Green Chair Press Blog

Expanding Bookshelf

Seems like a good idea for small spaces. According to this website:

Bookshelves often seem to burst. You always try to squeeze in another book into the last gap which is far too narrow. “Platzhalter” gives in to force and makes space for more books by literally bursting. An initially hidden board stretches between the split halves and widens the usable surface. The more books you add to the shelf, the wider it opens. The classical rectangular shape turns into a V-shaped outline until the shelf reaches its defined limit.

Book Collecting: Another Letterpress Chapbook

Earlier this month, I wrote about my fledgling artist’s book collection. This post is about my latest addition: a letterpress chapbook, printed by SF-based printer Megan Adie, with a story called “The Pool Cleaner’s Rite of Spring in Phoenix, Arizona” by Scott Buros.
I bought it originally to add to several other letterpress printed chapbooks I acquired this year, because Megan did the printing at the San Francisco Center for the Book and because she printed blue behind the text of all the pages. What I was pleased to discover, as I read Buros’ bittersweet story of loss and swimming pools, is that the shade of blue varies with the mood and content of the text.
Click on the photo below to see a larger picture and read some of the story. The chapbook is for sale through Megan’s Etsy shop.
In the upcoming months, I’ll be writing more about my collection. Turns out I’ve written about a few things already, click here to see the posts.

The Pool Cleaner’s Rite of Spring in Phoenix, Arizona

Pied Type Weight

In a print shop, when metal gets jumbled, it’s been “pied.” Usually that happens when a form (type that’s been assembled for printing) comes apart and the pieces of metal fall over into a mess. It’s a pain to clean up and set right again, as Benjamin Franklin describes:

“But so determin’d I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the folio, that one night, when, having impos’d my forms, I thought my day’s work over, one of them by accident was broken, and two pages reduced to pi, I immediately distributed and compos’d it over again before I went to bed.”

Recently I discovered these little 2-1/2″ wide weights made from discarded metal type. They look like pies and are made by Carolee Campbell (Ninja Press). Type bodies can be seen emerging from the surface and to add to their perfection they are type high (.918 inches or the height of a piece of metal type). Gerald Lange is selling them. I bought one as a gift for a bookbinding friend who loves all things type.

Adhesives: Gluing-up

I have a love-hate relationship with glue. It’s wet, it gets everywhere (although I’ve learned how to keep it out of my hair), and I have trouble getting my brushes really clean. When I’m at my most frustrated I try to reorient myself by remembering a gluing-up demonstration I saw years ago by Dominic Riley — he held the brush and applied the glue with so much confidence and calm. Much like this youtube demo with Peter Goodwin….

[youtube UqPJzqLKjU4]

Edible Origami

Most people’s first (and maybe only) encounter with folding origami is the crane. Here’s an edible variation from this blog, courtesy of my friend Laura:

Play with your food: Edible Origami. Crane croutons for your salad. Crispy wonton wrappers add cheerful crunch to an asian salad, but shouldn’t they be… more interesting? Presented here is the ideal upgrade. No more must you clutter your salad with amorphous crispies or chow mein noodles to obtain the requisite crunch: Crane Croutons will be your piece de resistance.

Letterpress Printing from Plates

In the beginning letterpress classes at San Francisco Center for the Book, we teach typesetting the old fashioned way — with metal type, letter by letter. It’s a good introduction to press work, but in practice, almost anyone doing letterpress these days typesets on the computer and then gets a plate made. Some advantages are that you can use any font on your computer, incorporate illustrations, and proof-reading happens before you ink up the press. Erica at Three Red Hens has a nice set of blog posts about the process of creating and printing one of her illustrations from plates (that’s a detail of one of her cards on the right).