Album Alter­na­tives with Betsy Palmer Eldridge – Day 1

My morning session was Betsy Palmer Eldridge’s album workshop. We met in the ceramics studio.

Betsy told us about her history in the book arts, which is extensive. Seriously extensive.

She explained that there are three issues in dealing with collections:

1. How do you attach material to the page?
2. How do you compensate for the addition of materials to an album?
3. How do you put the album together?

She then explained that there are three categories of binding albums:

1. Stab bindings
2. Sewn bindings (through a fold)
3. Adhesive (ex. perfect binding)

Something new I learned today – when gluing covers, the universal turn-in is 3/4″. I’m already doing that, so I’m psyched to know that it’s a standard.

More nuggets of knowledge from Betsy:

• Use a synthetic bristle brush with synthetic adhesives and a natural bristle brush with natural adhesives.
• PVA is for gluing exterior materials and paste is for gluing interior materials.
• Cloth shrinks when wet and expands when dry. Paper does the opposite – expands when wet, shrinks when dry.

When we glued the covers for what will become a book of samples of attachment methods, I was so stressed out. I couldn’t focus and made so many mistakes. I had to go back to the studio after dinner to redo one of the covers.

Not that I’ve ever made photo albums before. Ugh.

And now for some coolness, meet the Veritas Precision Square:

It’s a little peanut of a tool, but a bit pricey at $24.50 plus shipping. I’d have to think more about getting one.

Betsy recommended Conservation of Scrapbooks and Albums – Postprints of the Book and Paper Group/Photographic Materials Joint Session at the 27th AIC Annual Meeting as a source for more information on album structures. You can get it from the AIC website for $30.00 – so getting it.

And for the last bit of coolness, we were introduced to the Shoemaker’s knot. I had never heard of it before. It’s like a regular knot, but you bring the loop through the opening twice (this isn’t a double knot). It can be untied like a regular knot, but it doesn’t come undone by itself. Brilliant!

Book Arts Guild of Vermont exhibit: Shaping Pages, take 2

The Book Arts Guild of Vermont‘s spring exhibit, Shaping Pages has a new venue! The Creative Space Gallery, a great friend to the Guild, is hosting us through late June.

My book Little Known Facts About Crap is in the exhibit. If you didn’t get to see it at the S.P.A.C.E Gallery, you have a second chance!

You can view images from the exhibit on the Guild website. Be sure to check out our review in Seven Days, where the author granted my book a “Funny Award”.

If you’d like to check out the show, here’s the scoop:

Creative Space Gallery
235 Main Street
Vergennes, VT 05491
(802) 877-3850

Dates: May 3, 2012 – June 24, 2012
Gallery Hours: Thursday – Friday 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., Saturday: 10:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Sunday 10:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Worktable Wednesday

I started the day by working on an Etsy order for five small Yellow Calendula photo albums. I already had two albums in stock, so I only had to make three more.

The covers are now safely tucked away in the press.

I spent a chunk of the afternoon packing a box to send ahead to PBI (Paper and Book Intensive) – I fly out on Sunday!

My next project was to make a sample for my upcoming Travel Companion Journal workshop at Studio Place Arts. I started by carving the word “Go” into the cover.

The journal includes pockets both inside the covers and in the text block. I had to figure out the dimensions for the end page pockets and create a template.

I crumpled up brown Lokta paper to create a leather-ish texture. After flattening out the paper, I glued it to the covers. Then I glued in the end page pockets.

Lastly, I cut letters out of a map and glued them into the recessed areas on the cover.

Tomorrow I’ll work more on the surface design and create the text block.

Paper and Book Intensive 2012

I’m in a total state of shock.

On Sunday morning, I’ll be flying out to Michigan for the Paper and Book Intensive. I’m actually going.

I had convinced myself that I was never going to go. I applied two years ago and wasn’t accepted – that’s the kind of thing that sets the Brain of Doom in motion. The Brain of Doom sucks.

But I’m actually going. To Ox-Bow.

I’m attending the following workshops:

Album Alter­na­tives with Betsy Palmer Eldridge:

The recent pop­u­lar­ity of albums has led to an increased inter­est in the vari­ety of album struc­tures avail­able and in the dif­fer­ent ways mate­ri­als can be attached to the album leaves. This ses­sion will intro­duce and show exam­ples of many of the his­tor­i­cal meth­ods. In addi­tion, it will show two lesser-known but use­ful meth­ods. The first is how to include folio mate­r­ial with­out a thread inter­rup­tion in the gut­ter mar­gin: the sec­ond is how to bind stiff leaf mate­r­ial using the 1865 Philadel­phia Patented method. The advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of each will be dis­cussed. Par­tic­i­pants will make take-home mod­els of as many of these meth­ods as the time allows and their inter­est dictates.

