A very productive day at the Print Studio today. Completely unrelated to my final Architecture and Type project due soon, YES, waste of time, MAYBE, but OH THE JOY!.

Anyone who can guess the object of my teenage undying love gets a print!.

I tried getting pictures of the actual process this time round, it’s pretty straight forward. First you cut the artwork into the sheet of linoleum then

Rolling Pink Ink:

Pressing the lino in my favourite press:

Drying the prints on the rack:

Back to work and freelance misery now!

The fruit of my hard labour last Wednesday!  A screen printed monoprint of my collage. Being a monoprint means no two prints are the same and to be honest this is not the best of the batch but I’m quite happy with it as it’s the one I’m submitting for the collaborative Screen Printing book we’re working on. The yellow on screen is actually a golden shade in real life and the letters are so much sharper but you get the idea.

I’ll take pictures of the process next time, promise.

Black&White A3 collage I’m hoping to finally screen print on wednesday, the letters are all cut into the paper and it reads ‘I am bravest in the face of fear’. An actual fact as my courage seems to come at times when it’s less needed.

One of my favourite stalls in Handmade and Bound a few weeks ago was Cally Barker’s. The little crocheted Penguin classics caught my eye and I couldn’t resist the ‘Mystery and Crime’ one!

She told me about The Book Project in which she’d been involved, the work submitted is amazing . She might be contributing to an exhibition we are curating at college but that’s another story for another time…

I only got this book a few days ago and it’s already found its way into my favourites! I’ve always thought Alphabet books were quite special as they are, in a way, the first book. Bruno Munari’s ABC is clever and witty, first published in 1960 its playful use of colours and textures is so refreshing and inspiring.

I was showing it to my illustrator friend earlier today and she fell in love too, it’s definitely a book to keep close at hand and dip into for inspiration.

C for a Crow

L for a Long Leaf, a Leaf, a Little Leaf and a Lemon

O for an Owl and an Onion and an Orange

And my absolute favourite:

W for a Watermelon on a Wagon with a Wooden Wheel

This is the view from my desk, the two other corners of my room. It took long enough but we’re finally settled, walls are painted and I even enrolled a few days ago. It’s getting colder in London every day and days are getting shorter too. Roll on Autumn!

I made it to London in one piece and we finally have internet in the flat, yay. To celebrate I wanted to share a few pictures from the private view in Barcelona that CaiJia and Las Coleccionistas have just sent me, I hear it went very well and so many people showed up!

I was helping out with the private view preparations (I spied quite a few bottles of bubbly, Bach* no less! haha) and I took a second to make this video of one of my pieces, the Vacancies Book.

A photo collection of Vacancy/No Vacancy signs that I took in Blackpool back in June.

Vacancies Book from Mina Bach on Vimeo.

I’m heartbroken that I won’t be able to attend myself as I’m taking a plane at the crack of dawn back to London tomorrow. Oh well! Good luck to everyone involved, I’m sure it will be grrreat!

* no relation sadly

I’m part of ‘Ciutat: Exposició Col·lectiva’ a group exhibition in La Sastreria, Barcelona. I’ve been busy busy getting everything ready for the private view next friday. I made 4 pieces all based around my experience of moving to the biggest city in Europe. I’ll be posting pictures soon.

Las Coleccionistas have made a wonderful job curating it, thank you for inviting me ladies!. The colourful posters are the work of design mastermind Maria de Gibert.

If you happen to be in Barcelona this friday, don’t miss it!

Until October 3th.

This is my new blog, I’ll be posting about my ongoing projects, the inspiration and interesting people I find along the way and the ups and downs of life in London.