23 November 2013

Fairy Book: Brown and Grey

Here's the last of the batch of fairy books I made recently. I had originally been working on the green one I posted yesterday to keep for myself, but this one turned out so well, I think I'll keep it instead.


There was one more, but the leather I chose was quite thick, and too soft to easily pare down as much as I needed for these tiny books (I could have done it, but it would have taken way longer than it was worth). So I've set that last book aside and I'll finish it when I get to work on another project that involves paring leather.

22 November 2013

Fairy Books: Darker Blue and Green

A couple more fairy books. If you're interested in one, let me know. I'm going to offer them at a big discount from now until the craft fair next weekend.


I think regular price will be somewhere around $50 (Can/USD), which is still a pretty good deal considering how much work goes into them (I'll have a post up in a few days showing the whole process). But from now until Friday, November 29, 2013, they'll be $25 plus shipping.


Or, if you make miniature books, maybe we can do a trade.

21 November 2013

Fairy Books: Blue and Green

Two more miniature books from the recent batch. The reason I keep calling them fairy books is because I was asked to make miniature books that looked like they came from Fairyland. Because, of course, not all fairies are tiny.



When I was doing the covers on the two from yesterday, I cut flowers out from the same paper I used for the endsheets. I realized this would work with the book above, too. For the next one, though, a motif from the cover worked better for the spine, and then I let the patterned cover stand on its own.


When I made this one, I picked the endpapers first based mostly on the size of the pattern rather than on the colour. It proved difficult to find leather and cover paper to go with it. I like how the leather and the endpapers go together, and how the cover paper and the leather goes, but I'm not sure all three are the best match. If I had to change one, I'd change the endpapers, because I really like how the cover looks. I don't hate the endpapers, I just wish I'd chosen differently.

20 November 2013

Fairy Books: Pink and Lilac

A while back, I had a request to make some tiny books that looked like they came from fairyland. In a few days, I'll post the in-progress shots I took and explain how they were made, but for now, here are pictures of the first two, made for my cousin's girls.


I'm not the biggest fan of pink, but I'm really pleased with how this turned out, and I'm glad I decided to cut flowers from the same paper I used for the endpapers to put on the cover and spine.


I had focus issues with the shots I took of the lilac book, and even with photoshop I couldn't quite get the colour right -- it's still too blue -- but the book itself turned out really well. I wasn't sure about the white leather, but I love how it ended up (originally I was going to use purple leather and a different cover paper, but I couldn't get the leather).

05 November 2013

Jackalope

I'm feeling wintery, so here's a jackalope in the snow.


31 October 2013

All Hallows' Read: Free Halloween Short Story!

So apparently this is my 1000th post on this here blog, so I felt like I should do something significant. Also, it's Halloween -- my favorite holiday -- and I just finished writing a haunted-house YA short story. So, since no one ever comes to my house in the woods for candy, I'm giving you all a story.

FEAR

It started as a dare.

It always started as a dare. They knew, the other kids, that Brigid -- as standoffish as she was -- could never refuse a dare. Not a really good one.

It was such a cliché, too. A big old abandoned house on the edge of the woods that everyone said was haunted. Go inside, spend the night, we dare you. At first, Brigid had tried to be smart, to refuse the dare, to mock the other kids about how stupid it was. Sometimes that worked.

I'm not going to eat a worm, that's just stupid. That time it had worked. The other kids agreed it was dumb and they just wanted to see her do something gross. So she picked her nose at them, and they went away. 

She didn't tell anyone, not even the teddy bear that still stood sentinel next to her pillow every night even though she was sixteen now and supposed to be above that sort of thing, but later when she was all alone, she had eaten a worm, just to see what it was like. She washed it first, and she couldn't bear to bite down on its wriggling pink body, so she had swallowed it whole. And then she felt bad for days after -- sometimes she still felt bad, remembering -- that she had eaten something living without first putting it out of its misery.

It hadn't tasted like much.

But this, this dare wouldn't go away. Come on, scaredy cat, we dare you. That was the second dare. Brigid was not afraid of very many things, except being mocked. She hated being mocked. Big old houses didn't scare her at all. In fact, she had already been inside, several times. Just not at night. Not all night. Brigid hated people implying she was afraid of anything.

I'm not going to kiss another girl. That time, that one time, the dare hadn't worked. She looked at the girl they wanted her to kiss -- a petite redhead new to the popular group, who'd do anything to win their approval -- and she felt heat spread through her belly. And then fear. Terror that if she kissed that pretty mouth, that girl, she'd like it. And worse, that everyone would know she'd liked it. That time, they hadn't dared her again, and the redhead looked relieved.

Later on, she couldn't even look at her teddy bear, and she forced herself to think about kissing the cutest boy on the soccer team, so she wouldn't think about kissing the redheaded girl.

