I
MAKE STUFF
Ramona Barry and Rebecca Jobson
Volume One, 2009
p.52–57
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison: Double Vision
Simpatico is perhaps a good word to describe the collaborative process
between Gracia and Louise. To the outsider the line is very blurred
as to where one begins and the other ends. Perhaps
it is easier to think of them as a left and right hand of the same body.
What we get are glimpses into a imaginative and almost literary world
steeped in historical investigation, kitsch nostalgia and a touch of
mystery. Their collage collabs make us recall Coles Funny Picture Books
and Girls and Boys Own Adventure Annuals. They lay cryptic clues for
you to crack a password into their secret world.
The Stuff You Make:
We make all sorts of stuff though, for the main, it is fair to say that
we make stuff on and with paper. Whilst some of the many things that
constitute our handmade stuff is made with fabric, needle and thread,
it is the stuff on and with paper that truly lays claim to the biggest
slice of our hearts. Over the years, paper has become our chief medium
of choice to work with. Adaptable, flexible, able to be folded, cut
into, printed on and glued, we favour making stuff on a paper support.
An ideal base for both collage and watercolour and drawing, our collaborative
limited edition artists’ books, lithographic offset prints, bound
zines, hammer & daisy greeting cards, postcards and journals
all stem from a love of paper; that beloved by many material manufactured
in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances.
Stuff made as hammer & daisy
Greeting cards & postcards; owl & bird pinnies; A7 scribbler;
square knot & concertina journals; A6 fabric journal pouches &
pencil cases
(Thelma's felt pins & Thelma's stuffies by Elaine
Haby)
Stuff made as Gracia & Louise
Artists’ books; works on paper; zines
When did you start making stuff?
The two of us started making stuff probably before we knew what stuff
was. Given but a few gleaned objects—a pair of scissors, a rubber
band, a ruler, a pot of glue, a book of maps, coloured pencils, a spoon—no
matter how fanciful or practical, we’d make stuff with it.
hammer & daisy, in
its current guise, could be said to have formed early in 2003 when we
adapted an exposed spine, square knot binding technique studied at the
Centro del bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland. What began as a line of
hammer & daisy handmade fabric-covered journals has since
grown to include a small, square concertina journal, an A6 journal pouch
and pencil case, an A7 scribbler, a parliament of owl pinnies and linen-fronted
birds, and various greeting cards and postcards featuring our own artwork.
As to our artwork, we have been making artists' books collaboratively
since 1999. Artists' books with
drawings, with elements of collage, hand-coloured with pencil or stamped,
even cut out and altered ever so slightly; every step, every part of
the process, every learning curve, holds us besotted. We fell into the
making of these artists’ books seemingly by accident, without
even realising, much like our collaboration. A turn here, a turn there,
and here we are.
What is the best thing you have made?
Anything that affords someone a grin, anything which does not fall over
upon completion, any book that holds its shape come whatever is thrown
at it, any thing that brings us joy to make and makes visible to us
new mountains to scale: these things make some thing worthy of the title
Best. When all effort of labour is hidden, we are satisfied.
I Make
Stuff, Volume One, 2009.
