January 2023

Our winter Zoom meeting was blighted by serious internet connection issues, although thankfully the fact that our signal kept dropping out didn’t affect the meeting too much!

Our chosen theme was ‘Unusual Shapes or Structures.’

Margaret demonstrated an amazing piece of paper engineering in her stunning folded triangle book:

Mari H sent a spooky book from Australia:

Janet B was inspired by a tutorial on the British Library website and her Christmas copy of the Radio Times to create ‘I’ve always had a soft spot for Columbo’ – a heart shaped tv quiz book:

Janet A was inspired by the Mantras of Mother Theresa:

Jill used handmade paper and a ‘Flat style Austrian Reverse Piano Hinge' binding (the one Margaret calls a ‘Striptease!’) to create her ‘Spring’ book:

and Pat D was inspired by bees and honeycombs:

In a slight change, we’ve decided the next meeting will be at a slightly earlier time  – 10am – and on a Sunday morning, April 16^th with the theme ‘Contrasts’.  

We’re also hoping that our summer meeting will once again be an ‘in person’ event, with food!

October 2022

Apologies for the delay in posting this!  Somehow Autumn and Winter have passed by!

Our Autumn Zoom meeting took place on Saturday October 29^th and the theme – appropriately enough! – was ‘Autumn’.  As always, it was fascinating to see so many different interpretations of the theme!

Janet B used ink decorated real autumn leaves to decorate and embellish her book:

Janet A’s book recalled her visit to ‘New England in the Fall’:

Jo D used her super set of Crayola crayons for a hand-drawn ‘abcde-rie’ of Autumn:

Pat D was inspired by Bep van Gasteren’s embroidered books and a stash of
autumnal fabrics:

Margaret B used words and printed cards to create her variation on a star book:

and Mari H sent us sunshine from Australia in her ‘Sunny Book’:

Next meeting was planned for January 28^th 2023, with the theme ‘Unusual Shapes and/or Structures’.  

August 2022 - The Live Event!

 After two and half years of Zoom meetings, we were finally able to get together IN PERSON in Newcastle upon Tyne for lunch on Thursday 4^th August.  

This much anticipated meeting was organised by Janet Barnett, who had also discovered the perfect venue –Café 16 at St Nicholas’s Cathedral, not far from the Central Station.  Run by the Oswin Project, it aims to support former offenders by giving them training and employment. 

The café is in a beautiful building (with an amazing ceiling!) at the back of the Cathedral. The food was delicious and very reasonably priced. with cakes and quiches from the bakery at HMP Northumberland.

They had reserved a long table for us and were more than happy for us to stay and do our book-swap after we’d eaten our lunch: we were even treated to some live music as the afternoon wore on!

It was wonderful to see people again, talk about bookmaking and other shared crafting interests, and catch up on life post-pandemic. 

It was also fabulous to have a live book swap and a chance to handle and examine everyone’s creations at close quarters.

Margaret had also brought us a lucky-dip bag of swaps from her stash and shared with us the amazing ‘Cacophony’ by Ed Hutchins which is even more impressive in real life than it appeared on Zoom!

Of course, Quarto has always been a place where cake is greatly appreciated and so the sharing of Lemon Drizzle, Carrot, Chocolate, Coffee and Rainbow Cakes cake – provided by the last of the Tea and Coffee fund money – made for a fitting finale before for our journeys home!

Our theme for this swap – most appropriately – was ‘Happy’ or ‘Happiness’ and as always there was a wide interpretation of the topic.

Mari H had sent another lovely book from Australia – we were particularly taken with the simple but really effective binding as well as the appropriate sentiment that happiness might be ‘Lunch with Friends’! 