But this dare was different. Scaredy cat, they said. She tried to refuse again. She even told them she'd gone inside the old house before, but no one had seen it, so no one believed her.

You are scared, they said. We triple-dog-dare you to spend the night in there. And that's what did it. Not the triple-dog-dare itself, but the three dares in a row. Brigid tried not to be superstitious. Magic wasn't real. But things in threes would still get her. If something didn't work in three tries, she gave up. When something bad happened, she couldn't relax until a second and a third bad thing happened. And if she was dared to so something three times, she couldn't refuse.

And that's why Brigid Rourke, newly turned sixteen, shimmied down the tree outside her bedroom window after her parents had gone to bed Saturday night and crept through the dimly-lit suburban streets to the very edge of the forest, where a huge Victorian mansion lurked invisibly behind an overgrown hedge. 

She stood at the end of the long, weedy driveway, her flashlight looking feeble against the blackness of the treeshadows, and waited. One of the kids who had dared her was supposed to meet her here at midnight, to make sure she went in. Then the others -- they claimed -- would take it in shifts to watch the house to make sure she didn't sneak back out before dawn. When the sun rose, they said, they would consider the dare fulfilled and she could go back to her teenagerly duties of sleeping until afternoon on Sunday.

When they arrived, the other kids were a giggling, shhh-ing mass, shoving each other out into the street and whispering so loudly they might as well have been yelling. Brigid waited until the last moment to step out of the shadows of the driveway, and was rewarded by a shriek from one of the few girls in the group. She scratched her nose to hide her smirk.

"We didn't think you'd show," said one of the boys, the biggest, the one who had been first to voice the dare.

"Yeah," echoed several of the others. "We thought you'd be too chicken."

"Well, I'm here," said Brigid. She stood straight. She was taller than most of them, even the boys, and this way she could look down her nose at them. She'd never be popular or well-liked, nor did she especially want to be, but being able to look down at them was better, anyway.

"So go on in," said one of the girls. Not the one who had shrieked. This one had perfect blonde hair that she straightened with a flat iron. Once, she had teased Brigid about her long black hair, inherited from her Japanese mother, but secretly -- Brigid believed -- the girl was jealous. It was around then that the other girl had started wearing her own hair loose, letting the stylish haircut grow out.

"I'm going," said Brigid, and turned her back on the others. She didn't bother to count them. The number of kids in the popular crowd changed from day to day as members of the core group befriended or unfriended other kids at school. Brigid had never been so chosen, and didn't want to be. Her mother said she was afraid she might like being popular, that she didn't want to lose what made her different. Brigid thought it was more that she didn't want to be like them, shallow and boring.

"We'll be waiting for you at sunrise," called the tallest boy. "And we'll be watching, so don't try to sneak away."

Without turning, Brigid held up her middle finger in their direction. She didn't care if they could see it in the dark or not, just doing it felt satisfying. If she'd done such a thing at school, or even during the day when she wasn't heading for the door of a haunted house, she'd be sure to get hit for her troubles, or shoved and hair-pulled, nasty rumours spread about her at school.

But here, right now, she wasn't afraid. None of them were going to spend the night in the house.

She walked up to the front door, turned the knob, and opened it. She was a little surprised to find the door unlocked. When she'd snuck in before, she had had to climb through a basement window, and cut her palm on the glass. A flicker of uneasiness crept up her spine, but she pushed it away and stepped inside, aiming her flashlight at the floor to look for rotten spots.

The house had been empty for as long as Brigid could remember, but her parents said it had been lived in not so many years ago. A rich lady had lived here, but then suddenly packed up and left one day, without telling anyone why she was leaving or where she was going. She hadn't been very friendly with the neighbours anyway, but her staff had been mostly local. They're the ones who had started the stories about ghosts.

They said the rich lady had killed someone and buried him in the basement, and he had come back to haunt her. But they also said the house was built on an ancient Indian burial ground. And that the rich lady's grandparents had died in the house, and a servant hanged himself, and half a dozen other unlikely stories. The only thing they agreed on was ghosts.

Brigid pulled the door closed behind her, shutting out the wind. The house was so far from the street, and so sheltered by trees, that very little outside light made it through the grimy windows with their ancient, rotted drapes. She shone the light around, picking out the hulks of abandoned furniture, the fireplace mantel, swaths of cobwebs, dust.

When she'd come here before, she had hoped to find some treasure, a knickknack or a forgotten bit of jewellery, but except for the furniture and some of the larger cooking implements in the kitchen, it seemed the rich lady had packed very thoroughly. She hadn't gone upstairs, though; the staircase looked too rotten to support a cat's weight, let alone a teenaged girl's.

