Thursday 21 December 2017

Follow the Art Trail in Ormskirk Town Centre

A Festival of Tales is taking place in the small Lancashire market town of Ormskirk. 
Situated between Manchester and Liverpool, Ormskirk has a heritage of clock making, 
which has all but disappeard now.
The specially commissioned art-works on display around the town pay homage to it's clock-making history, and to the formidable clock tower, which has stood in the very centre of the town since 1876.


 Discover all of the art works (including my own), which feature Ormskirk's famous clock tower, situated around the town in shop windows, cafes and at the Chapel art gallery. 

Festival of Tales is open until January 2018

Sunday 10 December 2017

Book Sculptures Book Now Available in the US, Canada and Mexico

'Book Scultpures' is now available to buy in the United States, Canada and Mexico from 
amazon.com

This is the first photographic book cataloging Blackwell's creations from 2006 - 2013. 
This monograph contains an interview with the artist and provides a rare glimpse into her studio practice. 
The beautiful photographs convey the delicacy of Blackwell's works. 
Case bound, hard back, with gold foil stamp to cover. 

Here are some comments about 'Book Sculptures', taken from amazon.co.uk

This is just the most amazing book, to think one person can make these wonderful sculptures and create a visual like you've never seen before and wonderfully photographed. love it love it love it!

Exquisite, inspired and inspiring. Magical. Perfectly executed.

Awe struck over the images. 

This is a fantastic book! The work is stunning and the book itself is really beautiful! It has slightly rubbery pages with gold embellishment and has the appearance of a very expensive item.

Orders received up until 1st January 2018 
will also recieve a complimentary 'Out of Narnia' greeting card.

Book Special Price: 
 $25.00 inc. p&p

Visit

Saturday 9 December 2017

Greeting Cards



I have just added some new greeting cards and postcards to my online shop.
Postcards feature my popular 'Wild Flowers' design, and greeting cards of 
'Snow White' Woodland Cottage (pictured above). 
International shipping applies. 
Please visit online shop   

Tuesday 5 December 2017

Helen Hiebert's 'Best Paper Gift Guide' 2017

Helen Hiebert Studio in the US has compiled a 'Best Paper Gift Guide' on her blog, 
which includes my 'Out of Narnia' greeting cards.
Check out Helen's blog here

Sunday 3 December 2017

Paper Cutting Workshop at Charleston House

Here are some of the results from the paper-cutting concertina-card
workshop I run at Charleston House in East Sussex. 





In this one-day workshop, participants learned about using paper-crafting tools, different weights of paper, and were taught paper-cutting and basic paper engineering skills. 

For details of my upcoming workshops, visit Creative Workshops at Charleston House

Thursday 30 November 2017

Caring For Your Books

On Handling Books

Never take a book off a shelf by putting your finger on the top of the spine and pulling the book towards you – this damages the head-cap, which will eventually break off. Try and remove a book by either passing your hand over the top and gently pushing from the fore-edge or by
pushing the flanking books further forward so that you are able to wrap your hand around the spine of the book and firmly grasp each side. Ensure you support heavy books with the other hand underneath.

Excerpt from 

Tuesday 28 November 2017

The Sleeping Beauty Theatre Book

Here's a snippet of my daughter's rendition of Sleeping Beauty. 
I thought this was apt as the news yesterday was dominated by the announcement of 
the Royal engagement. 


The Sleeping Beauty Theatre Book encourages fine motor skills, story telling 
and imagination in young to older children. 
A lovely gift for fans (of all ages), of Sleeping Beauty, and my illustrated story book 

Monday 27 November 2017

German Edition of 'Once Upon A Time; A History of Fairy Tales' by Marina Warner Released


From wicked queens, beautiful princesses, elves, monsters, and goblins to giants, glass slippers, poisoned apples, magic keys, and mirrors, the characters and images of fairy tales have cast a spell over readers and audiences, both adults and children, for centuries. These fantastic stories have travelled across cultural borders, and been passed on from generation to generation, ever-changing, renewed with each re-telling. Few forms of literature have greater power to enchant us and rekindle our imagination than a fairy tale. 

Cover art-work by Su Blackwell


Tuesday 14 November 2017

Oh Dickens! Chatsworth House Commission

Back in the spring, I was invited to Chatsworth House to discuss ideas for their upcoming 
Christmas exhibition.
Jump forward to November 2017, and...

... Oh Dickens! It's Christmas opened to the public on Saturday. 
My commissioned installation 'Dickens's London' is on display in the house until 7th January. 
Based on old photgraphs of the streets, slums and Inns where Dickens drew his inspiration, are houses sculpted from each of his 16 novels, first published between 1836 - 1870.

'At times London took on a role of it's own, dominating Dickens's narrative like a character in it's own right'. (Excerpt taken from 'Dickens's Victorian London', by Alex Werner and Tony Williams.
Photographs of the work in situ

Tuesday 17 October 2017

One Place Still Available for my Workshop in Lewes on Friday 1st December

A couple of spaces are still available for my workshop at 
Charleston House in East Sussex this December 
'Design and make a winter-themed tunnel-book greeting card' 
  3-d paper-cut cards using Windsor pastel papers © Su Blackwell 

 All materials, lunch, tea and coffee will be provided.