Marise took inspiration in the teachings of Buddha and the idea that ‘Happiness is a Choice’:

Janet A used a rainbow of wow-folds to create her two-sided book celebrating an ‘Amazing World’:

Jill’s signature stitched book was an album of ‘People and Things’ which bring her happiness:

Pat’s construction – a collapsed exploding box! – focused on her ‘Happy Places’:

Ruth’s book used hand decorated and calligraphed pages to explore quotes about happiness:

Jo had set herself a challenge to remember that ‘Happiness Lies in Small Things’:

Janet B repurposed a lovely fabric cover and some handmade petal paper to explore the poem ‘Buttercups and Daisies’:

Margaret created collage paper from calligraphy newsletters created for Northumbrian Scribes by the much-missed Susan Moor.  She had also raided her postcard collection to create an envelope book with bookmark corners and some secret hiding spaces:

(Apologies for some of the less than brilliant photos taken on the day - I seem to have been in my own light! Thanks to Janet Ashmore for the photos of her book and of us all together.)

We’ve decided that this needs to be an annual event and are hoping to repeat the experience next August in the same venue.  It was also decided to continue on Zoom with the Autumn meeting which will be on Saturday 28^th October at 10.30.  Our theme will be ‘Autumn’ and a Zoom invitation will go out about a week before.

One page of Ruth’s book seemed to really sum up how blessed we are in being part of such an enthusiastic group of creators: we certainly lived up to this mantra on Thursday! 

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Susan Moor

We are all deeply saddened by the recent death of Susan Moor, one of the earliest members of Quarto, a phenomenal book artist, scholar, teacher and friend.

As a renowned calligrapher and a scholar of illuminated manuscripts, Susan’s own work was often breath-taking in its attention to detail. On several occasions, Susan shared her research with us at Quarto and listening to her was fascinating: her passion was infectious and her ability to explain complex ideas in terms a lay-person could understand made her research so accessible.

Susan was the maker of exceptional books – those she put into the swap were always deeply desirable objects, coveted by everyone who saw them. When we all displayed our work together at the start of each meeting, no one ever needed to ask which book was Susan’s: her talents as both calligrapher and artist made her books a visual joy, and her eclectic knowledge and vast range of interests led her to interpret each theme in a completely unique way – only Susan, when given the theme of ‘Butterflies’ could have created an incredible ‘Killing Jar’ book!    Those fortunate enough to draw her name in the swap took home true works of art.

Aside from her talents as an artist, Susan was also a patient and skilful teacher. For many of us who joined Quarto in later years, she was the gatekeeper to both calligraphy and book making, opening up the possibilities for us of what a ‘book’ could be.  She was generous to a fault with ideas and inspiration and was always happy to give advice and make suggestions about paper and ink choices, techniques and formats.  It was always fascinating to see the structures Susan had taught us re-surfacing in later book swaps.

Above all, Susan was a much-loved friend, someone with a strong sense of humour and the absurd, who brightened up a room just by being in it.  We will always miss her.

(The photos on this page are of just some of Susan's Quarto creations.  If anyone has any other photos of her books they'd like to share, please do email them to me and I'll add them to this post!)

UPDATED: Many thanks to Janet Ashmore, who has shared her photos of the book she received from Susan in 2007.  The pen lid alongside gives a really good indication of scale.

April 2022 - Bumper Double Post Part 2

 Our April meeting took place on Saturday 29^th, again on Zoom.  It was particularly lovely surprise to have Karenna join us for this – we’ve really missed her! – and to catch up with everybody’s news - book-related and otherwise! 

Our theme for this meeting was ‘Hope’ which seemed particularly appropriate, given the events that have happened since our January meeting, and once again it was fascinating to see how the theme had inspired different makers in very different ways 

Pat Duncan’s book followed a plant from hopeful seed planting to full bloom and included a surprise pop-up and a little packet of seeds to ‘grow your own’ version!

Margaret Beech took a favourite quotation ‘Hope is an obligation’ and used it to create a folded out structure, decorated with paper she designed using the ‘My Word Art’ app.  The repetition of the words makes the whole piece feel like a real affirmation of hope.

Janet Ashmore used a fan structure and the very dry humour of Flanders and Swann to ‘celebrate’ the British weather  - and one not-so-dry element in particular -  in ‘The Joys of our Year’.  (Janet even sang it to us herself!   If you missed it, clicking this link will take you to the original version Flanders and Swann - A song of the weather - YouTube )

Mari Harrison used lettering and collage in a side-bound book to think about different types of hope and when it might be needed most.