The furniture was too damp and unpleasant-looking to sit on, so Brigid headed for the fireplace. It had a broad stone hearth and a pretty carved wooden surround with a cast-iron decorative cover. The stone wouldn't be comfortable to sit on all night, but it was off the floor and solid. She brushed a spot clear of dust and settled down to wait. She switched off her flashlight to save batteries, but fished a handful of candles out of her pocket and lit them, melting the bottom of each on one of the others just enough to stick it to the hearthstones. Then she got a book out of her other pocket. The candles gave her just enough light to read by and it was going to be a long night.

She had only made it through half a chapter when she realized that a book about a girl who finds a doorway into another world -- a darker, scarier world than her home -- was perhaps not the best choice of reading for spending a night in a supposedly haunted house. Every little creak and rustle drew Brigid's attention from the story, and got her thoughts turning to ghosts and bodies in the basement.

By the time she reached the last page of the chapter, Brigid realized than one of the noises wasn't the wind batting at the leaves or the old timbers of the house settling. Just a mouse, she told herself. Hopefully a mouse and not a rat. Not that she was afraid of rodents of any size, but a rat was bigger and, she supposed, more likely to bite.

It was a faint scraping in the basement that she heard. Shhk, shhk, shhk. The basement, where there was supposed to be a dead body buried, though Brigid hadn't seen any signs of a grave the times she'd climbed through the basement window to poke around in daylight. It would be a skeleton by now, wouldn't it? How long had it been buried there? Since before Brigid was born, at least. Surely it would be just a skeleton by now. 

Brigid wasn't afraid of skeletons. Silly to be frightened of something you had under your own skin. She even had a little skull of a rabbit she'd found in the woods, hidden in her closet. It had been on her dresser until her mother had told her to throw it away.

Shhk, shhk, shhk. The sound was louder now. Could a mouse make that much noise? Could a rat? Shhk. What would a old skeleton sound like, dragging its dry foot bones across the floor?

A raccoon. Or a skunk. That must be it. Hopefully not a skunk, though.

Brigid turned pointedly back to her book. She began to read the next page, but realized she didn't really remember anything from the whole last chapter. She'd been too distracted by the noise. Shhk

Then silence. Brigid sat tensely on the stone hearth, listening as hard as she could. Wind rustled the leaves outside, and somewhere upstairs a branch scraped against the side of the house. Beams and floors creaked quietly as the changing humidity made the wood shift. A tiny scraping behind the cast iron fireplace cover was certainly a mouse.

Brigid let her breath out slowly. Whatever it was must be gone. She turned back to her book. This time she managed to read three whole chapters before she heard another noise that didn't fit.

Creaking this time, and not just the house settling or a tree bending outside in the rising wind. It came from the basement again, but this time it was the stairs. Brigid stood up without thinking, clutching her book in both hands. Something was coming up the stairs.

For long moments she stood frozen in place, straining to hear, to tell from the sounds exactly what was coming up the basement stairs. A skeleton? Would a decades-old bunch of dry bones weigh enough to make those massive old steps groan?

They came slowly, the noises, the footsteps, if that's what they were. Like sneaking

Then the basement door moaned on tarnished and bent old hinges and Brigid jumped, and dropped her book and almost shrieked.

Almost, but she managed to stop herself. She also -- just barely -- stopped herself from turning and fleeing across the big old room and out the front door. She did not believe in ghosts, or skeletons that walked, or haunted houses. She made her self bend and pick up the book, made herself sit back down on the stone and look at the words, and when the soft shuffle of footsteps reached the door to the parlour where she waited, she made herself glance nonchalantly up from her reading and raised her eyebrows in question.

Then she almost jumped and shrieked again before she realized that the apparition in the doorway was not a zombie or a ghost, but another girl, close to her own age. The girl was pale enough for a ghost, and dressed in what looked like tattered rags at first glance, and she stared at Brigid with huge dark eyes.

But as they stared at each other across the room, Brigid could see that the girl's clothes had been deliberately cut and torn and stitched back together in a way that made them look like a costume from a dark fairy tale. She wished she dared wear something like that, instead of the standard jeans and tee shirt that every other teenager wore, except the popular and fashionable girls.

Finally, the other girl spoke. "Holy hell," she said, in a voice lower than a girl's usually was, and with just a trace of unidentifiable accent. "I though you were spook." Then she smiled, and her grin showed slightly crooked teeth and dimples. Except for the layers of skirts and the length of her wild, multi-hued hair, Brigid might have thought the other girl was a boy.

"And I thought you were a skeleton," said Brigid, smiling back. "Or maybe a zombie."

"What are you even doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

The other girl frowned slightly, then shrugged. "I'm just passing through, and this old house seemed like a better place to sleep a few days than under a bush."

"Don't you have parents?"

"Somewhere."

Brigid waited, but the other girl didn't elaborate. "I got dared to spend the night here," she finally said. "I don't really believe the stories, and anyway I've been inside before, so it's no big deal."

"There's stories?"

