Regardez les Buvards!

I can't quite believe that its taken me so long to address the subject of the Buvard. The what?.... Let me explique - Buvard roughly translates from the French as blotter. From what I can gather buvards were publicity items which were made available in the bars and cafes of France. They originate from the days when everyone used a fountain pen and therefore would need something with which to blot. They sit nicely in scale between the ginormous posters and tiny matchbox designs of which I am so fond. The work of some of what are regarded as some of the great French poster artists of the 1950s, 60s and 70s can sometimes be found on them. I'm talking about artists like Raymond Savignac, Herve Morvan, Leo Kouper, Lefor Openo and although there is quite a large amount of dross, there's also some real gems. A lot were screen printed which makes them even more like little works of art. Here's some I particularly like.

Going to the Zoo

Firstly, apologies for lack of blog action lately, no excuses really - various family stuff going on then my computer died so that had to be replaced . But every cloud has a silver lining ...Have been playing with a few bits and pieces including the letterpress app that I mentioned several posts ago. I will try and post a few results of my experiments with that at some point. Anyway enough ramblings... I am sure you would much rather feast your eyes upon this. Its a guide to London Zoo from days gone by and I thought the illustrations were great.

The Cat Thief

I can't quite remember if I found this book at a jumble sale, or car boot. Its called "The Cat Thief" and its illustrated by William Stobbs. (Written by Joan Cass.) To be honest, I'd never heard of William Stobbs, but if you do a quick bit of research you'll discover that in the 1950s, 60s and 70s he was a prolific and well respected illustrator who even won the prestigious Kate Greenaway medal back in 1959 for another title, "Kashtanka and a Bundle of Ballads". He also taught at Maidstone and the London College of Printing. Its seems to be harder and harder these days to find quality items at boot sales and the like, but I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for more William Stobbs. I'd particularly like to find "The Little White Hen" or  "The Adventures of The Wuffle".

Bubble Houses

One of my favourite TV programmes when I was a child was Barbapapa. And one of the best things about Barbapapa was the self-build Barbapapa house that they built after the squat they were living in got demolished. Anyone else remember that? I would have loved one of those houses then and still would, truth be told, but it wouldn't go down well with the planners,or so I'm led to believe.

Whist looking on t'internet the other day for cheapo accommodation in France I stumbled across this place - not particularly cheapo, mind you. Its called museumotel and its near Strasbourg.

Surely the Barbas must have had a hand in the design of this place! I'd love to go and stay here. Since finding this one, I've researched a few other bubble houses , the most famous is probably Palais Bulles. Think Barbapapa meets James Bond!

What a Racket!

Well , Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a good time over the festive period. So its 2012, the year that London hosts the Olympics which is just about a good enough excuse in my book to post these rather attractive sporty stamps from yesteryear ( 1977, to be precise). Can you spot the odd one out?.... well I'm going to tell you - its squash which isn't in fact an Olympic sport, for reasons I can never really fathom. I wouldn't describe myself as someone who is all that sporty but at this time of the year the common theme is health and fitness. I do play a bit of racketball regularly which is a kind of squash lite and try and do a bit of running and swimming. I'm probably the odd one out round here as I haven't completed a marathon or done a mega swim. Anyway, I liked these stamps at the time and still do. I think they've stood the test of time pretty well - they look almost contemporary. Maybe one day they will put squash in the Olympics - in the meantime we can all look forward to next summer and settling down to watch the Greco-Roman wrestling!

Veg Out!

Here's a sneak preview of the endpapers of the children's book I've been working on. Its called "Grandpa's Garden" and it will be out in the spring. I will of course remind everyone to rush out to the bookshop when it comes out! In the meantime, get down to your allotments and dig for victory!

Pictures by Chinese Children

If I asked children at primary school to draw me a picture I think I’d probably get a few pirate ships, aliens or fluffy kittens. If you’d asked the same thing in 1970s China you might have got rather different results. How about a nice drawing of “Peasant Uncles delivering grain to the State"

or perhaps this picture entitled “Lets all criticize Lin Piao and Confucius.”

Maybe I should ask the kids to do me picture of the Euro Zone debt crisis... could be interesting! I picked up this book from a charity shop and it’s a catalogue from a 1970s exhibition of Chinese childrens art. The images are a remarkable documentation of life in China at that time. The political propaganda is very evident throughout, and it’s quite amusing to look at it now as it is so extreme it comes across as, well, a little bit bonkers. The bottom picture has the title "We sing "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is Fine." Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." There is of course a more serious aspect to all that brainwashing, but I don’t want to get too heavy. Some of the pictures actually makes me question whether they were by children at all, because although they are admittedly done in a naïve style ,they have a sophistication that seems far more adult. I suppose in a country as large as China you would get your fair share of prodigies. Maybe the whole thing is part of the propaganda. I’m not sure it really ultimately matters to me though, as I like them for what they are regardless of the age of the person who did them.

