18th June 2026
The presentation by Christine - Paint, paper and thread was informative being illustrated by a large selection of her work which she passed around to view during the talk.
Initially Christine studied fashion and textiles, then in 2000 she took a City and Guilds course where her tutor encouraged exhibition work and workshops. For these she created books by colouring paper, cutting up magazines and painting them to form covers and then using ideas and/or pictures from magazines and travel brochures to create the books with themes for example gardening, holidays etc.
Christine likes stitching onto paper including ribbons, buttons etc and then forms these into books. She also paints on paper using acrylics or uses ink to colour/decorate and then stitches by hand or machine onto the paper, these are then formed into books by joining them together in creative forms eg circles which are folded into book shapes or keeping them as pictures either singly or as longer strips.
Her books can also be made with hinged covers which are used to 'house' collections of things she finds interesting, for example business cards, providing a record of these in one place. Another book she used to display items she collected like pictures, cards, tickets,information, photos etc during a visit to Glasgow for a show.She also makes 'luggage' type tags which she works on and then ties them together into a book.
Christine designed a book made from recycled things like envelopes, gift tags,etc 'The book of memories', she gave this to a friend who filled it with items and sent it back to Christine as a present.
For a TV programme she had to make book kits in quantity and all identical to sell and an American magazine asked Christine to do an article, this was the 'garden journal' a book made using layered papers and stitched together.
Christine experiments with images, stencils onto paper, uses acrylics to colour, tries fabrics, she also uses Japanese paper (from old ledgers), painting onto them through a stencil to create positive /negative images, and will also cut up pieces made and rearranges them in order to display/use.
The books Christine makes use board for the covers, for this she covers the card(grey board) in Decovil which has a rubbery feel and is ironed on , this forms the spines and allows her to sew into them. Jelly plates are also used to make the covers but these can also be cut up to make designs for cards and tags for e.g. Christmas.
Her books can also be made with hinged covers which are used to 'house' collections of things she finds interesting, for example business cards, providing a record of these in one place. Another book she used to display items she collected like pictures, cards, tickets,information, photos etc during a visit to Glasgow for a show.
