Here’s a round-up of the christmas arts markets I will be selling at in Edinburgh this year! I’ll be in good company on various occasions, with Mina Braun, Patrizio Belcampo, Eleni Kalorkoti, Louise Smurthwaite, Rosie Walters and more. This is the perfect opportunity for you to get something special, beautiful, hand-made, individual and local for your midwinter-festival-of-choice!

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 hope you’re all having a good August! I began the month ankle-deep in the mud at the Traquair Fair, leading screenprinting workshops with Edinburgh Printmakers. It was great fun! I really enjoyed teaching paper-stencil screen-printing. Most of my protégées were children and it was wonderful to see their astonishment at the technique and delight with their finished work.

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!

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!