Bookmarket at The Fruitmarket Gallery

Christmas Wrapping Paper

As promised here is the baubles print I revealed on Festive Friday! I love the red on white and was thinking I should work with this more, until I spent the rest of the weekend trying to get rid of red ink from myself and all screen printing equipment! Sets of two sheets tied with a luxury red ribbon, are ready for sale at the Christmas markets next week. After a very active few weeks, it is finally time to turn the factory that the flat resembles back into a tidy studio.

Important news about Christmas Fairs!

Due to recent weather conditions the Bellevue Christmas Fair this Saturday (4th Dec) has been postponed until NEXT SATURDAY 11th December. All the same stalls will hopefully be there plus homemade edibles, children's crafts and Father Christmas!

Same time and place Bellevue Chapel, Rodney Street - 10 til 12 noon.

However it is not all bad news.....

Goods from The Book Tree Press will still be on sale this weekend at Merriment Makers pop-out Christmas Boutique. Pop in and say hello to Nicola and warm up with some mulled wine while you shop.

Festive Friday

Its gone dark outside the studio window after a beautiful crisp sunny day, a beautiful day which disappointed me however by not bringing the promised snow that always fills me with excitement. A dark winter Friday afternoon seemed the perfect opportunity to create a festive addition to this year's collection.

This decorative design will form a red repeat pattern on the first wrapping paper from The Book Tree Press. Watch out for it at the Christmas markets next week.

Enjoy your Friday,

Lucy

Paper Christmas!

I am delighted to invite you to two very special workshops just in time for Christmas. Enjoy a little time out from this busy period to relax and make a truly special gift. Reward yourself for all your hard work with a glass of hot mulled wine and a little Christmas shopping.

Saturday 11 December 2 - 4pm

Paper Christmas

Craft House Concept are hosting their first Christmas workshop where you can make a unique delicate paper bell decoration and card for £12. Mulled wine and mince pies will kindly be provided by Craft House Concept plus they'll be offering 15% discount in the shop.

 

How do I book?

Please call Steph on 0790 090 1481 with your payment details or email info@livingwithcraft.com to reserve your place. Alternatively please send a cheque with contact details to:

 

Craft House Concept

31E Minto Street

Edinburgh. EH9 2BT

 

Tuesday 14 December 7 - 9pm

Hand bound journal

A cosy bookbinding workshop in the home of The Book Tree Press. Treat yourself or someone special to a traditional hard bound book, perfect as a journal or sketchbook Cost £15.

 

How do I book?

Please email lucy@thebooktreepress.co.uk or call Lucy on 077 969 20533 to reserve your place. Alternatively please send a cheque with contact details to:

 

The Book Tree Press

Flat 3, 264 Leith Walk

Edinburgh. EH6 5EL

 

Places are limited so we do require you to book for both workshops.

Best wishes,

Lucy

Now the weather's getting cold outside.....

There is a flutter of excitement in my tummy already just thinking about decorating the house for Christmas, German Markets, choosing gifts for friends and family, the scent of mulled cider, carols drifting out of Churches and of course roast turkey with all the trimmings. My mouth is watering as I type. I love this time of year and as I prepare to spend my first Christmas in Belfast my mind has been drawn to thinking of all the family traditions I might miss at home, and the new traditions I am able to create! 

I think family and traditions have inspired the Christmas collection which I have been busily creating, packing up and sending off to various shops and customers around the country. As I deliver packages of all shapes and sizes to the post office I am reminded of the excitement that accompanies opening both expected and unexpected parcels at this time of year. Paper trees illustrating the tale of The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson make great table centre that can be brought out year after year. Candelabra and bell hanging decorations look beautiful on a traditional tree but also work well hanging from a mantle piece, in a doorway, or used as napkin rings. Traditions are all very well but don't let them dictate decorations this year, why be creative with your decorations and brighten up unexpected corners of your home.

In particular I delighted to meet Debbie Bryan at last month's Great Northern who has devoted a whole stand to The Book Tree Press in her shop near the Lace Market in Nottingham. Pop in and say hello if you are near by.

Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop

18 St Mary's Gate

The Lace Market

Nottingham NG1 1PF

Her shop looks so beautiful online that I really wanted to deliver the stock in person so that I could have a chance to look around.

Along with showing off papery Christmas gifts in shops I will be taking part in a number of Christmas Fairs where shoppers will be able to spend a festive morning picking up some beautiful hand crafted bargains.

Look out for me at:

Bellevue Chapel Christmas Market

Saturday 4 December 10am -12 noon

Rodney Street

Edinburgh EH7 4EL

Bookmarket at The Fruitmarket Gallery

Thursday 9 December 6.30 - 10 pm

45 Market Street
Edinburgh EH1 1DF
0131 225 2383

Magpie Market at The Lot

Sunday 12 December 12 - 5 pm

4 - 6 Grassmarket

Edinburgh

A Great Northern Success

Last weekend's fair at the lovely Spinningfields in Manchester was a great success. Along with large numbers of the public who came to visit the fair it was great to see a few old friends who popped in the say hello and see what the press has been up to recently. The photographs above are deceptive, seemingly showing the only quiet moment of the four days we were there. 

Along with meeting new friends through the public during the fair I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the other stalls and meeting the stall holders. Favourites included Samantha Bryan's wonderfully illustrative fairies, Catherine Hammerton's exquisite wallpapers and Helaina Sharpley's illustrative wirework. Still exhausted after preparing and participating in the fair I am now working hard to fill orders made and commissions given, and replace stock in time for upcoming Christmas fairs - all nice jobs of course though!

Launch of a new range of products for your home

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft opens tomorrow and it will include the launch of the first products in the new homeware range from The Book Tree Press. The clock may remind some of you of the ornamental clock previously displayed on top of a paper cut shelf.... however in it's new form this functional clock will sit happily on any shelf in your home. Watch this space for a wall clock on the way!

The lampshade was developed for a private commission and turned out so well I have decided to launch it in other colours and printed patterns, including this mellow brown version. Special credit goes to my lovely friend Sarah for her wonderful ideas! 

Both products are available to order through a bespoke service and hopefully will be appearing in a shop near you very soon. 

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

I have been busily working away in the studio for the last few weeks getting ready for The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair which is now only three weeks away!

I am particularly excited about this fair as it brings the recent work from The Book Tree Press back home to its roots in the North West. I love Edinburgh but home will always be Greater Manchester and this fair, although still only three years old is quickly growing. Set in the heart of the new business district of Spinningfields the fair will host some of the best designers-makers in the UK. Please come along to explore and say hello and perhaps pick up some early Christmas presents, don't shout I know its early to talk about Christmas!

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair
at Spinningfields, Manchester
22-24 October 2010
www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk

The Treehouse Bookshop

A little illustration I did this week to invite people to an upcoming exhibition from The Book Tree Press in Manchester. Coming through lots of letter boxes soon....

Books and Wine

Every now and then I get a job to do which makes me wonder if someone has made a mistake, do I really get to do this as a job? Surely someone will realise their horrific mistake any minute and rush to stop me. One of those lovely jobs happened this weekend. I had the delight of going down to a little place called Wigtown in Dumfries & Galloway to take part in the annual book festival.

I was invited down to do a children’s workshop and spent a very enjoyable but rather busy few hours creating revolting recipe books with a group of 8 year olds. I am continually amazed by the creativity and imagination of children. I began by reading out a few gems from Royal Dahl’s Revolting Recipes and taught them each to make a simple book then set them off dreaming up tasty treats, planning the ingredients and illustrating their recipe books. Some highlights included a marshmallow pillow, vegetable bracelets and a slightly frightening pizza that came with a safety warning and directions to ring the fire service during the instructions. My highlight was the number of little dears who came along at the end to thank me and ask me to sign their little books, where I quickly replied ‘You do know I’m not really famous right!’

