The Agony of the Frog Prince.

The Agony of the Frog Prince, made for an exhibition in Tokyo using Japanese papers and a number of found objects. The work revolves around the concept of a fairy tale in which a frog turns in to a prince, we all are aware of this sort of thing I am sure. But, what if the frog and the princes never met.... what if he was unable to find her golden ball.... what if he was not the dinner guest but dinner ?


The book is a single, open page book. More an assemblage in book form. This form of book allows the reader to explore the three dimensional quality of the individual pieces and the whole.


Frog and fork detail.


Mirror detail.


Suspended golden ball detail.

Woodpeckers and Books.

Not all my time is spent working on fine or contemporary books. I enjoy working with the book as part of a larger work, placing the book in difficult or unusual situations. The juxtaposition of various elements creating scenarios that either make us think, agree, disagree or just smile. The world of books is not always serious.

I am finished with UTOPIA

Just in time for the Flow Gallery exhibition, Utopia is finished.


Detail of the front doubler and end paper.


Detail of the back doubler and end paper.


Detail of the front board, gold tooling and in-lays.


Detail of the back board, in-lays and tooling.

Scratching UTOPIA.

How i love doing this. Everything (well nearly everything)I was taught about using calf I have disregarded. The whole surface has been taken to task with sharp and rough things, the surface is not smooth. How the trads will hate this.
The inlays are near crescent shapes (a reflection of the shape of the island described in the text) These in lays are left as untouched as possible, perhaps in their pure state.




Details of the gold tooling (what is left of it) the inlays and scratch marks.

UTOPIA...work in progress.

Work with Utopia. A full calf binding (hand dyed) with black line and gold tooling. The inlays will come later on. Having read Utopia, I find that much is turned on its head. Gold becomes the lowest of all metals, fit for the meanest of uses, all religions are accepted, slavery for the main part is abolished. I am sure that if Moore was alive today there would be no slavery in his Utopia.


The gold tooling has been distressed by scratching it out with a sharp pointy thing, wire wool and rough sand paper.


Calf is a delicate covering material. Care should always be taken to ensure that the work surface is clean, that nails are cut short and on no account should the calf be scratched.
I have scratched and re-worked the surface, staining the leather with dyes and other stuff.


Next is the inlays, this should bring the whole design together. I anticipate that the calf will be re-worked. A lot.