Last night the first issue of The Coelacanth Journal was launched in London by its editors, the artists Phoebe Blatton and Susan Finlay. The venue was Shipley Art Booksellers on the Charing Cross Road, where earlier in the day I had acquired an unparalleled haul of works by my favourite author, Margery Allingham (but that’s another story).The Coelacanth Journal is of interest not just because it’s witty and provocative. It is one of a number of brilliant new ventures which illustrate an increasing tendency by artists engaged in the book form to become editors, merging the model of art production...
Ann Muir: ‘Ebru by the sheet’
Ann Muir was a skilled craftswoman whose marbled papers gained her an international reputation. Ann, who died last month, worked for many years from her studio at St Algar’s Yard, in Frome, Somerset. Ann's skill in reproducing historical designs and patterns was remarkable. In cases of sympathetic repair work or rebinding, Ann was able to receive a scrap of old paper through the post and return it with two or more full sheets in the same style and colourways, often within a couple of weeks. As Ann's reputation grew, opportunities for a more imaginative use of her talent flourished; she...