Save the Words

I was immediately attracted by Save the Words website—lots of color and typographic variety and a humorous audio track. If you are a lover of words, you will be too. Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language, I learned, leaving us with only 7,000 words for 90% of everything we write. The mission of the website creators is to save those words that have fallen by the wayside.

Clicking on a word brings up a definition of the word and an adopt this word option. Alas, my one criticism of the site is that there is no pronunciation guide. I hope one will be added in the future, audible preferred. By adopting a word and promoting it in one of the myriad, often humorous ways suggested, such as in a meeting (instead of encouraging attendees to think laterally, how about think outside the nidifice), as a pet name (Ictuate, go fetch!), as a tattoo or graffiti (!), or in your next game of Scrabble (creating endless arguments and debates using words such as pudify or stagma), you can keep these words alive and in the English language. If you are a real logophile, you can sign up and have a new word emailed to you every day.

There are other sites with collections of obscure words. One I found interesting but have not explored in depth is International House of Logorrhea, an online dictionary of weird and unusual words. Check out their Compendium of Lost Words.

Exhibit: A Castle On the Ocean

It took Wataru Itou, a young art major at a Tokyo university, four years to construct this amazing castle, complete with electrical lights and a moving train, made completely of paper!

Beautiful Old Libraries

The libraries of my childhood were two. One, a modern affair, was a 10-minute walk from my home, situated on a corner of the neighborhood public park. I was 12-years old when ground was broken for this library. I remember watching it being built and the thrill, when it opened, of getting my first library card, and subsequent visits where I would pull a little stool, on which to sit, up to a bookshelf to browse and select the books I would carry home. Later, in high school, I discovered the main library, downtown, with its rooms of dark wood shelving, sturdy tables and chairs, and its distinctive books scent. I spent many a date with my high school beaux doing homework in this library.

I still use the library, a lot. At least once a week, I drive to my local branch to check out movies and pick up the books I have reserved and directed to this branch through my library's online site. I rarely buy novels or audio books because I rarely reread or relisten to them so I am grateful to have a source of "free" books, but I do buy lots of reference books on topics such as gardening, cooking, beading, bookbinding, and dog training, to name a few. I use the library to make decisions about these types of book purchases. So, you can imagine my dismay when I learned a week ago that on Friday, June 19, the Governor of the state of Ohio, in an effort to balance the state budget, had proposed a cut of 50% for Public Library Funding and that voting on this proposal would be June 30!

The effects of this cut will be devastating. We all know that libraries educate and promote literacy, something that is good for our society. Libraries also contribute to the safety of our communities. A child who likes and uses the library is unlikely to become a delinquent or grow up to become an adult criminal, and is far more likely to graduate from high school and continue his or her education. And in these hard economic times, we need our libraries more than ever. In my city, library use is up as the unemployed use computers to search for jobs and borrow books and movies they cannot afford to buy. If this budget cut is passed, half of my city's branches, 20 of 40, will be closed permanently, and 250 library personnel will lose their jobs.

Fortunately, library patrons across the state sprang into action, sending emails to and calling the governor's office and their state legislators. In my city alone, library supporters sent 35,000 emails to legislators and the governor and deluged them with phone calls. Almost all members of the Ohio General Assembly issued statements in support of libraries. Now we await the vote.

All of this is preamble to linking you to a blog entry of beautiful libraries at Curious Expeditions. What memories do you have of the libraries of your youth?

Photos (in order):

Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Boston Copley Public Library, Boston, MA

Widener Library, Harvard, Cambridge, MA

Cornell Law School Library, Ithaca, NY

Mass Production Bookbinding

An industrial film, ca. 1961, showing the work of bookbinders and the final steps in the process of manufacturing printed books. From the "Americans at Work" series. Courtesy of The Prelinger Archives.

After experiencing the slow process of making a hardbound book (codex) by hand, I was fascinated by this film and how the various processes were mechanized. The collating of book signatures was my favorite. I could not help thinking what a mess it would be if one of those ladies lost her rhythm, and was reminded of the Lucille Ball candy factory episode.

Exhibit: Once Upon A Book

Wish I lived close by and could see this exhibit. The San Francisco Center for the Book exhibit, Once Upon a Book, May 4 - Aug 07, 2009, is their second in a series of children's book exhibitions. This show explores the creative process in the work of six critically acclaimed illustrators: Elisa Kleven, Remy Charlip, Maira Kalman, David Macaulay, Chris Raschka and Brian Selznick.

I love these videos in which the illustrators talk about their creative processes. But, be careful, they might lead you to other YouTube videos on the bookarts.

Origami Documentary: Between The Folds

A high-resolution version of this trailer can be seen here.