So Brigid found herself telling the other girl all the tales she could remember about the old house, and in the process discovered she remembered a few more. A servant was supposed to have cut her wrists herself in the attic bath, and another jumped from a third floor window. Someone else murdered a cheating lover. All the stories were full of spurned love, or unrequited love, or jealous rages.

"Either a lot of people died here, or else no one really ever knew why this house was haunted," said the other girl, finally.

"I don't think it's haunted at all," said Brigid. "I think people just like to scare themselves. Or have something more interesting to say than they spent the day cleaning up after a rich old lady."

"You don't believe in ghosts?" said the other girl.

"I already said that," said Brigid. "You do?"

"Sometimes."

Then they just sat for a little while, side-by-side on the hearthstones, listening to the wind and the leaves and the house.

"What's your name?" the girl asked.

"Brigid. What's yours?"

"Day."

"Like daylight? Were your parents tree huggers?" As soon as the words came out, Brigid wanted to kick herself. As a girl who looked mostly Japanese but who had a very Irish name, she knew what it was like to have your name made fun of. "Sorry," she said.

Day shrugged. "My parents were... are fundamentalist Christians. They named me David. I chose Day." She -- or he? -- looked Brigid steady in the eye, chin titled up stubbornly, as if daring her to make more fun.

Brigid wasn't sure what to think. She wasn't surprised that Day was a boy under those skirts. His voice and face were boyish enough. But she knew that at her school a boy dressing like that would be hounded mercilessly. Then again, at her school a boy who wanted to dress in girl's clothes would probably never dare in the first place.

Finally she thought of something to say that might not be thought offensive. "Are you... Do you want to be a girl?" On second thought, that probably was offensive.

"I am a girl," Day said, nostrils flaring. Then she looked down at her hands and Brigid noticed how tightly they were clasped together. "I don't even know why I told you my parents called me David. If I hadn't said you'd never have known."

Again, Brigid wasn't sure what to say. She floundered for words to express that she didn't care if Day was a girl or a boy, that she could be whatever she wanted and Brigid wouldn't judge, but before she could get the words out, Day said, "Anyway, I don't care what you think. I am who I am and if you don't like it, you can fu--"

Her words were cut off by a loud crash from upstairs and both girls jumped to their feet. To her surprise, Brigid discovered they were holding hands, as if a physical connection could stave off fear. And maybe it could. She felt Day start to tug her hand away and tightened her grip; the other girl relaxed.

"You are who you are," Brigid said quietly, not sure what to think about the way heat spread up from their connected hands into her belly and fluttered there like electrified insects. "I am who I am. But what I wonder is, who is up there crashing around?"

"Or what is up there," said Day, in a whisper so soft Brigid could barely hear it.

They looked at each other. "Do we run, or do we go look?" said Day. Her hand tightened on Brigid's, then relaxed, but didn't let go.

"I don't believe in ghosts," replied Brigid.

"I do," said Day. "But even if it isn't ghosts, it could be a murder, or a thief, or a... something worse."

"Something worse than a murderer?"

"Think about it." Day shifted a little closer and Brigid felt warm where they almost touched. She'd never felt this way about a girl before, she told herself, pushing memories of the redhead aside. Was it because this girl was born a boy? Or was it one of those things where danger brings people closer in unexpected ways? Because now that Day mentioned it, Brigid could think of quite a few things worse than a murderer, or even a murderous ghost.

"If we run, I lose the dare," she said. There had been silence from upstairs after the crash, but now there was windy, whispery sound. Like loud breathing.

"Did you promise something, if you lose?'

"No."

"So you don't really lose anything."

"Only the respect of some kids I don't care about."

"You want to run, then?" Day was edging away from the stairs to the second floor, but not towards the front door. Instead, she was aiming for the basement door.

"No." Brigid stared at the darkness where the heavy wood of the old main stair lurked, hardly lit at all from the flickering candles on the hearthstones. "I have my own self-respect to lose, too."

"You won't care much about self-respect if it turns out to be an axe-murderer."

"Or a zombie," said Brigid, and they grinned at each other. Until the breathing got too loud to ignore. Then they stared at each other with wide eyes.

"So?" said Day.

"We go look?" said Brigid.

"We go look." Then Day leaned over and kissed Brigid on the mouth, softly at first, then more insistent. For just an instant, Brigid almost pulled away. Then she thought, I can kiss whoever I want. Who cares what anyone thinks? And she let her lips part against Day's, felt the heat and softness of the  other girl's mouth, then a sudden tingle of want as Day slipped her tongue into Brigid's mouth.

It could have gone on forever, that kiss, but another crash upstairs jerked them apart. They stared into each other's eyes.

"Let's go," said Day softly, and Brigid nodded. Whatever happened upstairs, whether it was a murderer lurking, or a ghoul, or just a raccoon looking for a place to have its babies, everything would be OK. It would have to be, because Brigid was determined to kiss Day again. And again. And maybe again after that. And she didn't care who knew. She didn't care if Day was a boy or a girl or something else entirely. She wouldn't ever let fear tell her what to do.