All the Fun of the Fair

Since finishing my latest childrens' book (about 2 weeks ago), I've taken to frantic cushion-making.
I got this fabric made up a little while ago using some of my fairground-inspired illustrations.
I've finally got round to making it up into cushions, which I am hoping to sell in my shops.
The whole cushion making process is perfect for when you feel like doing a fairly brainless manual task. (not sure I could do it all the time though.) I think they would go well in childrens' bedrooms, so if the little ones in your life are lacking somewhere comfy to park their posteriors you may want to invest! My Folksy shop is here and the Etsy one here.

Making an Impression

Its surprising how many common expressions are derived from printing, and specifically letterpress terminology. For example " to quoin a phrase" "making an impression" "mind your Ps and Qs" (lower case ps and qs being quite similar and easy to get mixed up when setting the type which is done upside down.) Indeed, the terms "upper case" and lower case" are more examples, and refer to the locations of the trays in which the type was kept. "Getting the wrong end if the stick" is apparently another one as are "stereotype" and "out of sorts". I could probably go on... I wonder if its possible to get them all into one sentence ? Anyway, last weekend I attended a wedding up in Scotland, the invite of which was done by letterpress ( can you see a theme emerging?) It was a great weekend away despite the dampness of the weather. The following day we visited Robert Smail's print works which is in Innerleithen near Peebles. It is a printing workshop and office which has been bought by the National Trust of Scotland to preserve it. It remains pretty much how it would have been in Victorian times, and as Robert Smail never threw anything away it has a fantastic archive of letterpress stuff. You can tour the works and have a look around, and even better do some actual printing. You get to make a bookmark. I'd recommend this place if you are in any way interested in printing. The tour is very interesting and informative and is free if you are in the National Trust - always a bonus.

By co-incidence, last week I discovered an app for the ipad or mac computer which is a kind of virtual letterpress thingy. Frustratingly though I can't use it as stone-age computers like ours are not supported. You can get it here (if you have the right equipment) By all accounts its quite good. But I will have to wait until our computer properly breaks before we have an excuse to get a new one. In the meantime I'll just have to make do with the old John Bull printing set.

Lucha Libre

When I saw this postcard of lucha libre mexican wrestlers it reminded me of Peter Blake's work. So I bought it and sent it to him. Hope he liked it! He seems to have a bit of a thing about wrestlers and the comic-book, super-hero-ish aesthetic was something I thought he would appreciate. I've liked Peter Blake's work for a long time and for several reasons.Not least because he's one of the few artists who has managed to cross the illustration/fine art divide successfully . He definitely has a foot in both camps. While I was at it I also got this wooden toy which is really a piece of folk art,in my opinion, but have kept that for myself.

The Handy Shop

I couldn't decide whether to post this or not as I'm sure you've all got better things to do than read about what I had for tea, anyway on balance I decided to go for it as if anyone is ever in the vicinity of Helston, there is the slim chance they may remember and check out the delights of a little known tea emporium called the Handy Shop. Its at a village called Sithney. I must stress you must not go there if you are on a diet due to the copious amounts of clotted cream, lets just say they don't skimp. I hadn't been there for about 20 years and little had changed. I'm sure the lady who runs it is the very same one. She is Cornwall's answer to Mrs Doyle from Father Ted. The appeal of this tea room for me is that in many ways it is the antithesis of places like Costa and Starbucks. I don't think overpriced poncey latte was an option on the menu. (probably best to stick to the tea). The cream tea is the thing to go for. Fresh,warm scones, piles of cream and jam...yum. And that's not all - this place also has a small selection of second hand books and a very small model village and railway complete with gnome display. So a winner on several scores!

As I was going to St.Ives....

...I thought I would pop into the Tate. There's an interesting installation by Martin Creed there at the moment. He has filled a large area with white balloons ( about 10feet deep).When you go in to the area you are surrounded in all directions by them. Before you go in they ask if you suffer from claustrophobia or similar. Yeah, Yeah, health and safety gone mad I thought, and plunged in. I have to say, it really was quite an experience! You get disorientated very quickly as everything looks the same. Its quite hard to find your way out and you have to fumble around until you reach a wall to get any idea of orientation. On top of that all the static makes your hair stand on end and you emerge looking like a crazed loony! Oh and the beach there's not bad once you've done the balloons.