While looking for information about folded book forms I came across this trailer for Green Fuse Films' current documentary project, Between the Folds (working title, Exploring Origami). They have wrapped primary shooting and are in post-production. A special sneak preview will be showing May 31, 2008, at the Parrish Art Museum:

This feature-length documentary illuminates the beauty, complexity and powerful duality of origami in the 21st century, and the unexpected lives it shapes. Viewers will travel far beyond conventional child's craft to discover unforeseen directions in origami that decidedly blur the line between dizzying science and dazzling art. With world-renowned master-artists as guides – many with extensive backgrounds in the advanced sciences – the film sheds light on how origami uniquely fuses form and function, science and sculpture, ancient and new. Produced and directed by Vanessa Gould. Running time approximately 60 minutes.

In the meantime, here is another little film, 6 Artists: On Origami, 13-minutes long, specifically created by Green Fuse Films for the Mingei International Museum in connection with their origami exhibit in 2007.

Sites of some of the featured artists in the film:
Michael LaFosse
Eric Joisel
Paul Jackson
Robert J. Lang
Tom Hull

Book Arts & Copyright

Good grief! Where does the time go? I am referring not only to my absence but to the time I have spent today reading about a subject with which I have a basic knowledge but about which I never had the desire to deeply research, and to be honest, I still do not, due to all the legalese. However, a posting on the Handmade Book Community Forum on the issue of copyright led me to a three-part posting on Lee Kottner’s blog, Spawn of Blogorrhea. The posts are rather long, so you will need to set aside a bit of time, but it will be time well spent.

After reading the posts, I just happened to look over at the sidebar and low and behold, there was a listing for this blog. How embarrassing. Five months have passed with no posting here. That lit my fire.

So, if you have ever wondered if you are stepping on any legal toes when you use work other than your own in your book creations, this is a good place to start:

Book Arts & Copyright, Part I: Reuse, Repurposing, or Just Plain Stealing?
Book Arts & Copyright, Part II: Finding Legit Sources
Book Arts & Copyright, Part III: Don't Be Evil

Perfect Binding

No, perfect binding does not refer to a flawlessly bound book but rather to a method of securing loose leaves into a solid text block by means of an adhesive rather than by sewing, stitching, etc. It is an easy binding to do. Photojojo has a nice how-to video of Judy Lee, owner of Five and a Half, a bookmaking and design studio specializing in journals made from sustainable materials, showing you how to make your own perfect-bound journal using two 4×6 photos for the cover, some paper, glue, and a few other tools.

Book Chair

Interesting idea, but I cannot imagine being comfortable in this chair, especially when loaded with books ... books hitting the back of one's legs and where does one rest one's arms? I think of this more as a conceptual chair.

Digital Book Design and Publishing

This is the first book I bought on digital publishing. Even though it is not a recent publication, it is general enough to still be a good introduction.

FROM THE FRONT FLAP

CONTRARY to futurists’ predictions that computer culture would mark the demise of the book, electronic technologies, by changing the way books are produced and distributed, are creating a renaissance in book culture. At least as significant to print publishing as Gutenberg’s moveable type in its time, electronic, or desktop, publishing has brought the tools of book production to anyone who owns or has access to a personal computer. Add a scanner and printer, page layout and image processing programs and you have, at your desktop, a means to work with typography, images and page design undreamed of fifteen years ago. This book covers all the essentials of digital bookmaking for photographers, artists, designers and for writers who want to move beyond the manuscript to the page. Based on his years of work as a photographer, bookmaker and teacher, Douglas Holleley has developed a clear and considered approach to “Digital Book Design and Publishing.” You will find a progression through the process of bookmaking, from a consideration of maquette and materials through printing and bookbinding, as well as a step-by-step guide to page layout and image processing software. A rich and varied selection of reproductions from historical and contemporary illustrated books and artists’ books places digitally produced books in a historical continuum.

Noriko Ambe: Linear Actions & Cutting Project

Noriko Ambe meticulously cuts, and layers hundreds of pieces of Yupo, a synthetic, translucent paper made in Japan, her biggest work having a depth of 1300 sheets of paper. The shapes that emerge call to mind topographical maps, the annual rings of trees, the vastness of space, landscapes, erosion, canyons, aerial views and the passage of time as both subject and process. While many of her works involve unmarked white paper, some involve altering carefully chosen preprinted materials ... because printed matter conveys a message automatically ... such as newspapers, reference books and magazines.

Pop-Up Cards to Make

Need a very special card for someone? The Canon 3D Papercraft site has a number of nice pop-ups that you can make. Just download the free instructions, print out the parts and get to work. No need to figure out how to do it yourself . The site also has downloads for gift boxes, animals and origami. You can even print your own Chiyogami (origami paper).

Altered Books: Markings

There are many ways to alter a book. One of the most basic is marking. Most of the pages on the Altered Books site have been altered in this manner, using basic mark-making tools and materials such as pencil, pen, ink, crayon, paint. The result is often poetic. It is not as easy it might appear. Take a look and check out the links to other sites that feature altered books.

House of Books

A book lover's dream house, Casa di Libri. Created by sculptor and carver Livio de Marchi, all the furniture, the tables, beds, desks and chairs, incorporate carved book forms. Even the exterior is compiled of wooden books.

