You've got mail

We've just sent the above book off to New York as part of the Fiction Project run by the Brooklyn Art Library. Bex and I had been writing a book together for the past few months, a story told through letters that we passed back and forth to each other. When the chance to be part of this project came up we thought this would fit it perfectly. Using the pages as pockets/envelopes we hand wrote each letter, distinguishing the different characters through a variety of designed papers. There will eventually be an online version of the story to read so watch this space!

Altered Book Workshop

This weekend we took an altered book workshop at Hot Bed Press. We took old books and up-cycled them into pieces of art relating to the books theme or title. We had a great day and there were some really creative and impressive outcomes.

To see the rest of the pictures and for more information on the books click here.

Manchester Artist Book Fair

A couple of weeks ago Firecatcher had a table at the Artist Book Fair in Manchester, it was a great day, above are some pics of the event and some of the prints and books we've made. All available soon on our etsy shop.

Bookbinding Workshop at Hot Bed Press

This weekend saw Bex and myself head off to Hot Bed Press in Salford to teach a contemporary bookbinding workshop. We had a great time, met some lovely new people who came up with some really impressive books using the techniques we'd taught (see below!).

Busy binding!

Caroline with her concertina Beach Hut book created to house sketches and photographs of some beach huts discovered on a recent trip to Westward Ho. The finished book will have a screen printed cover depicting the front of a beach hut.


Sarah's book has windows so her etchings can be viewed from both sides in this beautiful concertina book. This is a great idea as a showcase for prints or any art works. The book has hardback covers with a pocket on the inside of the back page to keep the original etching plate.

Julie's book employed most of the techniques learnt over the weekend including the section sewn book, japanese stab bind and the envelope book.

Manchester Artist Book Fair

This years book fair took place on the Saturday 8th November and saw a great turn out of artists and book lovers alike. This year we thought we'd better have a table and try and sell some books as opposed to previous years where we've gone round drooling over the beautiful books and buying lots!
Needless to say there were some truly gorgeous and inspiring things that we couldn't resist but at least we managed to recoup some money from the stall! We shared a table with Bec Garland (thank you Bec!) and had a really great day meeting lots of lovely arty book people.