Category: General

What does Pi have to do with book arts or letterpress or type, you might ask? The first book I printed letterpress was a small artist’s book with Wislawa Szymborska‘s whimsical poem “Pi,” which juxtaposes the finite, impermanent world with the familiar never-ending sequence 3.1415926535… In my book, the first 200 or so digits of Pi dance across the pages, starting on the cover and skating off the back.
So today, a toast to numbers and letterpress! You can read Szymborska’s poem, which begins “The admirable number pi: three point one four one.“, here. There’s an official (!) web site for Pi day with all sorts of fun facts and quotes and pointers to YouTube videos. And here’s a link to my book. I’ll finish off with this haiku from the PI Day web site:
Three point one
Four
et cetera

Years ago, friends gave me personalized US postage stamps for my birthday. The postal service had a program where you uploaded an image to be used on the stamp. You can tell it was quite some time ago, as stamps are now 49 cents rather than 39.

I’ve used the stamps sparingly, and really haven’t given them much thought as well. Then the other day I saw that Zazzle has a lot of pre-designed postage stamps for sale, including these letterpress ones. Unfortunately, they cost 2-3x what a regular stamp costs (good for a special occasion or a gift for your favorite printer!). You can create your own too, go here or through Zazzle.

The other day I joined some local bookmakers for a session of their fabric book study group. The group started in January and will meet monthly throughout the year. My friend Suzanne was showing off her knitting projects and the group was going to spend the two hours knitting. Suzanne knits for relaxation, using large (#13) needles and yarn, wire, fabric cut into strips, lace, a glove cut into strips with the fingers hanging down… you name it. They are colorful and, well, I just want to reach out and touch them. She just knits, no purl. She told us that when we wanted to change to another inclusion to just tie it on with a knot, not waiting until the end of a row. We could leave the ends hanging out or weave them in. I wanted to see what Suzanne had to say and to see if, after my shifu experience last week, I might include knitting in some books. Here’s the results:

One of Suzanne’s examples:

Caroline used fabric that she tore (rather than cut) after staining in coffee and tea:

Roberta brought plastic bags and cut them up for us to include

Miriam was a guest like me. She had been inspired by Suzanne’s approach and had already made a piece incorporating buttons, glass beads and an old tie (read more on Miriam’s blog)

And here’s mine. I knitted in yarn, Roberta’s plastic bag, a piece of plastic lanyard rope, some piping, some roving that kept breaking, old kimono fabric… what a fun afternoon!

Last fall in response to a post about paper yarn, Velma wrote me and suggested I check out Habu‘s yarns. I was hoping to get a sample card or something, but didn’t see one on their website. The next week I told my friend Barb about the paper yarn and the next day she sent me this photo

These are little bundles of Habu paper yarn carried by a yarn shop here in town! We went there that week and bought 2 different colors and split them. The shop had samples of things knit with the paper yarn, which was exciting too. It was great to see the colors in person, and feel the different yarns.

The following week my sister was visiting and we wandered into a fancy handmade clothing store here in town because in the window was a jacket made with what looked like Habu’s paper yarn that had been dyed. And it was!

My yarn bundles have been sitting on my work bench calling to me, but I haven’t figured out quite what to do with them. Everyone who sees them comments on the color or texture. Another friend Marilyn said she had made shifu — spun yarn or thread out of paper — and would I like to learn? I had made paper yarn in a class with Aimee Lee so I had an idea of what I was in for. We collected up 4 friends and, armed with fixings for a tasty pot luck lunch, we got together earlier this week.

We cut kozo paper that we had marked on into thin continuous strips. Then we spun some with a spinning wheel, a drop spindle and, easiest of all, rolled it into yarn on our leg. I borrowed a drop spindle and have been practicing using it so I’ll have some yarn to knit with when I get together with some more friends on Monday for a knitting session.

As I walked out of security at SFO on my way home from Codex, I was greeted by this massive sculpture of a printing press in the window of a book store. It’s by Shawn Hibmacronan. On his website he claims it works (it only prints one line: freedom. Fixed type is attached to the upper part of the platen) See more pictures here

I’ve got a table at Codex, the book fair from Sunday Feb 8-Wednesday Feb 11 in Richmond California. If you’re in the area, please do stop by and say hi. Click here for more info about the fair and symposium.