03 October 2013

Thanks and One More Original Art Piece for the Pay-What-You-Want Sale

So, thanks to the generous people who bought things from my pay-what-you-want sale (details here)! You guys are fantastic. The immediate oh-crap-ness has been remedied, but I'm going to keep the sale running a while longer because I know a few people were still making up their minds, and I still haven't  received that cheque for that big job that I was waiting for, so I'm not quite out of the woods yet (and then there's that tax bill, which I think I can pay in instalments...)

But I didn't start writing this post to whine, I did it to say thanks. A huge, huge thanks.

Once again: Thank you.

But also, there is one other thing, a bit of art I'd forgotten all about until I was flipping through my sketchbook just now: the original pen&ink and watercolour cover illustration for Reindeer Girl:


It's on acid free medium-weight sketchbook paper, and it measures about 9.5 inches wide by 14 inches high. I get nervous about selling original pieces (I'm both a huge packrat, and a worry-wart about what if I didn't scan it at a high enough resolution in case I need it later), so I don't do it often, but while I'm cleaning older work out of the house, I might as well add it to the pay-what-you-want sale.

So yeah. And apparently my next post will be my 1000th on this blog. That's a whole lot of babbling. I feel like I should probably make it something significant. I just can't think what. I know I need to do another writing update, but is that 1000th-post worthy?

27 September 2013

Pay-What-You-Want Jewellery and Original Art (or Commission Me!)

For all the info you need to take part is this rare and unusual giant sale of pretty much all my work, please see this post.

Copper Printing Plate Jewellery
These pieces are all hand cut with a jeweller's saw out of recycled copper intaglio plates from my own designs. Most of the skulls are about an inch wide or a wee bit more, so you can kind of judge the size from there. If you need more photos or info, just ask. The feathers are cut from a fairly light copper plate, while the others are much heavier (I don't know the gauge but I can try to figure it out if you need to know).

Usually these retail for $30 for feathers and $35 for skulls. The two scarabs are $75 and $95. I almost never mark them down, so you have a chance to get them as cheap as you'd like.

As shown, the copper is starting to age and tarnish a little. It's really easy to brighten it up to a super shine, or you can let it age and take on different hues as it gets older. I can spray on a clear matte finish if you like, but usually I just put a little renaissance wax on.


Here's what they are (click the image to make it bigger):
1. finch feather
2. white tail deer
3.great horned owl
4. pileated woodpecker
5. mountain goat
6. peacock feather
7. scarab beetle
8. fancy spiral scarab
9. red fox
10. bottlenose dolphin
11. snowshoe hare
12. american badger
13. domestic cat
14. north american porcupine
15. striped skunk
16. harbour seal
17. platypus
18. horse
19. black bear

Miniature Book Jewellery
Yes, these really are tiny books with actual turnable pages. The larger books are just over an inch tall, so that should give you an idea of their size. They retail for $20 for a Japanese stab-stitch necklace, $25 for Japanese earrings or European leather-and-marbled-paper hardcover necklace, and $35 for European-style earrings. Again, I almost never put these on sale, so now's your chance. (They make good gifts!)

European-style earrings (click the image to make it bigger):


European-style pendants (click the image to make it bigger):


Japanese-style earrings (click the image to make it bigger):


Japanese-style pendants (click the image to make it bigger):


Original Art
I don't have a whole lot of original art sitting around, that isn't in the form of prints or books, but I do have a couple of things. If I happen across more, I'll add it, but I think this is really it at the moment. I can however, do something new just for you, but see below for that.

This piece was made to go on the cover of my YA novel A Madness of Kentaurs, hence the centaur on it. Shipping on it could be higher than on the prints, because it's cut/torn paper adhered to fairly heavy card and can't be rolled. It measures 12 by 15 inches.


Then there's this little raven skull pen & ink with watercolour. It's 4 by 6 inches on watercolour paper and was going to be the first of a series showing a raven skull from various angles. I'll finish the series eventually. I'm tempted to just keep it, but...


Commission Me (or Otherwise Hire Me)
I'm not offering commissions on a pay-what-you-want basis, but if you ask for something now I'll charge less than I usually would. Plus I hardly ever offer to do commissions (I'm always open to being asked, I just rarely have time what with all my own projects).

Aside from various sorts of illustration, I also do digital re-touch and custom letterpress, as well as editing of both fiction and non-fiction. If you have something in mind, get in touch, and we'll see about agreeing on a cost and a timeframe. For this kind of job, I will require partial payment up front, with the balance due when the job is completed.

