My Reader’s Diary was mentioned recently in a blog article by Sarah Nicholls of the Center for Book Arts in NYC. Top 10 Books, Zines & Comics is a good introduction to what’s on offer on Etsy. She lists 10 categories (zines, comics, diaries, journals, albums, letterpress books….) with an example of each and then a link to search for more. Check it out here. The one to the left is the zine “Stastictical Analysis of The Things That Happen But Don’t Matter” from Sarah McNeil.
Several years ago my friend Debbie gave me a copy of Tara Bryan’s tunnel book, World Without End (that’s it to the right). A tunnel or peephole book is a set of pages bound into accordions on two sides and viewed through a central opening. Scenery or shapes are cut out of the pages and then assembled in layers. Inspired by theatrical stage sets, this book form dates from the mid-eighteenth century and continues to be popular. I immediately deconstructed Tara’s book to figure out how she made it (very ingeniously with a single sheet of paper) and then wrote up instructions for a class I was teaching at SFCB.
For the Fall 2008 Ampersand, Debbie wrote a profile of Tara, and I thought I’d include those instructions in the issue as well. Then John Sullivan, who is the new president of PCBA (the member organization that publishes Ampersand), cut and scored sheets with a blank tunnel book on it, so members could easily make their own. You can buy a copy of the Fall Ampersand here.
Ed Hutchins’ article Exploring Tunnel Books includes a history of tunnel books and a photo gallery of example books. There are good discussions of what makes the structure a book, rather than a novelty piece, how various artists have adapted the form, and how one might incorporate text.
Book artist and teacher Carol Barton has been instrumental in popularizing tunnel books with book artists. You can see some of her early work, along with several other artists’ examples.
Maria Pisano’s The Four Elements Series are elegant miniature tunnel books (scroll down on the page to see them). There are good pictures of each book, allowing you to see inside as well as how she made the covers. There’s another tunnel book on that page too, called Tunnel Vision.
Peter & Donna Thomas have made a tunnel book inside a ukulele. They have more traditional tunnel books pictured here and here.
Judith Hollowood sent me a postcard with this great sculpture on the front — it’s called Headwaters by Larry Kirkland. It sits in front of the English/Philosophy complex on the Lubbock campus of Texas Tech University. (There’s another good picture here on flickr.) Texas Tech & Lubbock have amassed quite a public art collection.
I own a 1890s letterpress, as well as several 40 year old cars, so I clearly have a weak spot for old out-dated machines. I’ve found another article about a shop that fixes typewriters (my other entry about a shop in NYC is here). The article, from the LA Times, includes a very sweet video, showing the shop and the family that runs it, as well as the owner fixing a typewriter.
The owner says there’s been a small resurgence in people using typewriters. Using a computer tied to the Internet can be overwhelming — too many distractions when you sit down to write something. A typewriter, alone on a table, doesn’t have all the commotion and diversion of a computer. (It’s a toss up for me — could I give up the spelling checker for no distractions?!)
Recently as my friend Cathy was showing me her latest quilting project, I felt a pang of jealousy and then frustration. She’s been working in fabric and color and with patterns of those colors for a long time and very successfully. I’ve been trying to design broadsides that marry type and patterns of color with little success — type alone or patterns alone yes, but not together. I blurted out “where would you put type or words or a quote in your quilts” and after a minute she said “in the white space between the colors.” I went from frustration to “aha!” Later, in an email, she suggested I look at maps as patterns. From there I was off and running.
I started playing around with shapes from a map and putting words in the roads and streets. Looking through my book of quotes, scanning for ones appropriate to maps, I remembered that many of my own haiku are about my walks. And that’s how my latest book got started. Above is one of the spreads. Below is the resulting book, titled “Walking“. You can see more pictures here.
I’m awfully ambivalent about selling my books and artwork at craft and book fairs. On the plus side, I replenish my bank account and meet people who love books and reading as much as I do. On the negative side, the days can be really long and my jaw hurts at the end from smiling so much. But I’ve done enough fairs now over the years that the preparation is routine, and I’ve figured out how to pack effectively for fairs that require me to fly to get there.
Last week-end I had a table at a 2-day book arts fair across the country from my home, in Silver Spring Maryland. I wasn’t expecting many sales, what with the screaming headlines in the papers saying this holiday season is going to be the worst ever. But my Mom, sister and brother-in-law live near by, so I thought of this as a family visit rather than a “business trip.” I kept my expenses down by staying with Mom and using my sister’s car. And my sister, who owns a bakery and went to cooking college, made yummy dinners and provided Mom & me with pastry for breakfast and cookies for lunch.
After eating so well, maybe I was predisposed to have a good time at this particular fair. I sold more than I expected. I met several people who have written articles for Ampersand, the quarterly book arts journal I edit. When things were slow, my table mate was fun to talk to. As they looked at my books, many people commented that my work is happy and colorful and well displayed. And what fun to watch the smiles break out as people flip through my flip books!
Back home now, the next few weeks will be hectic as I get ready for 2 more holiday fairs here at home in San Francisco — Bazaar Bizarre in Golden Gate Park, Sunday November 30, 10am-5pm, and at the San Francisco Center for the Book on Friday December 12 (6-8pm) and Saturday December 13 (12 noon-5pm).