Master Class in Primitive Printmaking - University of the West of England

Back for its 3rd year, it’s the Primitive Print summer school at UWE,

it'll be great if you can make it,

here are all the details. 

Primitive Print in the City 3

LED BY: STEPHEN FOWLER

DATES: 26-27 JULY 2016

TIMES:9.30AM - 4.30PM

PRICE:£170 FULL PRICE OR £136 CONCESSIONARY RATE

INCLUDES: MATERIALS AND CATERING.

BOOK ONLINE NOW: THE ONLINE STORE

This is the third year for the primitive print summer workshop, this time we will be printing exclusively in the field, we will visit the city’s parks, riverside, streets, market, galleries and museums to collect raw materials and make prints over the two days.


This experiential course, takes Bristol as its starting point to explore a variety of ‘primitive print’ approaches, including; carved rubber stamp, root vegetable printmaking (such as yams & potatoes), clay block printing (utilising reliefs created by clay impressions of objects and surfaces), plaster printing (from hand engraved blocks of plaster) and found objects printing


  

Master Class in Artistamps and Rubber Stamping - University of the West of England

I've been ask to run an Artistamp workshop by the Fine Print Research Department at the University of the West of England,
here are the details,

  Artiststamps

LED BY: STEPHEN FOWLER
DATES: 20-22 JULY 2016
TIMES:9.30AM - 4.30PM
PRICE:£200 FULL PRICE OR £160 CONCESSIONARY RATE
INCLUDES: MATERIALS AND CATERING.
BOOK ONLINE NOW: THE ONLINE STORE
Artiststamps, or artists’ stamps, are closely associated with mail art; they reflect its spirit of marrying art and the everyday. Stamps signify payment, and mail artists test and tease the postal system with their playful appropriation of this official form of evidence.

Create an array of stamps during this workshop, by learning how to carve rubber stamps from erasers and adapt a sewing machine to perforate paper.

The famous CFPR perforating machine will be available to use and Stephen will teach you how to create single and multiple coloured stamp impressions, and mask and position rubber stamps accurately. 

You will be encouraged to send your results through the post to a network national and international mail artists.

PIGEON POST ARTISTAMP by me. 

Rubber Stamping Workshop - June 19th - Bristol

I'm very pleased to announce my first rubber stamp workshop in Bristol since moving here in February 2015. Its going to take place in Vicky Harrison's wonderful shop PAPER VILLAGE.

Its a four hour workshop and costs £38. Visit the shop or email vic.harrison@blueyonder.co.uk to book your places.









More details visit - https://www.facebook.com/events/554307971418200/

Antique Rubber Stamps

For the last few weeks I've been staying temporally in my Sisters house. I haven't had the space, or time to make my own stamps, but I have purchased quite a few stamps off the net. These are antique stamps from the 1960s, and 1970s. I've managed to find some great bargains from the USA and around the UK.

My niece and I have been trying them out, making mail art, get well soon cards and other things.

STAMP shops in Japan

In researching Japanese railroad rubber stamps, I came across this amazing looking shop.
It's featured in a blog called TOOTHPICK NATIONS who have gone about exploring the design & stationery shops in Tokyo.

They say "DB in station ( Ecute Shinagawa 2F, 3-26-27 Takanawa Mintoku) - D-Bros is one my favourite Japanese stationery brands and this is their only retail outlet inside the JR Shinagawa station. The shop sells a range of unqiue and fun stationery as well as their DIY Stamp it collection where customers can customise their own stationery or greeting cards," and it seems all sorts of other things as well.

It looks fantastic!

(Muji seems to do something similar , will research and find out more)

Japanese Railroad Rubber Stamps

Another great book from the Arnolfini bookshop - Japanese Railroad Rubber Stamps 

This is what it says on the back of the book; 

Rubber stamps are installed at railroad stations throughout Japan. As many as 5,000 such stamps are in use today.Each one is unique, bearing the station name along with specially designed patterns that convey the uniqueness of the locality via images of sightseeing spots, specialty products and other aspects of the region. Just looking through these stamps makes one feel like going on a trip. This volume contains approximately 380 imprints of such stamps selected from all over the country and representing various periods, drawing from the compilers collection of around 70,000.

 

A link to an article on Japanese Rubber Stamping: https://denshadejapan.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/the-eki-stamp/ 

Illustrations Of The Strange, Mysterious And Bizarre For Kids Of The Showa Era

Another interesting find in the Arnolfini Bookshop, featuring some great and somewhat disturbing illustrations inside.

"The occult fad of the 1960s-70s in Japanese comics, magazines, films and popular culture produced countless bizarre tales and creatures. Many of these tropes, from leviathans and zombie hordes to monstrous insects and terrifying ghosts, laid the foundations for themes which carry on to this day, both in Japan and the West. This book offers a huge collection of illustrations by Shigeru Komatsuzaki, Gojin Ishihara, Takashi Minamimura and other master illustrators who appeared in a variety of media. Presented in five categories – psychic, unexplored regions, grotesque, cold-blooded and savage, and hysteria and insanity – it is a legacy of rich imagination to be enjoyed anew".

Follow this link and take a look inside the book:

http://www.ideabooks.nl/9784861524561-illustrations-of-the-strange-mysterious-and-bizarre-for-kids-of-the-showa-era

Cryptozoology in American Men's Adventure Magazines

I've just found out about this new publication: 

Cryptozoology Anthology: Strange and Mysterious Creatures in Men's Adventure Magazines (The Men's Adventure Library)

"Cryptozoology - The search for and study of animals whose existence or survival is unsubstantiated or in dispute, such as Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, fish with human hands, the Yeti, the Thunderbird, the Ape-Man Monster of Tennessee, and the 'Thing' at Dutchman's Rig. For three decades, when American men had questions about the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and other weird beasts from the strange world of cryptozoology, they found answers in the hard-hitting pages of men's adventure magazines. Now, collected here for the first time ever, are samples of sensational period reporting and wild, "true" accounts of savage, fist-to-claw duels between man and Sasquatch, man and fishman, man and monster! "

These articles fuelled Blue-Collar american's imagination and interest in all things cryptozoological,and like the magazines readers these accounts and ideas where seen as outsiders in relation to society and science. 

One of the editors is David Coleman author of the brilliant THE BIGFOOT FILMOGRAPHY, and includes contributions from Sir Arthur C. Clarke and John Keel.

Here are some of the great illustrations featured in the publication.