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The recent artists in residence at SFCB did a book inspired by 19th century ledgers and account books. The ruled lines in the book were mechanically drawn using a pen ruling machine at Golden Business Forms in West Burlington, Iowa, especially for the edition. The paper is really lovely, and looks like a good foil for collages or printing. (To the left is one of the ledger papers that Golden makes.) |
It seems early, but I’ve been thinking about the design for my 2008 calendar. Every year the Pacific Center for the Book has an exhibition of member’s calendars in December and January. While looking through my notebooks recently, I found an entry about a lecture I attended by Alastair Johnston about his collection of artists’ books. He talked about a Dutch designer and printmaker H. N. Werkman (d. 1945). He’s known for his innovative printing techniques and avant-garde typography. He printed with all sorts of materials on his press, including wood furniture. I googled Werkman and found out he did lots of calendars as well as printing using stencilling and stamping. Although it’s in Dutch, the Groninger Museum website has lots of pictures of Werkman’s calendars as well as other examples of his work. There’s a good book about Werkman available from Amazon.
This month Domino Magazine’s on-line edition has a feature on affordable art prints and photographs, and includes my broadsides and prints. Take a look.
There’ve been many forum posts on Etsy about The Sampler, a promotional tool for indie businesses. They collect samples and promotional material from crafters and send them out to paid subscribers. Although it seems as if a lot of the subscribers are other crafters, I decided to put together a package for their June/July package. I’m the sort of person that needs deadlines or things don’t happen. I was in the planning stages of printing another set of type coasters and decided to print an extra 100 or so coasters. The plan is to send some to The Sampler and keep some to give away at other events or to repeat customers. Whether I send a contribution to the Sampler or not, I’ll have reviewed my promotional material and had a fun time making up a packaging design!
[I sent the Sampler 75 coasters — that’s the packaging on the left]
I’ve sold a lot of these “mini haiku” books made out of Japanese paper (or chiyogami). But I’ve had a hard time finding more paper with the same pattern when it’s time to make more books. I’ve been buying small sheets from a scrapbook supply store I found on the web, but there’s a lot of wasted paper. I’ve found many other stores that sell Japanese paper, but not this cherry blossom pattern. But today I found Paper Mojo. They have a huge selection and sell whole and 1/2 sheets.
By the way, my haiku book is constructed using a techinque I learned from Hedi Kyle, called the blizzard book. Japanese paper is perfect for this binding because it folds very crisply so the folds aren’t bulky.
These books are on sale in my shop. Also available are instructions and a kit for making this book.
My friend Cathy Miranker runs the youth program at SFCB. She coordinates (as well as teaches) bookmaking classes in the public schools all over the Bay Area, from San Jose to Marin. She’s planning a summer bookmaking institute for teachers this summer — 3 days of bookmaking ideas. I’ve helped her document and photograph the books the kids make, and the stories and pictures are always amazing in their inventiveness (even kindergarteners). Be sure to take a look at the gallery of kids’ work that Cathy has assembled for the book center’s website. UPDATE: Check out Cathy’s blog about bookmaking and kids.