The weekend at the festival allowed me to peruse the many bookshops, mingle with some authors and catch up with a few friends from last year’s festival. I did have to continually avoid the question ‘So what have you written then…?’ This innocent and perhaps obvious question to ask at a festival about books led on to confused looks when I began to explain about sculptural book works and artists books.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Deirdre Nelson, the textiles artist who is this year’s Spring Fling Artist in Residence at the Festival. She spent the week gathering words to develop into an artwork to be revealed at next year’s Spring Fling event. Other favourites included Phyllida Law, John-Paul Flintoff sewing his own clothes and Eric Robson (attention GQT fans!)

My final input at the festival was a commission by Allison Ouvry Events, as seen at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year, who invited me to create scenes and puppets for her shadow puppet performance of Peter Pan. Although a short deadline this was a lovely job that took me flying back to childhood. Photographs to follow and hopefully more projects like this...

Deirdre's blog http://dstitch.blogspot.com/

Allison's puppets http://www.allisonouvryevents.com

Festival information http://www.wigtownbookfestival.com/

Shiny new Stockists!

After a busy month of printing, folding and binding, I am delighted to launch a new range of products from The Book Tree Press. The range includes screenprinted handbound notebooks, seed packet cards, sculptural books including paper hot air balloons and our popular book trees. The focus of this range has been celebrating the sculptural form of the book and its tactile nature: special attention was paid to printing process, paper selection and the quality of every stage of the design. It includes several artist's books inspired by place, as in the case of Kirkcudbright - an artist's view, and inspired by narrative in The Red Shoes based on the tale by Hans Christian Anderson.

The launch of the new range coincides with a number of new shops kindly stocking products from our little press. In an earlier post I celebrated the launch of Craft House Concept which is up and running filled with a range of beautiful homeware. The Spider and the Fly is another new shop opened by Emily Chandler where the new products are also stocked. Edinburgh Printmakers continue to support the work of the press and products can be found in their gallery shop.

Finally last week I delivered a nice package of cards, notebooks and artist's books to The Marchmont Gallery. Thanks to the team in Marchmont who not only provide all my framing needs but also provide valuable support to both established and emerging local artists in Edinburgh. 

Creative Boom Interview

A quick post to tell you about a recent interview I did for the blog Creative Boom which appeared today. How exciting! Take a look...

http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/edinburgh/2010/08/16/interview-with-illustrator-lucy-roscoe-of-the-book-tree-press/

Craft House Concept

I recently had the pleasure of working with a new shop which opened this month in Edinburgh. Steph Marsden is a local furniture and product designer and maker with a passion for craft and sustainability. Not content with her design business, Magpie Design Industries, she has created a shop which sits at the centre of the community, but which also bridges the void between and home interiors and craft. The result is a space in Newington filled with high quality, carefully designed and crafted furniture and products. Notable designers includes to beautiful woodwork of Sarah Thirlwell, who launched her first table at the shop opening, and the textiles of Lorna Syson who launched a new cushion with is entirely natural. The shop also stocks the playful and fun ceramics of Studio at 37. 

I worked with Steph to develop a bespoke gift box illustrating the shop and some of Steph's favourite products. Each box is screenprinted on recycled paper, in keeping with Steph's sustainability values, and hand folded. This lovely little project was great fun to work on and upholds the philosophy of this new business which promotes craft as a viable solution in design.

Craft House Concept

31E Minto Street

Edinburgh

EH9 2BT

www.livingwithcraft.com

info@livingwithcraft.com

0131 667 7700

Two upcoming events!

The Book Tree Press will be selling at two exciting events this Saturday. Both events allow you to see brand new stock from the press including artist's books, hand bound notebooks, cards and other papery goodies.

Summer Fair

Date: Saturday 7th August

Time: 12pm-3pm 

Venue: Bellevue Chapel, Rodney Street

Cost: Free

The first event is the Summer Fair at Bellevue Chapel. There will be an opportunity to purchase home baking, local crafts, superb photography and support local charities, along with lots, lots more! Alternatively, relax and have a cuppa and a chat in our cafe. There will be face painting and other activities for children.

www.bellevuechapel.org

ECA Graduates at The Fringe Market

Saturday 7 August to Friday 13 August.  

Trading hours are 11am - 8.45pm.