Card Sale
If you've managed to read this far, I have one more thing to add to this sale. Again, it's not pay-what-want, and I'm too headachey right now to post pictures, but all of my die-cut and letterpress cards -- normally selling for $6 or 5 for $25 -- will be 5 for $20 if you buy them directly from me. I'm not sure how long I'll keep them on sale. Maybe a week or two. I'll see about posting images of what I currently have in stock later on so anyone who doesn't know my work can see what I have.

Finally, if there was something you were hoping to see but didn't, please leave a comment or send me an email (anagramforink at gmail) -- I might have missed a few things.

Pay-What-You-Want Handbound Blank Books

For info on this sale and how it works, please see this post.

This batch of goodies is all the blank books and journals I have on hand. They range from simple pamphlet-style booklets, to full-on leather-and-marbled-paper hardcovers. Many of them I will never make again, except as a special order, or on a whim.

I also have a small stash of demo pieces and seconds I'll be including here and there, secretly, in people's orders, as long as I can do so without bumping up the shipping cost.

Rainbow Raygun Monochrome


These are little hardcover notebooks I made as a challenge to see if I could make a whole rainbow of books where each one used only one colour. They are pamphlet-bound inside, and the pages also match the covers (so the red book has red pages, the blue book has blue pages, etc). I only made one of each, and will never make more. They were originally priced at $20 and measure about 3.5 by 3.5 inches, and about 1/2 inch thick.

Dragonfly Pamphlets


These pamphlet books were printed from hand-set type and a linocut on handmade paper. The small one is 4x6 inches and has cream paper inside (11 available), the squarish one is 7 by 8 inches and has cream paper (1 available), and the larger one is 6 by 9.5 inches -- three have yellow stitching and yellow paper, two have green stitching and green paper, and 3 have brownish stitching and yellowy-brown paper. Original retail was $6 for the small one and $12 for the larger ones.

Miscellaneous Pamphlets


These little booklets were also printed from linocuts (except the blank one and the pointy finger which is a vintage printer's ornament with gold embossing powder) on handmade paper. The one with the silk ribbon has kraft paper inside and is 3.25 by 4.5 inches (only 1 of these available). The fish at the top is 4.5 by 5.5 inches, and has pale green paper (1 available), the dragonfly is also 4.5 by 5.5 inches and has orange paper (3 available), the fish on the right is 4 x 6 inches and has cream paper (6 available), and the pointy finger book has pale kraft paper and is 4.5 by 4.5 inches (1 available). Original retail was $6.

More Blank Books


The two two books are accordion-fold with red paper, Japanese paper-covered hard covers and a satin ribbon tie. They measure 2.5 by 6.5 inches, and originally sold for $10. The two shown are the only ones left. The red book on the left is a cross-structure notebook with cardstock cover and blue interior paper. The image was printed from a vintage printer's ornament with gold embossing powder. I can't remember the price I had on it.

The two red books on the right are cross-structure with cardstock covers, printed with hand-set metal type. the paper in the TOP SECRET one is cream and green, and in the mine one it's pale green, yellow, and orange. They measure about 4x5 inches and original retail was $20.

The ochre book in the middle is an English craft binding, hand-sewn in sections. The cover laces into the book block (not visible when you look at it, but it makes the book very strong), and it has cream paper inside with deep blue leather and marbled paper on the cover. I make very few of these and generally sell them for way less than I should. Original retail was $60.

Steambooks


My tribute to the steampunk genre. These are cross-structure books with parchment-patterned bond paper pages. The covers are recycled garment leathers and suedes, lined with Japanese paper. The fronts have laminated-on real wood veneer, and each one closes with either a vintage key (deliberate rusted and sprayed with matte sealer) or a clock hand. Retail was originally $65.

Fan Books




Made on a whim during a particularly hot summer, these blank books have cardstock pages and are post-bound with a single post so the can open normally, or fan out in a circular manner. The label on the gold/burgundy one is not adhered, so you can put whatever you want there.

One more upcoming post, or maybe two, and I'll be done! Next: book jewellery and printing plate jewellery.

Pay-What-You-Want Artist's Books and Books With Content

For info on this how and how it works, please see this post.

I debated whether or not to even include artist's books in the sale, but I need to raise funds quickly, so I'm putting just about everything on sale. So now's your chance to get some things cheap I would normally not put on sale (and may never put on sale again).

