Online Shops:
I have opened a shop on that great mall of online arts&crafts, etsy: HileyRemarkable
I am still in the process of setting things up there, but I will continue to add new items to the shop in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out. If you’re already an etsy member we can have fun admiring each others’ shops and adding each other to our “circles” and generally communing online, it will be fabulous!

My other online shop at bigcartel is still running, of course, and there is now a more obvious link to it on my website, with a whole new page (and trapeze move for the girl on the front page!) created to accommodate it! See up there on the right, there is a new link called “shop”. But etsy is a big and well known online community, so I am giving it a go too.

Exhibitions:
I have no shows planned for the near future, as I am working on a new technique in lithography called “lo-shu”, a.k.a. gum wash. It’s tricksy but the results will look fantastic – if I can get them to work!

But I am also working on a heap of new books and zines, as I will be taking part in the next Artist’s BookMarket at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, on April 14th. Judging by last year’s line-up, it is bound to be a fantastic event with lots of wonderful fine press, finely crafted artifacts and I am proud to be part of it. Expect more news on the book-front soon!

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BOOKMARKET at the Fruitmarket Gallery, on Thursday, December 8th, 18:30 – 22:00 (Facebook page here)
EDIT: this was postponed due to adverse weather conditions! It is now taking place on Monday, Dec 12th, 18:30 – 22:00

Out of the Blue on Saturday, December 10th, 11:00 – 17:00

St.Columba’s by the Castle, Saturday, December 17th, from 12:00. (Event listing here)

I’ll be selling my finished ‘Aerial Trilogy’ (In The Silks, On The Trapeze and Rope, which you can see in the books section), new lithographs, screenprints and lots and lots of seasonal cards! Do stop by and say hello, I look forward to seeing you.

Also a reminder that First Press, the inaugural exhibition of SpeKtrum Print Collective, is still on at the Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh, until December 15th. It is a gorgeous show I am very proud to be part of, so don’t miss it!

Merry Midwinter!

I am pleased to announce that the inaugural exhibition of speKtrum print collective is this coming Saturday, November 26th MMXI at the Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh (formerly doggerfisher gallery). We are a group of artists committed to promoting print as an art form, and this exhibition will be in aid of Waverley Care, a Scottish charity who do great work helping people who are living with and/or otherwise affected by HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. As you can see from the e-flyer below, there will be some wonderful art to see and buy (!). The show continues until December 15th, and we look forward to welcoming you!

I’m also going to have some prints and books in this year’s P.U.G.S. (pop-up gallery shop) in Glasgow. There’s an opening this Thursday, November 24th!

This year I also took part in the 20:20 Print Exchange, organised by Hot Bed Press in Salford. Many artists in Print Studios around the UK and Ireland took part, and you can see all of our work on Hot Bed Press’s Flickr page. Can you spot mine? (It’s a wee red monkey!)

As we get closer to Christmas, things are getting busy. I’ve moved into a new studio with Mina Braun which is fantastic! Together we’ll be at quite a few Christmas markets in Edinburgh this December. I’ll post more about that soon, so keep checking back for details!
Alternately, you can also join my mailing list (just send me an e’mail), follow me on twitter and – last but not least! – go to my wonderful online shop, where there are now some beautiful seasonal cards for sale!

A few days ago was the opening of INSPIRED, a group show of EP members at the Coburg House Art Studios in Leith. The gallery space there is really lovely and I think we put a good show together. My work is in the most fantastic old wooden display case, inherited from Edinburgh Castle I believe. I am showing artist’s books this time – the “Aerial Trilogy”, made up of In The Silks, On The Trapeze and the third book in this small series, Rope. There is also another new book, based on labyrinths and the monsters within. Unfortunately I haven’t got photographs of these new books up yet, but of course you can see them in the exhibition!

Another opportunity to see and buy new work – and have a chat! – will be on Sunday, August 28th at Edinburgh Printmakers, at their first ever Summer Fayre! I shall be sharing a table again with the lovely Mina Braun and we’re looking forward to seeing you! More information can be found on EP’s facebook page, here.

Further afield, my lutenist in Lederhosen has made it into BITE, the new format of Originals printmaking exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. I’m very pleased to be included in what promises to be a great show.

So here’s a quick round-up of where you can catch my work until the beginning of September:

FIXED DIMENSIONS, Amber Arts Gallery, Edinburgh, until September 3rd

INSPIRED, Coburg House Art Studios, Edinburgh, until September 1st

BITE, Mall Galleries, London, until September 3rd

SUMMER FAYRE, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, on August 28th.