I received an Email from Betsy a week ago that said “Just found your name on my PBI participants list and look forward to having you in my class.” [insert Elissa's faint here] Yes. I’m a geek.

Cus­tom Bone and Steel Tools for Book Working with Shanna Leino:

Dur­ing this class you will be work­ing with two very handy and ver­sa­tile mate­ri­als: elk bone and steel. First, stu­dents will be intro­duced to the tools and tech­niques needed to form and fin­ish bone fold­ers of ones own design. Smooth, pol­ished to a shine, and fit­ting per­fectly in your hand—there is noth­ing like the feel of a bone folder you’ve made your­self. You will then cross over to steel, learn to make a chas­ing tool and a stamp for mak­ing an impres­sion into most met­als and use­ful for adding orna­men­ta­tion on your book cov­ers. Sim­ple meth­ods of adding adorn­ment to your tools will be demon­strated. No pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence is nec­es­sary, how­ever this class is demand­ing on the hands and arms. Expect to leave with two or three bone fold­ers and one chas­ing tool that will be beau­ti­ful to look at and won­der­ful to use!

I’m psyched to meet Shanna for many reasons, one of them being that she’s from New Hampshire. It’s great to have such a wonderful resource close to home and I plan to talk to her about doing a workshop for the Book Arts Guild of Vermont.

Using a Cat­a­lyst for Artist Book Creation with John Car­rera:

The Pic­to­r­ial Webster’s was always intended to be used as a cat­a­lyst for cre­ative writ­ing. Stu­dents’ main instruc­tional assign­ment will be to write a story based on one page of images. Using Pic­to­r­ial Webster’s as a source for cre­ative input in a class will be excit­ing, as what one makes from the book is never about the book, but what is inside each per­son. Because each stu­dent is using a com­mon ref­er­ence, under­stand­ing what has tran­spired within the cre­ative engine of each student’s mind can be more read­ily under­stood and dis­cussed. The goal will be to find new meth­ods for inspir­ing the cre­ative process. An intense four days will begin with cre­at­ing three books in an hour. You will then be given three dif­fer­ent meth­ods for using Pic­to­r­ial Webster’s as a source for your own new artist book. Each par­tic­i­pant will cre­ate at least one work­able dummy for a future edi­tion of your own or a fin­ished one-of-a-kind. Stu­dents will make use of addi­tional sec­tions from the off­set ver­sion of the book.

John’s Pic­to­r­ial Webster’s was the set book for the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers‘ juried exhibition deFINEd BINDINGS: 26 Bindings of the Pictorial Webster’s Dictionary. So cool.

There’s internet access at Ox-Bow, but I don’t know how accessible the access is. I hope to blog at the end of each day so you can see what I’m up to at PBI. One way or another (if not daily), I’ll blog about the workshops.

Stay tuned!

Worktable Wednesday

Today I worked on a custom order that came through Etsy – it’s the first time that one of my handmade books is going to the Netherlands!

The custom photo album tweaks the page paper of the Sea Green Floral photo album. Instead of white paper with flecks, this album includes a smooth dark green paper. I tend towards neutral colors for photo album pages, so this combination is one that I most likely would not have come up with on my own.

I love this combination!

The color of the paper is so rich. I’m sorry I couldn’t get a better picture of it.

I can’t wait to see how it looks when it’s done!

Bookbinding/Librarian merit badge from Ireland – update

Earlier this month, I talked about the Bookbinding/Librarian merit badge from Ireland. I contacted the Ireland National Office for more information on what one has to do to earn the badge.

I quickly heard back from Conor McKeon, Programme Commissioner (Scouts) from Scouting Ireland.

He was kind enough to send me a scan of a page from the scout badge book – it includes the requirements for earning the badge:

1. Make two covers for holding loose sheets, covered in suitable material with punch holes for tread or ribbon.
2. Discuss this subject with your Patrol and instruct another Scout in Bookbinding.
3. Bind the Troop or Patrol Log Book.
4. Describe in simple terms, how a book is made.

Sadly, it looks like there won’t be a bookbinding-specific badge for much longer.

Here’s what Conor had to say:

The badge in question is from our old youth programme for Scouts.

For the last three years we have being transitioning to a new programme. As part of this programme scouts can design their own merit badges and they must fall under the following categories (Skill, Physical, Adventure, Community or Environment).

This essentially means if they want to bookbind they define the skill level they wish to achieve and it must be challenging to them.

If you like the badge and want one for yourself, you should probably get one now.

