Two of my books [Persimmons and Snow Flakes (1858)], plus a dozen other books, are in a new exhibition at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland OR. See the exhibition catalog here
Tag: Snow Flakes
Making of my book Snow Flakes (1858).
Snow Flakes
The last step in making my newest artist’s book, Snow Flakes, was to put the year on the cover and take pictures. The finished book is now available for sale here
Ledger Books
After nearly 2 years fiddling around with an early Emily Dickinson poem, I finally got serious and finished the design so I could take it to Codex next month. It’s in the form of a ledger book, and I’ve been making the covers this week. I’ve never made so many jigs to get the pieces to line up! Getting the corners placed just right has been the biggest challenge for me.
I’ve also been sewing the signatures that go in the book. Here’s everything assembled, ready to punch and sew…
More Handwriting
The other day I wrote that I couldn’t find an Emily Dickinson’s handwriting font. Turns out there is—a reader sent me a link to this free font. I tried it on a Dickinson poem I’m including in a book I’m designing. Here’s the poem
Snow flakes.
I counted till they danced so
Their slippers leaped the town –
And then I took a pencil
To note the rebels down –
And then they grew so jolly
I did resign the prig –
And ten of my once stately toes
Are marshalled for a jig!
Here it is in Dickinson’s hand (from the Emily Dickinson Archive)
Here it is in the free font
I realized that I wanted something that was like Dickinson’s handwriting but legible. The free font was a start, but wasn’t as readable as I wanted. It also looks more like printing, rather than cursive. And while Dickinson did print many of her later poems, Snow Flakes is a very early poem when she was using script. So after looking at a lot of Dickinson’s handwriting on the archive, I waded in to make my own font, but with only the letters I would need. The free font package let me make the letterforms, but I had to do an awful lot of fiddling with kerning and baselines in indesign in order to make them work visually. Here’s my latest take:
Distinctive Handwriting
My sister visited over Thanksgiving, and when she looked at my matchbox Miss Emily’s Desk, she asked why I didn’t use Dickinson’s handwriting. The obvious answer is that no one has made a font of her hand. But that got me thinking that I have on my list to see what it takes to make a font of my own handwriting. Turns out it’s pretty simple to make a so-so font (kerning and baseline problems being the first glaring issue) for free at PaintFont.com. I also took a look at Dickinson’s handwriting, which is very unique.
(From the Emily Dickinson Archive)
And found this by Emily Babcock, “A page of a booklet of communications from the Prophetess Anna and a native spirit named Carifick P.” (1843) on this blog. He says “Here, each letter appears to be related to the Latin alphabet but written in the shape of a flower.”
![Emily Babcock, [A page of a booklet of communications from the Prophetess Anna and a native spirit named Carifick P.] (1843)](http://www.greenchairpress.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/communications-from-the-prophetess1.jpg)
Group Prompt Challenge
Last February I asked 2 friends here in Santa Fe to do a monthly word-based prompt challenge with me. One of us would select a word the first of the month and then we’d get together toward the end of the month to show the books we’d made, inspired by the word. I was first to pick, using the OED word-of-the-day:
mim, adj. and adv. Reserved or restrained in manner or behaviour, esp. in a contrived or priggish way; affectedly modest, demure; primly silent, quiet; affectedly moderate or abstemious in diet (rare). Also (occas.) of a person’s appearance.
I read quite a bit of poetry before finding this early (1858) Emily Dickinson poem:
Snow flakes.
I counted till they danced so
Their slippers leaped the town–
And then I took a pencil
To note the rebels down–
And then they grew so jolly
I did resign the prig–
And ten of my once stately toes
Are marshalled for a jig!
(It’s also one of only a handful of poems that Dickinson titled.) I liked the idea of counting snowflakes, which seems like such an impossible task. I imagined Dickinson keeping a ledger book of snowflake tallies, but getting carried away as she starts to do her little jig.
Here’s my book, made to look like a ledger and using the Emily Austin font I bought several years ago. This font comes with ink blots, which you can see in the final picture below, as I imagine Dickinson getting more and more excited about the snow flakes.
