It’s never too late to complete a project.  You just have to become a hoarder and never discard anything.

Some considerable time ago, using the back-drawing monoprinting technique, I produced some small pieces which I went on to embellish with hand-stitching.  These were then added to a small concertina book created with 250gsm Stonehenge paper and dipped into coffee (from memory).

It languished in the cupboard waiting for the other side of the concertina to be completed.  Many times I brought it into the daylight but couldn’t come up with an idea to complete it.

However, in April I spent a day natural dyeing with my friend Annette where I pre-cut some raw silk to size and dyed the pieces with rosemary and copper sulphate.  These were to complete my book after some further work.  So a couple of weeks ago I back-drew onto them.

The method is simple: Roll ink onto acetate, very gently lie paper or fabric over the ink, place a sheet of waste paper such as photocopy paper over the surface, take a pencil and – without resting your hand on the surface – draw a design.  The ink will be picked up from the acetate and transfer to the paper or fabric.

Here is the record of what I drew on photocopy paper over my raw silk.

And here’s the finished concertina book, now double sided.