See you there!

Last weekend I was lucky to share a stall with Mina Braun and Karoline Rerrie at the DesignMarket in the Fruitmarket Gallery. DesignMarket was the latest of the Fruitmarket’s series of fairs and I was glad to be part of it! I was exhibiting my latest books based on my aerial acrobatics classes, In The Silks and On The Trapeze. I had a great deal of fun with the trapeze book, and designed a new way of binding especially to accomodate the idea of the entire booklet actually being “on a trapeze”! You can see both books in the Books section of this website, and of course also buy them in my online shop!

New to the Prints section of the website are also my first published lithographs. They were made specially for an exhibition at Amber Arts in Edinburgh. The title of the show is Fixed Dimensions, and all invited artists were asked to make new work measuring 6 x 8 inches. The exhibition runs until September 3rd, so do go and see it if you can. I have completely fallen in love with stone lithography, perhaps I shall write another post solely about that.

I am busy this summer with upcoming fairs and shows! The closest in time is the wonderful Traquair Fair at Traquair House in the Scottish Borders. I was part of the Edinburgh Printmakers team at last year’s fair and will repeat that honour again this year, giving printmaking demonstrations and running workshops. It’s going to be fun, let’s hope the weather complies.

Later in August I shall be in a group exhibition of Edinburgh Printmakers artists at the Coburg House Studios in Leith. It’s a lovely exhibition space and I shall be showing artist’s books in a large old glass case – I am very excited! Coburg House are also having an Open Studios Weekend August 5th – 7th.

At the end of August Edinburgh Printmakers is also holding a Multiples Market, and I shall be sharing a stall with Mina Braun again. I shall update about all that closer to the time, so keep checking back here, or else join my mailing list. It’s going to be a busy summer!

Hints for Etiquette was the first artist’s book that I made. It was done back in 2009 for a Zine exhibition at the Owl and Lion Gallery, Edinburgh. I screenprinted the cover and had the rest printed in a copy-shop. It was very cost-effective, and the book proved to be very popular, all 25 copies selling out within the course of the exhibition, largely, I believe, due to the efforts of Mark Richards of the Lewis Carroll Society and of course the marketing and promotion by the Owl and Lion Gallery.

Since that original book was printed, I’ve learned a deal more about Artist’s Books, printing processes, and not least my InDesign programme! And I’ve become more focussed about the type of book I want to make: completely hand-made, well-composed and hand-printed books, where I have full control over each part of the process. I’m also willing to invest a bit more time, money and work in order to make some really good work, rather than “make do”. So despite the 2nd Edition of Hints for Etiquette selling out as well within a year, I decided I could make the book better. I wasn’t proud of the graphic design and layout, as I had done it all in Photoshop without being very adept at that. I also wanted better registration, and bleed prints. It occurred to me I could achieve this myself with photolithography.

Content and technique of each book need to match, and while the content – Lewis Carroll’s text and my pictures – have not changed, the new edition looks and feels a lot better, in my opinion. The drawings are not pixellated, the pages register a lot better, and although I had trouble printing the type (this is, after all, best done with a proper letterpress), the book is much closer to my original idea of the book than the previous editions. A great deal of thanks is also due to Alastair Clark at Edinburgh Printmakers, whose help and advice on lithography has been invaluable.

I must say, however, that of course printing, drying, cutting, folding and binding took up a great deal of time, and so I do not think I shall be re-visiting this book soon – I want to make lots of new ones! Therefore the 3rd Edition has 33 copies, and it’s best to snap yours up as soon as possible. They are currently available at the Edinburgh Printmakers Shop, and through me.

Which brings me to the next piece of exciting news – I have an online shop! I have been screenprinting my own greetings cards for some years now, which are not featured on the website, so greetings cards and smaller Artist’s Books are available online – go and have a look! If you like what you see, feel free to forward the link to friends. For the purchase of larger prints, please still contact me by e’mail.

I am now also on twitter, @hileycathy. It’s worth following me (or checking in there every now and then if you’re understandably not on Twitter yourself) because I tend to post photos of what I’m working on at the moment. So there are plenty messy workshop pictures. If you’re interested in seeing images of printing procresses, have a look!

Today’s work saw the first layers of a new lithograph being printed, based on Angela Carter’s novel Nights at the Circus. More colours to follow soon!

Last weekend I was in Leeds at the Artist’s Book Fair, with Paul L Kershaw. I saw many good things, and finally bought Mermaids by Catriona Stamp (you can see it if you scroll down the page on that link). I’ve been ogling for years at other Artist’s Book fairs, and decided to pounce. It’s a lovely combination of good technique and rewarding content, something I often find tricky with Artist’s Books.