Aeryn Daring Lives Up to Her Name




hand-bound book with hand-pulled lithograph pages and cover paper
there are three different versions of the cover (taken from three different sections of the same image), but the insides are all the same
made in an edition of 9, signed, numbered, and dated on the colophon page
4 left (numbers 6, 7, 8, and 9)
original retail was $120

Leaf Book


hand-bound book, accordion-fold, printed with 3-colour lino and rubber-stamped text

made in an edition of 9, signed, and numbered, on the colophon page, date inside the front cover
4 left (numbers 3, 6, 8, and 9 -- 9 has a slipped rubber-stamp impression inside the front cover)
original retail was $40

Halifax Through the Stereoscope


6 stereoscopic images in an illustrated folder, hand-pulled lithographs printed from 4 aluminum photoplates colour-separated from colour photo negatives shot by me on a vintage Sputnik medium-format camera
edition of 10, signed, numbered, and dated on the back of the folder
includes a fold-out stereoviewer
4 left (1, 3, 6, and 9 -- 1 is a bit worn from handling and is missing the stereo viewer)
original retail was $75

Waterlily


hand-bound origami book made by attaching origami lilies as sections of the book
letterpress-printed traditional Japanese haiku about water, printed on Japanese two-tone paper from hand-set metal type
edition of 9, signed, numbered, and dated on the colophon page
6 left (numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9)
original retail was $50

Fey Mini-Comic


hand-bound pamphlet-style mini-comic book with letterpress-printed cover and laser-printed pages
edition of 25, numbered and signed on the back (the green one in the photo)
3 left (numbers 7, 19, and 24)
original retail $2

Fey Full-Size Comic

not really an artist's book, but I thought I'd throw it in here anyway
digitally-printed comic with full-colour covers and greyscale interior
available online, but I have 3 copies on hand I'd be happy to sign and doodle on
retails for $3

The Coming of the Fairies


also not an artist's book, but what the hell
this is my first novel, for middle-grade readers, and it's about fairies
I have 4 copies on hand I can sign and doodle on
retails for $9.99, also available on Amazon, and as an e-book ($2.99) from the usual outlets

Vixen by Nic Silver


one more not-artist's book
this one is my urban fantasy for grown ups (warning: contains sex and violence), written under one of my pen names
I have 4 copies on hand I can sign and doodle on
retails for (I think) $12.99, also available on Amazon, and as an e-book from all the usual outlets (currently free or 99 cents for a limited time)

Comic next: blank journals, including some one-of-a-kind

Pay-What-You-Want Relief and Letterpress Prints

For more info on why I'm having this huge sale and how it works, please see this post.

The prints in this post are all relief prints -- mostly linocut -- and/or letterpress prints. All of the type was printed from hand-set vintage wood and metal type and the printing was done by hand on vintage presses. Many of these pieces in this batch were not editioned, and for some of them, the images may be re-used at a later date, however, none will be re-rrinted again in quite the same way, so you will be getting something original (and probably one-of-a-kind)

William Morris Wanted Poster



printed from vintage wood type and a lino block hand-cut by me
15 inches wide by 22 inches high, printed on 100% rag textweight paper made by St Armand
edition of 25, plus 2 shop proofs and 3 artist's proofs, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
3 left (numbers 11 and 13, and one proof) -- the numbered prints are slightly crinkled and bent on the corners, and one has tape damage on the back that does not affect the print)
original retail $35
I actually thought I had sold out on these, but found a few while organizing my prints for this sale

Kitsune Kage -- Fox Shadow



 6-colour linocut reduction print (all 6 colours printed from the same lino block, removing material for each subsequent colour)
15 inches wide by 12 inches high, printed on thin Japanese paper
edition of 12, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
8 left (numbers 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12)
original retail $85

Foxfire





1-colour linocut
12.5 inches wide by 19.4 inches high, printed on Annigoni printmaking paper (rag with subtle wool inclusions)
edition of 7, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
1 left (number 5); I also have two proofs printed on lightweight plain white paper, slightly smaller than the edition
original retail $45

Bran Mor





4-colour multi-plate linocut
15.5 inches wide by 11 inches high, printed on thin Japanese paper
edition of 10 + 2 proofs, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
9 left + one proof (numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10)
original retail $65

Fish Riddle





1-colour linocut with hand-set metal type and ornaments
8.5 inches wide by 12 inches high, printed on cardstock
edition of 3 on white and 3 on green, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
2 left (numbers 2, and 3 on green -- NO white left)
original retail $40

White Lino/White Rhino



1-colour linocut
12 inches wide by 16 inches high, printed 100% rag printmaking paper
edition of 5, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
3 left (numbers 2, 4, and 5)
original retail $35

Dragon




1-colour linocut
15 inches wide by 11 inches high, printed on 100% rag printmaking paper in purple ink
not editioned, but I printed 3 proofs in this colour, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
2 left (will probably be re-printed, but definitely not in this colour)
original retail $45



Some of my best friends are Books Poster




linocut with vintage wood type
19 inches wide by 9 inches high, printed on card stock
not editioned but I printed about a dozen (and will not be re-printing, though I may use the book image again), signed, and dated on the front
7 left
original retail $12

LivEviL version 2




vintage wood type, 2 layers joined with eyelets
11 inches wide by 17 inches high, printed on handmade paper with flower inclusions, with an acetate overlay
edition of 3, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
1 left (number 2)

