Bookmaking – Page 69 – Green Chair Press Blog

Evening Sewing

The website of Reliure Hélène Francoeur Bookbinding in Québec has beautiful photographs of their studio and work. Including a peaceful slideshow of sewing a book on tapes called Evening Sewing and a monthly feature of photographs of favorite bindings.

Knotting Issues

I’ve tried to teach myself to knit several times — using a kit I bought (at Target of all places), youtube videos, a book my friend Kate lent me. Nothing took, all I ended up with were cramped fingers and a pile of yarn. Then Kate gave me an in-person lesson, and now I can knit a couple of basic stitches. So when someone posted on the Books Arts list asking how to do a Weaver’s Knot (used to join 2 pieces of bookbinding thread together), I followed all the suggestions (and then some I found on my own) to see what worked best for me. Turns out that a youtube video using a very big piece of rope was the one I would return to first. Here’s some more that were useful.

Very cool site with lots of animations and instructions for all sorts of knots. The
sheet bend is apparently the same as the weaver’s knot

To the left is a diagram from David Foster’s Connecting Thread tutorial. It has more photos and instructions and is part of a longer set of book tutorials.

And for those that like to read instructions rather than use pictures, here is a written step by step explanation.

Know anymore that you’ve used?

Lizanne van Essen’s Medical Books

Lizanne van Essen makes cut paper artists’ books with surprising subjects. She’s recently made a set of “medical books” in which she is

endeavouring to incorporate medical conditions into a body of books. Humans have ailments and diseases and conditions, and for centuries books have passed on knowledge about the illnesses and their cures. Some illnesses can be passed on by touch, so the book itself could spread disease as well as possible cures, thus books used by victims would be destroyed. At the same time books themselves often suffer from their own variety of ills — some akin to human ones — breaks and tears; insect and fungal infestations; spots and blotches; missing or amputated parts. Inspired by my daughter I wondered what it would be like if, instead of informing the reader about human medical conditions, the books themselves displayed these actual conditions.

The book above is called “Osteoporosis.” You can see more, with titles like “Measles” and “Parasitic Worms,” here. And all her artist’s books here.

Book Collecting: Warwick Press

For my birthday this year I got another letterpress printed poetry chapbook for my collection. It’s one I saw at the Codex Foundation Book Fair, from Warwick Press. Peter Fallon’s poem “A Flowering” starts

They were not on the maps.
Notes of their known habitats
recorded nothing here
or hereabouts.

and is about looking for evidence of bears on walks in the woods. It’s beautifully printed, with small bear tracks across the bottom of the page and cover.

Winter 2009 Ampersand

It may be almost spring, but the Winter 2009 Ampersand has just gone into the mail to subscribers. (I edit this quarterly journal for the Pacific Center for the Books Arts). In this issue:

Profile / Tamar Stone (I wrote about her here)
Tamar Stone creates bookworks that present narratives from the lives of women from the 1800s to the present day. Deborah Kogan describes how Stone has developed two major bodies of work.
Connections / A Poem in Your Pocket
Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day — April 30 — by making a small poetry book to share. Cathy Miranker explains how. Included in the issue is a template for the book, and a library pocket to store it in.
Techniques / Papermaking
In the second of three articles on papermaking, Ginger Burrell talks about artist’s books using embedded objects in handmade paper.
Techniques / Double-Fan Adhesive Binding
Quick and easy, the double-fan adhesive or millennial binding is a great solution for turning single sheets into an extremely durable paperback book that opens flat and stays open. Susan Angebranndt tells how.
Book Review / Magic Books & Paper Toys
Appreciation / Steve Woodall
Last fall, Steve, long active in the PCBA, moved from San Francisco to Chicago to become the Director of Columbia College’s Center for Book & Paper Arts. He’ll be much missed by those of us in San Francisco.

Free For All

The Fiji Island Mermaid Press is hosting an online exhibition of artist’s books that visitors can download, print, trim, fold and cut to make miniature books. To the left is seed toss, trench sent by Warren Craghead III.
And after you take a look, you’d be correct in assuming my delight in finding Adele Henderson’s downloadable Travel Map of TONAWANDA New York, about emissions from a nearby Tonawanda Coke plant.