is a book of experiments!

Front Cover and Open Book

It has an accordion construction with the tallest pages in the front, decreasing in height as they go to the end of the book – they also vary in width. Reading it like a regular book there are three different spreads as you turn the pages.

First Spread Second Spread
Pages 1-4

Second Spread
Third spread with earlier pages peaking out and the final closed book

We also worked with dying fiber this week, but that’s a post for another day!

Exhibition

November 15th, 2021

“Places-Spaces, Exhibition of Painting, Stitches, Etc”, finally took place at iMPeRFeCT Gallery after being postponed last year! It was a crazy time getting things ready on short notice and with additional room to exhibit my work but it came together and I couldn’t be more pleased! Finishing work, framing, designing the space and hanging…Then I was interviewed on Germantown radio. It was very fun. And an artist talk—I was anxious but once I got going all was fine.

Image of Stitching
Stitching

Image of Exhibition-Front Room
Front Room

Image of Exhibition-Back Room
Back Room and Hallway

I showed stitching and a series of paintings in the front room, paintings in the back room, and smaller work in the hallway. Oh, and a group of found objects such as sea shells used as small tapestry looms and some of my Tea Bag Tales, they were the “Etc.” part of the title.

Image of Exhibition-Gifts from the Sea Image of Exhibition-Illustration
Small Tapestries and Tea Bag Tales

iMPeRFeCT Gallery is a wonderful gallery run by Rocio Cabello and Renny Molenaar in Germantown, PA. Over their nine years in Philadelphia they have featured an amazing group of artists, musicians, and poets. I feel so honored to be a part of all this and to have been invited to have my exhibition here.

Catching up…

June 1st, 2021

Here it is June, and I haven’t posted here for a while. I started a new Visual Journal with which I’m having much fun. It began as an old diary which belonged to my Gram – she didn’t really use it for much more than a folder of news clippings etc. so I decided to use its pages as a surface for mixed media/visual entries – I call it a daily journal and it is but I never said the days were consecutive… I’ve been posting pages on social media – it gives me a good start to the day to get working. Each day I try to use media and imagery with out planning and just react to it as it goes along.

Image of journal page Image of soaking tea bags
Three of my pages

I’m excited to have entered a painting, Tinicum Marsh” in the Da Vinci Art Alliance group exhibition. It will run from June 3 to the 22nd with a zoom opening on the 9th. It is open by appointment if anyone wants to stop by in person. After this last year it’s so good to be able to show work in the real world!

Image of Tinicum Marsh
Tinicum Marsh Ready to Wrap

I’ve also been busy making books and starting some paintings – continuing the theme of painting where I wish I could go. But now I can start going so that’s good!

And today I’ve gotten back to weaving on my found treasures – “found objects as Tapestry Looms”.

Never Ending Story Book

March 12th, 2021

The final book in the project (from the previous post) is a “Never Ending Book” in that it can double back on itself in a circular fashion, thus “Never Ending”. Constructed like the others, only with seven sections rather than eight, the paper pages are then covered with fabric in a crazy quilt fashion using bold stitches, resulting in a very textured piece.

Image of handmade book
Fabric and spines in place

Two sections have enlarged spines to accommodate extra pages (I may have enlarged mine a bit much) and the front and back covers are slightly padded. Once the stitching is finished the book is filled with the additional paper pages (not sewn in at this point) and is stuffed with leaves and/or onion skins – I added rusty objects as well, and the whole bundle is compressed between two tiles, tied and placed in a dye pot with boiling water.

Image of handmade book
Before and After

I used an iron pot and added tea bags. The hardest part is leaving it alone for several days with out peeking. This morning I lifted the bundle out and removed the tiles.

Image of handmade book
Unveiling

Then the unwrapping begins carefully, opening each page to remove the dye materials and setting the book and loose pages aside to dry.

Image of handmade book
Drying (The dark bit in the first image is the main book structure. More pages in the second.)

All is currently pretty soggy but I’m excited with the results. Some of these pages were tests and I will now dye some additional pages and then assemble the finish project! That will take awhile and will be in a future post! This has been a very fun project with lots of fodder for future projects.

A Winter Diversion

February 18th, 2021

As a break from all the cold and snow of February, I’m taking an online workshop with Australian artist, India Flint. Titled “February Project 2021” it’s basically making folded books from found materials, dyeing them, adding pages and just generally having fun with people all over the world. Her gentle way of explaining things warms up the coldest day.

Here are a few of my early books.

Image of handmade book

The first red book used a mixed media experiment I had done on watercolor paper. The paper was much too thick to fold as shown so it turned into an accordion book with added fabric to reinforce the folds. It has been put aside for now.

In the second picture, the top left book was also a bit thick for the suggested folding but I was able to open it up and expand the spine. Pages of color have had extra blank pages sewn in creating a small journal/sketchbook. The remaining books are similar but without the need to increase the spine. Some additional pages are in signatures, some fold out to make larger areas to work with. The small bundle includes the books shown in the video below.

These have been dried and are waiting to be finished.

Other artists have stitched fabric to their pages before dyeing them or have added pages from previous dye experiments resulting in a most wonderful range of books —all so different, interesting, and inspiring.

This simple structure is addictive to the point that a solicitation that arrived in the mail yesterday is currently being pressed into a small book. Best use I can think of for junk mail!

And… there are still lectures and video, unavailable until the scheduled week, but listed as a tease of things to come.

A wonderful winter break from all that’s going on. Thank you, India!

Onward!

January 25th, 2021

Well 2020 is finished with and 2021 has been off to a rocky start although the inauguration is hopeful—feels as though adults are back in the room. December was a rough month, couldn’t get into a holiday spirit, although I did put lights in our windows, one batch of cookies, and made our card.

Image of Christmas card
My previous Christmas cards can be seen HERE.

Wasn’t in a mood for a fancy tree and came up with this.
Image of Christmas tree
Started as a joke but we kind of liked it so, tree it was!

Missed our family and friends. Did several zoom gatherings—one with “The Garden Gals” and one with “The Rudes”—two groups of friends that mean the world to me. And Facetime with Kevan, Erin and the boys. Great to touch base, but I can’t wait to give and get real hugs! The pandemic has gotten old… and I know I’m one of the lucky ones, fairly healthy, can work from home, family grown so I’m not worried about virtual school, food delivered, etc.

Hard to get into my studio. I so envy artists who have been able to keep painting and get their work out there. I try but the results are forced. I have been sketching and reading, some fiber work, and designed a shop page for my site but even that doesn’t have my heart in it.

But today for the first time in months I’m feeling like painting. So, this is good!