Flickr: Coptic Binding

I recently discovered these beautiful examples of coptic stitch and caterpillar binding, by tussenpozen, on the Flickr website. I was surprised to read in her profile that she is ... a young, creative, legally deafblind, zenbuddhistic woman. See her work here.

CBAS: An Afternoon of Papermaking

An "arty" collage of several photographs of most of the people who attended this get together at CBAS member Margaret Rhein's papermaking studio, Terrapin Mill. Several people from the Indiana Book Group made the 100-mile trip to spend the afternoon with us in what was described by one attendee as "paradise," referring to our hostess's beautiful garden and koi pond, a tiny bit of which is visible in the background of this photograph.

Before getting down to the fun of papermaking, we had two important pieces of business, getting to know each other and lunch! We gathered on the deck and those who brought book-related materials, and books they had created, shared them with the group.

The potluck lunch was fabulous!

Margaret, beginning her demonstration, the skylight above shining a spotlight on her presentation. We will be using mini papermaking frames, not the larger one she is holding.

Top left: Couching the very wet pulp onto a felt. A mini frame can be seen in the shadowy foreground.
Top right: Showing how to create an embossed effect.
Bottom left: Bottles of colored pulp.
Bottom right: Drawers of hand-dried plant material, most from Margaret's garden, which she uses in her paper and which she generously shared with us.

Everyone is really concentrating on creating their own unique mini works of art.

The final step, stacking all our felts and pressing out excess water.
Top left: Stacking felts.
Top right: Board placed on top of stacks and waiting to be pushed into the hydraulic press.
Bottom left: Pumping the press. Note the water flowing out.
Bottom right: Removing damp paper and placing on blue paper towels for transportation home and drying.

Voilà, paper!

Folk Typography

Flickr is a wonderful photo sharing website. Many of the photos are organized into groups or pools. This one, Folk Typography was created to gather together photographs of surprising, original letter forms created unselfconsciously by people who are not designers, typographers, calligraphers, or graffiti artists-- in other words, people outside of all traditional schools of typographic influence.

CBAS Study Group: Alice Balterman's Altered Books

Everyone loves to visit artist studios and Alice Balterman's studio, the site of the CBAS study group's May meeting, was no exception. The well-know Cincinnati collage and altered book artist shared examples of her work and suggested some techniques we might use if we wanted to try altering a book. Alice said she saves everything, pictures, postcards, paper, letters, stamps etc. How she keeps track of it all is a mystery but she always finds just what she needs when she needs it.

Two other group members, Ruth and Nikki, shared examples of their work and explained their altered book processes. Nikki is still working on her first book, a fairly large one and suggested that first timers start with a small book. She also suggested sewing or gluing pages together to reduce the number of pages that need altering. Ruth found a Japanese book on dogs and some band-aids in different shapes and colors (some printed with doggie images) in a dollar store. Inspired, she cut and arranged the band-aids into dog shapes and was on her way to creating her humorous altered dog book.

Our three talented book artists, Ruth, Alice and Nikki.

A table with some of the many books Alice has altered. The open book is Ruth's. She has a wonderful sense of humor.

Alice's work area and some of her tools and supplies. She works on one project at a time, finishing one before starting another. Wish I could do that.

Here, we looked through a selection of books from her library and wrote down titles of books we would like to add to our libraries.

Exhibit: Hand Bookbindings, Plain and Simple to Grand and Glorious

The craft and art of binding books by hand was vividly chronicled in an exhibition at Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Entitled Hand Bookbindings: Plain and Simple to Grand and Glorious, the exhibition ran from November 10, 2002 through April 20, 2003 in the Library’s main gallery. While conventional wisdom holds that books cannot be judged by their covers, visitors had a chance to do just that from the most humble of volumes to the most luxurious; from the monastic manuscripts of the twelfth century to the special editions of the twentieth.

Now that the exhibition has run its course, it has been turned into an online display of over two hundred beautifully photographed bindings, divided thematically into twenty-six categories. All the photographs can be enlarged and for even closer inspection, there is a magnifier (the square in the lower right hand corner of each book). Simply click and move it over the area you want to view.

The twenty-six categories:

Introduction - The Early Codex and Coptic Sewing - Early European Sewing and Board Attachment - Later Sewing And Boards Labor-Saving Methods And Materials - Endleaves - Endbands - Edge Decoration - Clasps, Furniture, and Other Closures - Blind Tooling - Panels And Rolls - Gold Tooling - Binding Waste - Aldines - Italian Bindings - German Bindings - French Bindings - British Bindings - Temporary Bindings - Onlays - Bindings For Collectors - Binders' Marks - Modern Conservation Binding - Large And Small, Fixed And Portable - Embroidered Bindings - Bindings From Early Americ - Twentieth Century English And American Bindings

Exhibit: Bookworks 8 (LitChick Blog)

The Cincinnati Book Arts Society (CBAS) is holding its 8th annual exhibit of traditional and contemporary handmade books in the Atrium of the Main Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library from May 2 to June 25. Check out this blog for more photos: LitChick: Art of the book celebrated in new exhibit.

Pictured Artist: Margaret Rhein