The second event lasts for the whole of next week. I will be selling alongside other graduated illustrators from Edinburgh College of Art. Come along and see what happens following the degree show and see where these designers go next. On show & sale will be original prints, limited edition digital prints, cards, hand-painted ceramics, ceramic jewellery, illustrated coasters, sculptural books. We will be on the Royal Mile in the Market right next to St Giles Cathedral.

The illustrators involved are:

Lindsay Grime

Sophie Martin

Kasia Matyjaszek

Vangeli Moschopoulos

Tamsyn Mystkowski

Jamie Robertson

Lucy Roscoe

Hannah Rye

Miriam Sturdee

Libby Walker

Penguin Design Award 2010

This design for the 2010 Penguin Design Awards was shortlisted in the Puffin category for children's books.

This design for Carroll’s classic novel offers a contemporary paper wonderland, showing Alice as the central character in perhaps the most famous scene from the narrative, the Mad Hatter’s tea party. The shadows created by the cut paper and the hidden grinning cat watching from above show a darker undertone of adventure, appealing to older children and the adults who read with their child, however hand-lettering retains a sense of fun. The back cover connects the fantasy with the real world by depicting Alice falling down the rabbit hole, the place where the whole story began.

At a lovely award ceremony at the Penguin offices in London the winners were announced and congratulations to all the winners. It was great to see how different art schools around the country approached the same two briefs in such unique ways.

See all the shortlisted entries at Penguin Design Awards

Degree Show Opening is a success

The degree show opened at Edinburgh College of Art on Friday and a busy weekend followed. Thanks to Jonny and Fi for posing so well in this image! The most popular pieces of work have been a sculptural   book based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and a bespoke paper cut created especially for the window of this exhibition.

The show now closes on Sunday 20 June, a change to the original advertisement of Tuesday 22 June.

Degree Show 2010

An opportunity to see the research developed as part of my postgraduate study at ECA. The exhibition shows a collection of artist's books and sculptural illustrations, including an interactive artist's book library, celebrating the book as an interactive object, an event to be engaged with.

The Reading Room

Recent invitations posted out promoting my work at the Degree Show 2010 at Edinburgh College of Art. The invitation arrived flat with a bundle of promotional postcards, but opened out into small and cosy room with an opening door. Hopefully they will inspire guests to come and see the show!

Upon a fold

I wanted to share this great website and blog from Australia I found recently.  Thanks to the folks at Upon a Fold for finding and sharing so many amazing paper works through their site. Visit them at http://uponafold.com.au/

Easter Mailer

I designed this Easter Card to send as a promotional mailer at Easter time. It doubles up as a seed packet so you can grow your own peas and then use them in the recipe on the back of the card. My first pea pod has just emerged too...

New website

A brand new shiny website is online now at www.thebooktreepress.co.uk!

Reveal 2010 at Edinburgh Printmakers Gallery

Two of the pieces I submitted to exhibit at Edinburgh Printmakers graduate exhibition this spring. The first is an installation of a paper shelf and carriage clock inspired by the novel 'Little Women' by Louisa May Alcott. The second is a garden book, inspired by the Arabian proverb 'A book is like a garden carried in your pocket'.

Thanks to Angus Bremner for the photograph of the garden book.

Shop in a box...

I wanted to share this project I finished recently. The brief was to design a book made from one A2 sheet of paper. This slightly unusual book starts out as a box, but opens out into an illustration of a vintage or antique shop, with smaller books folding out into different departments and cubby holes of the shop.

A very busy December

Christmas at Solway Books, Kirkcudbright

Solway Books invited me to create a Christmas window for them. The paper cut Christmas tree I made for the occasion illustrated Hans Christian Anderson's classic tale 'The Fir Tree'.

Also for sale in the shop were Christmas cards and decorations, as well as miniature versions of the tree.

Thanks Solway Books for your warm welcome!

Book Launch

Kirkcudbright - an artist's view

An edition of 100 oriental fold, screenprinted books was launched in November with the help of GC Books, the publishing arm of Solway Books.

The book is available from Solways Books, Kirkcudbright, The Book Tree Press and amazon.co.uk priced at £38.50.