Scarab




1-colour linocut
8 inches wide by 5 inches high, printed on handmade paper made by me from goldenrod
not editioned, but I printed half a dozen proofs, signed, and dated on the front (I have also used this image to print greeting cards and may use it again, but not on this paper)
4 left
original retail $6

Spring Peepers




1-colour linocut from two separate blocks printed simultaneously
8 inches wide by 5 inches high, printed on handmade paper made by me from recycled rag paper
not editioned, but I printed half a dozen proofs, signed, and dated on the front (I have also used this image to print greeting cards and may use it again, but not on this paper)
4 left on the paper shown, plus on eon the same paper as the Scarab above
original retail $6

Here There Be Dragons Dragonfly




linocut with hand-set vintage wood and metal type
5 inches wide by 8 inches high, printed on handmade paper made by me from recycled rag paper
not editioned, but I printed half a dozen proofs, signed, and dated on the front (I have also used this image to print notebook covers and may use it again, but not on this paper)
10 left
original retail $10

Specimen 1 Nautilus Mini-Print




relief print with faux plate indentation
3 inches wide by 5.5 inches high, printed on 100% rag watercolour paper
edition of 9, signed, numbered, and dated on the front (I have also used this image to print notebook covers and may use it again, but not on this paper or as an editioned print)
4 left (numbers 4, 7, 8, and 9)
original retail $5

Satyr Boy




3-colour linocut, all colours printed simultaneously
15.5 inches wide by 38 inches high (could be trimmed quite a bit smaller), printed on Japanese paper with botanical inclusions
edition of 7, signed, numbered, and dated on the front
6 left (numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 -- but I can only locate numbers 2 and 3) plus a proof on kozuke paper (smaller size than the edition)
original retail $75
I debated even including this print in the sale, since I've never actually had it for sale anywhere, but it's been hanging around the studio for so long I decided I might as well

Two Prints On Sale, But Not Pay-What-You-Want

I also have two newer prints that I'm not including in the pay-what-you-want sale, but which I am discounting for a short time.

They are a three-colour linocut based on my Winter Raven greeting card (but re-cut in lino), printed on 100% rag printmaking paper at 22 inches wide by 10 inches high, in an edition of 8. I have 3 left (4, 5, and 6) plus three proofs that have minor smudges on them. Retail on these was $75, but I'm marking them down to $45 for the sale.


And the second one is the Dodo from my Vanishing Bestiary Series, a one-colour lino printed on 100% rag printmaking paper at 11 inches high by 15 inches wide in an edition of 8. I have 7 left (numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8). Retail on these was $45, but for the sale I'm marking them down to $25.



Next up: artist's books and blank notebooks.









Pay-What-You-Want Intaglio Prints -- Batch 2

For details on this sale, please see this post.

This is the second batch of intaglio prints, all hand-pulled from copper or zinc plates. In this batch, there are few one-off trial proofs as well as the last few left from some editions.

Anthropophagus Octopus


line etching, engraving, and mezzotint, hand-coloured with watercolours
4 inches wide by 7 inches high on 100% rag printmaking paper
edition of 4, signed, numbered and dated on the front
1 left (number 3)
original retail $40

Kraken Squid




line etching, engraving, and mezzotint, hand-coloured with watercolours
4 inches wide by 7 inches high on 100% rag printmaking paper
edition of 4, signed, numbered and dated on the front
1 left (number 3)
original retail $40

Leviathan Anglerfish




line etching, engraving, and mezzotint, hand-coloured with watercolours
4 inches wide by 7 inches high on 100% rag printmaking paper
edition of 4, signed, numbered and dated on the front
1 left (number 3)
original retail $40

Sickle-Head Shark




line etching, engraving, and mezzotint, hand-coloured with watercolours
4 inches wide by 7 inches high on 100% rag printmaking paper
edition of 4, signed, numbered and dated on the front
2 left (numbers 3 and 4)
original retail $40

Steampunk Fishes





multi-plate intaglio print (2 plates each for 6 images), line etching, engraving, aquatint, and mezzotint
4 inches wide by 7 inches high on 100% rag printmaking paper
brown ink on cream paper
not really editioned as I was intending to do more work to them before selling, but there are 3 and I will sign and date any that sell
3 left
this is the last chance to get the whole set of images -- they can easily be cut into individual images for separate framing if you prefer, but I'm not going to divide them up at this point


Kiwa Hirsuta





single-plate line etching and aquatint
9 inches wide by 15 inches high on 100% rag textweight paper made by St Armand
edition of 3, signed, numbered and dated on the front
2 left (numbers 2 and 3)
original retail $35

FS DaVinci Mark III Proofs





line etching
7.5 inches wide by 9 inches high on assorted text weight paper
not editioned, but was one of the plates in the FS deVinci multi-plate print
2 left (I may re-print this at some point, but not on the papers used here)

Stay tuned; relief and letterpress prints are up next.