Shaping Pages Review

The Book Arts Guild of Vermont‘s spring exhibit, Shaping Pages opened on April 6th and is on display now through April 28th at the S.P.A.C.E Gallery in Burlington, VT.

My book Little Known Facts About Crap is in the exhibit, one of the books I created during the 2012 Book Arts Improv.

I was surprised to see that Seven Days, one of Vermont’s independent newspapers, reviewed our exhibit.

Overall, it was a favorable review. For that reason, it’s hard for me to express my concern that the writer doesn’t seem to know much about the book arts. The following comments worried me:

None of the works is an actual book, of course. Among the techniques in evidence here are repurposing book pages in sculptural constructions; making “pages” out of something else, such as cloth; referencing the concept of books in a mixed-media facsimile; and using printed text within a wholly un-book-like artwork. Some pieces in the exhibit seem to qualify as “book” art only because they are constructed from paper. But then, who said there were rules?

Huh?

Our exhibit included flag books, accordion books, and coptic bindings, among others. Those seems like “actual books” to me. And to imply that a book can only be “real” if it’s made of paper?

Wuh?

Check out the exhibit for yourself.

Even though I’m not happy with how the book arts were portrayed in the review, I’m excited that my book was singled out:

If there were a Funny Award in this exhibit, it would have to go to “Little Known Facts About Crap,” by Elissa Campbell. Inside the covers of this small book are tiny paper “pages” the shape and color of turds. On these Campbell has written nonsensical “facts,” such as “Holy crap can be repaired with duct tape.” With an apt self-deprecation that many legitimate authors ought to display, she concludes, “The contents of this book: total crap.”

I now have a virtual Funny Award in my studio. Whee!

And I’d like to point out that she did state that my piece was a book, didn’t she?

Inside the covers of this small book are tiny paper “pages” the shape and color of turds.

Just sayin’…

Worktable Wednesday

I just finished a dream custom order – five guest books for Cabot Cheese!

In case you’re new here, I love cheese. Seriously. I.love.cheese. I’m sure you can imagine my complete and total bliss when I was contacted by Cabot.

The guest books were gifts for retiring employees. These folks had ties to the farming community, so we chose a Vermont-made paper by Richard Langdell. The paper includes hay from his neighbor’s farm. It’s pretty damn fabulous.

The paper was paired with a lovely Japanese bookcloth.

I had to carve out space in the covers for insets – each book was going to include a card with hand-written calligraphy.

Did I mention that this order had to be completed in a week? DONE.

Here’s a closeup of the inset – it’s hard to see, but it’s there!

When I bought that hay paper, I had no idea what I’d do with it. All I knew is that I liked it and that was good enough for me.

I guess that this is just more validation for my belief that neither logic nor intent is necessary when buying paper.

Bookbinding/Librarian merit badge from Ireland

Ireland is another country that has a scout bookbinding badge – a  Bookbinding/Librarian merit badge, to be exact. In Ireland, scouts are 12 – 15 years of age.

The purpose of the merit badge is to allow a scout to focus on an interest and decide if he’d like to pursue it as a career option. The badges are worn on the right sleeve.

Just like with New Zealand, I ran into a dead end while trying to track down the requirements for earning the bookbinding/librarian badge. I have contacted the Ireland National Office for more information so I’ll give you an update if I hear back from them!

Update: I heard back and you can get the details here.

Book Arts Guild of Vermont exhibit: Shaping Pages

The Book Arts Guild of Vermont‘s spring exhibit, Shaping Pages opened on April 6th and is on display now through April 28th at the S.P.A.C.E Gallery in Burlington, VT.

Not only does the gallery host exhibits, but it also manages a number of artist studios. Overall, it’s a breathtaking creative environment.

The show at the S.P.A.C.E Gallery was one of the stops on the First Friday Art Walk, a Burlington event held from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. on the first Friday of every month. It was mobbed!

I was thrilled to have my book Little Known Facts About Crap in the exhibit…

…and even more thrilled to see folks checking it out…

…and even more thrilled to learn that it sold at the opening!

This is the first time that I’ve seen a red dot next to my name. It’s weird and I like it!

I wonder if they’ll give the red dot to me when the show ends. Should I ask?

Yes, I’m a dork.

Guild members submitted some seriously fabulous work for the show. One of my favorite pieces is Marcia Vogler’s Dream Burger:

Everything Marcia makes is super-awesome. That’s right Marcia – if you’re reading this, you now know that I think you have mad skills.

If you’d like to check out the show, here’s the scoop:

S.P.A.C.E. Gallery
266 Pine Street Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 578-2512

Dates: April 6, 2012 – April 28, 2012
Gallery Hours: Thursday – Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.