Charleston House, Lewes, East Sussex
Friday 1st December 10am - 4pm

To book your ticket, go to 

Thursday 12 October 2017

'From Waste to Art' Symposium Baku, Azerbaijan

Sometimes it's good to get out of your comfort zone, and try something new, while experiencing different cultures and making new friends in the process.
I have just returned from a ten day trip to Azerbaijan, as part of their annual art symposium 'From Waste to Art', Azerbaijan's capital city's 'recycling' innitiative, which helps to promote and develop the concept of recycling to a wider public.
On arrival, I was greeted by a somewhat surly spokeserson from the Company, whose job it was to look after us thirty artists, mostly travelled from overseas.
Baku is a chaotic, seemingly haphazard city.
Although hats off to the company, they did manage us artists with professionalism and care.
The first day we were taken on a trip to the recycling plant, where artists were given an opportunity to collect materials to use in their projects. Then we were taken to a large warehouse in the Qala settlement, just north of Baku.
Qala is situated within the oil fieds on the outskirts of the city, and on the drive over from Baku to Qala, one could smell the faint scent of oil in the air.
The scenery around Qala is desolate, industrial on a scale I have never seen.
However saying this, there were birds, the odd wildlife in the fields, but for the most part, no life at all, not even a blade of grass.

 Motley Crew of artists
Lake of crude oil has seeped to ground's surface. 
The local people I encountered in Qala where some of the kindest people I have had fortune to meet.
And spending ten days with artists from all over the world, Azerbaijan, The Soviet Union, Ukraine, India, USA, Jordan, Turkey, Serbia, Germany and the UK, we began to feel like a family unit, all in it together.




It is a credit to all of the artists that we all finished our artworks in the few days allocated to us, culminating in a group exhibition which was held at the Musuem in Qala on our last day there.
 My work features Russian Knapweed, an invasive plant native to Azerbaijan and surrounding area.
The works will be on permanent display at the 'From Waste to Art' Museum in Qala, 
a museum dedicated to the project. 

Azerbaijan is a country of contradicitons, and of extremes. Mixing uber modern architecture with ancient archeological stone carvings. Parts of it are extremely beautiful, and parts, the parts which they don't show you in the travel brochures are extremely ugly. 
 Uber modern buildings mix with ancient walled city.
But I feel they are a nation wanting to learn, wanting to learn how to protect their country, and their enviroment, and with the will of the people, this is starting to happen with initiatives such as this project, and I hope it will continue to happen, sooner rather than later. 

Wednesday 27 September 2017

Grey Owl at Hastings Museum

Musings on my visit to Hastings Museum, rediscovering 'Grey Owl', and his book 'The Tree';
planting the seeds of an idea for a new work inspired by his story.





Hastings Museum is small, but that's not to say, it is not interesting, or jam packed full of random artifacts, that you would not necessarily make connections to Hastings with. There is no mention of fishing fleets, instead we find rooms dedicated to Hastings pottery, an Indian Palace commissioned by a local philanthropist, and an entire room dedicated to a person I recognised, an author of adult and children's books, who goes by the name of 'Grey Owl'. 
I recognised one of the books in the museum's collection as my own.

I bought a 1934 copy of 'The Tree' by Grey Owl in Carlisle, on the border of Scotland in 2006.
It was sitting in the 'valuable books' section in the topper most region of the book shop; books so valuable they need to de displayed behind locked glass. The unasumming cover, a thin book in comparison to the other tomes, seemed to gravitate itself towards me. 
I bought the book, and while I treasured the hand drawn illustrations, I never read the book, and thought nothing more about it. It sat on my bookshelf for the past ten years or so, until last weekend, when I came upon a copy of it in a display case in the museum. 
On making enquiries, I asked the museum staff what the connection to 'Grey Owl' was. I had assumed 'Grey Owl' to be of American Indian descent, but I discovered that he was in fact born and raised in Hastings. The museum now houses his collection of Native American artefacts, donated by his late family.
Returning to my studio, I retrieved my book once more, and found it to be a rare signed copy.

Grey Owl was a fantasist, and it wasn't until after his death, that the whole truth was uncovered. 
This strange coincidental event has now prompted me to discover more about the man, and his extrodinary life, from a school boy in the small fishing town of Hastings in Victorian England to a World reknowned conservationist and author, living the life as a First Nation in the foothills of Canada.
This is the beginning of a journey as I begin to explore his.

On being exposed as an imposter after his death in 1938, publishers ceased to publish his books, but I am discovering that his legacy still lives on... 

Friday 15 September 2017

Tuesday 29 August 2017

Re-creation for the Nation

One of my best friends 'Mel' (on the left), who made the gorgeous garments from my 'Wild Flowers' Liberty print fabric for our daughters (below) has just opened an online shop on notonthehighstreet.com selling her collection of men's and women's scarves created from recycled wools and fabrics.
Mel has worked incredibly hard over the last few months, getting ready to open her online shop. 
Check out her homepage at
 or find her on instagram re_creation4thenation


Men's Infinity Scarf
Women's Infinity Scarf by Re-creation 4 the Nation