Speaking of which, a heap of printed and cut pages from the new and improved Hints for Etiquette are on my desk, waiting to be bound…

There are photographs of my latest prints in the print section! I made these prints in 2010, and exhibited them for the first time in my Featured Artist slot at the Edinburgh Printmakers gallery shop last November. The Piper continued to be exhibited in the Winter Exhibition at EP, and currently the Lute is also showing at the Visual Arts Scotland Annual Open Exhibition 2011 at the RSA Buildings on the Mound, Edinburgh. That is running from Saturday, February 5th until Thursday March 3rd, and there are lots of brilliant artists showing so do have a peek, if you can!

Ever since I first started making the cut-out plates of people in frames, I’d had the thought of making them life-size. Now it has almost happened – these figures are almost as big as me. The challenge was actually handling the plates and paper, rather than making designs that worked on a larger scale. Lugging them to Glasgow and back on the train became quite routine during editioning, and I must have looked a sight balancing the huge portfolio on my head, which was by far the most comfortable way to carry it!
Below are some photos of the printing process:

All the prints start with sketches and preliminary drawings. With previous smaller plates I was able to work directly onto the plate after making a few rough sketches, but because these plates were so large, the preliminary drawings had to be quite detailed. When I was satisfied with the drawing and sure everything was in the right place, I traced the image onto tracing paper and transferred it to the zinc plate, using carbon paper. Usually I draw from my head, and use my own body for quick reference when necessary. The viol bow hand was too tricky though, so I had to find some photos of Jordi Savall on the internet to help.

Some lines were strong and sure enough to be drypointed immediately (scratching directly into the plate to create the line, without the help of acid), but some details required minute attention, as well as the help of rulers and half-forgotten geometry.
After drypointing all the lines, I took a proof (test print) to make sure they looked all right in reverse. Then I cut the shapes using tin snips. For the next lot I think I shall finally look into hacksaws, or possibly some form of laser cutting. It’s nice to use very basic tools and do everything by hand, but after a while the novelty wears off…

For aquatints, all the areas that are to remain white are stopped out with varnish. Then a thin layer of resin dust is applied, melted onto the plate so it will stick. These tiny tiny specks of dust create miniscule acid-resistant layers, and the acid bites in between these specks of dust. So the shades of grey and black are, if you look very closely at an aquatint plate under a microscope, made of tiny tiny dots, rather like 18th Century pixels. As with line-etching, the longer the plate stays in the acid, the darker the tone. To get different shades of grey, I’d take the plate out again and stop out some more, and then put it back. (You can see stages of the aquatint process in my little book Why I Love Printmaking.)

When all the layers of aquatint are done, and last touchings-up with drypoint have been done, it’s time to ink up! The plate gets covered in ink with a dobber, and then wiped off so that ink only remains in the drypointed lines or tonal areas made by the aquatint. When it all looks ready to go, the plate goes on the press bed, the paper goes on the plate, the blankets go over all that and get squeezed through between the cylinders of the press. Out comes a nice print! (One hopes – you can judge the results by coming to see the Lute at the VAS Annual Open Exhibition 2011!)

Come to the Bookmarket at the Fruitmarket Gallery this Thursday eve! I shall be at the Edinburgh Printmakers table with Sue Corke of scratch’n'sniff Moon fame and book artist Anna Davis. See you there!

Meanwhile, there is a new book is the book section, Why I Love Printmaking. It’s a very small thing, quickly drawn up while I was waiting for grounds to dry and aquatints to cool while working on the new plates at Glasgow Print Studio – ironically, despite being all about traditional etching techniques, resin dust, solvents and bunsen burners, it was screenprinted (with safe water-based inks) at Edinburgh Printmakers, printed on newsprint and bound with my sewing machine. Very nice to churn out fifty books in a day, rather than one etching every ninety minutes. There are currently lots available and it’s cheap at four pounds, so get in touch if you want one (see “contact” section)! I’m currently busy making more books, among them a new and improved edition of Hints for Etiquette, so keep an eye out for more updates!

I shall also be at the Edinburgh Printmakers table at the Fruitmarket Gallery‘s Artist’s Book Fair on December 9th, where you’ll be able to have a chat, see this book and many many others.

In other news, my sister has set up her own academic translating business! She’s very accomplished and experienced at English/German translation (both ways), and her website is now live – and there are small drawings on it, by yours truly! So do have a look.