Green Chair Press Blog

Getting Organized

Rolled up tool case Jamye Jamison, a paper conservator here in the Bay Area, has a roll-up soft-sided case for her tools (bone folder, scissors, x-acto knife, brush, pencil, ruler…) that I covet. I use a zippered pouch for my own tools, but I have to dig around in it to find anything (and sometimes get poked). Jamye got her roll-up as a graduation present and it was made specifically for her, with bright fabric on the outside. She thought a roll-up case for knitting needles might work, so I looked on Etsy and found this case from Sarah Kincheloe. The inside is made of soft cotton and the outside is canvas. It has batting inside to protect my tools and a flap at the top to keep them from moving around when the case is rolled up. And the fabric is bright and cheery and makes me happy every time I unroll it.

Nifty tool: Japanese Screw Punch

I teach letterpress printing at the San Francisco Center for the Book. In my class this past week, we printed these holiday gift tags, complete with a hole in the upper corner for a ribbon or string.

To punch the holes, we used a lovely simple tool called a Japanese Screw Punch (it’s also called a Book Drill or Paper Drill). It cuts through multiple pieces of paper, and even thick stuff like mat board or davey board. Holes of different sizes can be made by swapping out the bits. The advantage over a hole punch is that you can position it anywhere on the paper, not just the edge, and there’s no guessing — you can see exactly where your hole will be placed.
Japanese Screw Punch
They are available online from Bonnie’s Best (with 7 bits for $70) or Wilde Ideas (1 bit, $40, with 6 bits, $81) or Vulcan Arts (punch + 9 bits, $75).

Creating Artists’ Books

I call the books I design and make “artist’s books”. According to Wikipedia, “Artists’ books (also called bookworks) are works of art realized in the form of a book. They are usually published in small editions, though sometimes they are one-of-a-kind objects. Artists’ books have employed a wide range of forms, including scrolls, fold-outs or loose items contained in a box.”
I guess that’s an ok definition, but a few pictures would help. While there are lots of pictures on the web and lots of books available, I particularly like Sarah Bodman’s book Creating Artists’ Books. She doesn’t try to define “artists’ book” and instead presents copious examples in this “guide for visual artists who are interested in creating work in the artist’s book format.” Bodman, based in England, has a European slant. And that slant is precisely what makes the book interesting to me. In addition to the many examples and photographs, the appendices provide a resource guide to the book arts in Europe—book shops, galleries, fairs, events, organizations and journals. Bodman touches on all aspects of the book arts, even providing a section on ways to display books effectively. And at $15 it’s a steal. [It’s available from Amazon.]
Bodman works at the Center for Fine Print Research at UWE Bristol. They have a bi-monthly newsletter, produce a bi-annual yearbook, and have a PDF publication called Artists’ Books Creative Production and Marketing. But the project I like best is Bookmarks, which distributes bookmarks made by artists to encourage interest in the book arts.

Interupted by a Bike Race

Every July most of my projects come to a standstill as I spend all my spare time and then some watching the Tour de France. Here in California the real-time TV coverage starts about 3:30 AM, which is too early even for me. So I watch the final hour when I get up in the morning and then the 3 hour re-broadcast in the evening. This year I thought ahead a little bit and folded another set of my haiku and Winter books during the commericals. Now that the race is over, I guess it’s back to work for me!
Biking was the subject of some of my first bookbinding projects. After I first learned to make boxes, I practiced by making a few “Bicycle Emergency Kits” for friends. The boxes had handlebar tape for the hinge and handle, and inside I made dividers for each part of the kit — a spare tube, tire patches to fix flats, food rations and a little book of silly instructions for dealing with emergencies including a quarter for a phone call in a pocket in the back.

Letterpress Roller Rack

Rack with roller When the San Francisco Center for the Book got a 10×15 C&P floor model platen press last year, I helped get it set up. One of the first things we had to take care of were the rubber rollers. They’d been left on the top of the ink disc and were flat spotted. Ramco, in San Dimas CA, recovered them for us (241 West Allen Ave., San Dimas, CA 91773, 909-592-1002) and were really helpful and friendly. Next we needed a rack to hold the rollers when they weren’t on the press. I wanted a rack that even tool-challenged people like me could make and so students at the Center would have a model if they needed one for their own presses. This is what we came up with. (Knowing myself well, I took one of the rollers with me to the hardware store when I bought the hooks, so I would be absolutely sure that the ends would actually fit the eyelet and hook.)

Letterpress Roller Rack

Spiral Binding

Renz wire binder
Yesterday I spent a pleasant hour or so binding a new set of my Reader’s Diary books. Many of the books I make are sewn together with needle and thread, but this one uses a wire or spiral binding. It’s a 3 step process: punch the holes for all the pages and the cover using the machine, insert the spirally wire in the holes (machine doesn’t do that), and then press the wire loops closed (the machine helps with that — I stick the book in a slot in the binder and pull down on the shorter lever to apply even pressure to the spine).

I use the binding machine at the San Francisco Center for the Book — it’s great to live so close to a place with lots of equipment I can rent when I need it! Especially this one. I looked into buying a wire binder, but even the low end models are awfully expensive for the amount of use it would get. Tina Kay, who teaches workshops in using the binder, pointed out to me that the cheaper models only bind a fixed sized spine (usually 11″), and I would definitely want a binder that allows me to vary the spine size.