Ruth Rowland took inspiration from the words of her favourite poem ‘Ithaca’  by Constantine Cavafy. She used her own hand marbled paper, made during one of our ‘messy days’ and handmade paper to create a side bound, hand lettered book. 

Jo Duncan was inspired by a construction by Diane Bond, Mexican ‘nichos’ and personal shrines and included found objects and words by Emily Dickinson and Mother Julian of Norwich.

Janet Barnett found hope in the philosophy of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne and used a 3D concertina box construction with origami inspired by Japanese thread books to create scenes from E.H. Shepard’s famous illustrations and some of Pooh’s wisest words.

We are delighted that after two and half years of 'remoteness' we are finally planning a face to face meet up in early August and members can either swap books in person on the day, or can opt to join in with the postal swap instead. 

Although we decided that we think what we do is really just 'nonsense with paper', it is a huge source of happiness to all of us and so our theme will be ‘Happy, Happiness or Things that make you Happy.' Here's to raising a cuppa to that in person!

January and April 2022 - Bumper Double Post Part 1

Because of work and home commitments, I've been very slow to add photos and so this is a two part post, to show off our January and April book swaps.

Our January meeting on Zoom was somewhat disrupted by the arrival of Storm Eunice: Janet A was unable to join us due to a power cut; Margaret looked up from her computer to find that someone else’s corrugated plastic roof had flown into the middle of the garden, and Jo ended up chasing the plastic cover of the family greenhouse down the street in the middle of the meeting.  It certainly made for an interesting couple of hours!

Our swap theme was Travel.  As always, it was lovely to see how many different ways this theme had been interpreted.

Janet Ashmore’s  book travelled the 80 mile length of Hadrian’s Wall, from Wallsend to the Solway Firth, providing a beautiful pictorial journey of this World Heritage Site – a trip which would make a desirable addition to any bucket list!

Jo Duncan’s suitcase concertina book was filled with aspirational places to visit for any armchair traveller who is longing for their great escape.

Margaret Beech’s book had a wrap round construction with an integral cover and was inspired by this  R.L. Stevenson quote and by map paper from a Quarto 2013 swap book by Mari Topping. 

Janet Barnett’s book was tiered concertina structure with sewn sections in which she reminisced about special holidays, choosing one from each decade of her life so far, illustrated with  photos.

Ruth Rowland’s book used maps, collage and a concertina structure with an interesting cover fold to explore the idea of a road trip through the scenic North of England.

Mari Harrison focused on the lack of travel opportunities afforded by the Covid 19 pandemic, wistfully remembering those days when we all took travelling for granted.

Pat Duncan was inspired by Hilda Boswell’s illustrations for ‘The Jumblies’.  Her book was a concertina with pop-up panels and calligraphy, bound ‘in pinky paper, all folded neat’ (and she even ‘fastened it down with a pin’!)

October 2021

 Our October meeting took place on Saturday October 23rd with seven members 'zooming' in for our quarterly creative catch-up and book swap on the theme of 'Quirky'.  Once we'd established how 'Quirky' was actually spelled... and that it was quite a different thing from 'twerking'!! - we showed off our exchange books.  Below is a selection of some of them.

Margaret Beech used an ingenious fold-flat tower structure for her 'King of the Castle' book:

Margaret also showed us examples of her latest projects - a shutter card and Revolving Cubes structure.

Pat Duncan created a cast of topsy-turvy characters with hundreds of different possible combinations:

Janet Barnett was inspired by the tiny creations of artist Dominic Wilcox  (you can see his work in motion here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9A9X15ysdZ8&list=PLCwsDkgbo0qwKF8NFUR9oEeA82ckvm1Rt&index=1)

Mari Harrison focused on the fabulous letter Q - and even included us in her lexicon:

and Ruth Rowland's book explored a range of quirky folds using a range of A4 papers which combined to create an original story:

Janet Ashmore created a 'Quirky Rainbow' cascade - and managed to get a good photograph of it despite its incredible length! 

As always, seeing how people interpret the theme in so many diverse ways is fascinating!

Next meeting will be via Zoom on Saturday 29th January 2022 when the book exchange topic will be TRAVEL.

Looking forward to seeing where our papercraft travelling might take us...!