Photographing artist’s books can be tricky and frustrating — getting the lighting right, staging the book to show off all its features… The 23 Sandy Gallery blog recently had a 2 part post on “What Makes a Good Photograph for Submission to a Juried Show or Gallery” (which also applies to photographing your work for selling online). Part I is here and Part 2 is here.
The other day I followed a link to Philip Gallo’s blog and spent a wonderful hour reading the posts. Gallo is a letterpress printer and poet in Minneapolis. That’s his broadside to the left (see the post about it here — it’s about daffodils, printed on daffodil embellished paper, and with a subtle ff in the background). He doesn’t write often, and the posts vary widely, from writing poetry, to typesetting 40 years ago, to a poem called Imagine You Are A Craftsman to hand-setting mouse type. And a few of them are handy letterpress printing tricks:
This is the fourth post on my experiment comparing making a print-on-demand mini book with making a similar book by hand.
In previous installments, I’ve written about my experience using print-on-demand services to make a small book. I’m comparing those resulting books with ones I make myself. Today I’m writing about one of the books I made myself, printed on double-sided coated paper specifically for ink jet printers (Epson Double-sided Matte Paper).
My original plan was to fold the pages into a single signature or section and sew it with a pamphlet stitch (by punching 3 holes in the middle of the spine and using a needle and thread — there’s instructions for doing this here). But the paper is too thick, resulting in a book that won’t close (see the photo above). Then I remembered a trick I’d learned for making a 2 signature book. I can’t find this trick anywhere on the web, so here it is in short form. I’ve got pictures and more explanation here.
The Guild of Book Workers recently posted a downloadable pamphlet diagramming 60 book sewing structures. The pamphlet was created by Betsy Palmer Eldridge for the Standards of Excellence conference in Toronto in 2008. It’s got great diagrams, like the one to the left. You can download it as a PDF or a pamphlet layout that you can print and sew.
I mentioned this simple to make finishing press in my directions for the double-fan adhesive binding. But I think it merits a mention in a blog entry too. A ‘finishing press’ is used to hold the text block of a book vertically, spine facing up, while the book is out of its case and repair treatments are in progress. Normally the procedures performed while the text block is in the finishing press are the cleaning of the spine and the attachment of the new headbands, super, and spine liner. It acts as a vice, holding the book tightly, yet not damaging the text block. (The definition comes from Indiana University).
Directions for making the press are here. You can see photos of more substantial presses on Timothy More’s website.
