What do you do again?

ecently, a dear friend of mine, Noelle, wrote about the transformation she has undergone since starting her graduate schooling and how, against all odds, she finally sees her place in the world. Graduate School has been the greatest thing I have ever done. Sure, I haven't had a good night's rest in over a year, and yeah, the massive amounts of debt resting on my shoulders keep me tethered to a Mr. Burns-like posture... But  similar to Noelle, graduate school has transformed my life.

I have always been a bit of a hippie child, thanks to my Dadu. But at times I have also been complacent with the convenience and consumerism of mainstream American culture. Book Arts works in direct opposition with these trends. The notion of craft is impossible to concretely define, as so many people have differing perceptions of the word and its meaning. But for any person who has labored consciously and deliberately with their hands to produce a piece of work which inspires reverence for the beauty, the precision, the form, and the execution of the piece understands what I mean when I say craft. It is the craftsmanship required in letterpress printing, bookbinding, and papermaking that makes the art form so valuable in our culture of consumption and disposal. When you hold a book in your hands and realize that the papers made from old rags, formed by precise and acute muscle memory of the maker, each letter in each word in each sentence in each paragraph on each page was set individually, one at a time, spaced specifically such that the text is most easily read by the viewer, the form of the book has been pieced together deliberately, each section sewn into the following, the spine covered with various adhesives, papers, and fabrics to allow the most flexibility for function and the most strength for longevity, you soon see the value in the object, the craftsmanship of the maker, and just how much we take for granted. How easily we forget what gratification can be had with working with our hands, how life altering it can be to create something, how grounded one feels when they remember the feeling of touch. How easily we forget this country was built by craftsman, artisans,  and farmers; how easily we forget this country was built with hands. Prominent culture in America places highest value on monetary gains, rather than personal gains.

My graduate experience has reinforced to me the power and importance of individual achievement concerning the expansion of ones knowledge, intellect, craft, and self fulfillment. Like Noelle, I am doing that what I love and can't express how happy I am to be able to do it, how grateful I am for the opportunity to cultivate these skills and values, and just how lucky I am that I found not only something that will make me happy, but something I am meant to do. I will never be rich doing what I do. But I will be happy and fulfilled. How many insurance salesmen can claim that?


*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project. 

First Big Conference

Last month I had the privilege to attend the American Printing History Association meeting, hosted by the Chesapeake chapter, held at the Corcoron College of Art + Design in Washington D.C. My professor was one of the main speakers and what better opportunity to attend my first conference.

Before the conference started the participants were offered a variety of tours to places like the the Library of Congress Rare Book room, the Government Printing Office, and the National Museum of American History. I chose the NMAH. First we traveled to the bowels of the building to visit the print shop. Due to possible lead contamination from the type, we all had to wear little hospital booties so we wouldn't track the lead through the rest of the museum. Inside there were a number of presses including a Chandler & Price clamshell platen press, a Vandercook SP25 Power flatbed press, three Civil War era  proof presses that were used on the battlefields, and a couple other presses I've never seen or heard of before and sadly don't remember the names. Then we moved onto the print collection room on a different floor of the museum where I got to see and touch an original Kelmscott Press Edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales!! I was so transfixed, I took about a million pictures of it, but of course nothing can compare to seeing the real thing. After the print room we went to the Dibner Library to look at collections of rare books including an original Galileo printed text about the moon, and a medieval medical text depicting "Wound Man," an illustration of a man who suffers all manner of wounds likely to inflict a medieval man.

After a short walk across the Mall, I enjoyed some refreshments and conversations at the Corcoron before listening to a beautiful talk by Boot Arts scholar Betty Bright. The New York Center for Book Arts had a panel discussing how they manage their facility. The Chesapeake chapter of the APHA had a panel discussing how they became printers, how they acquired equipment, and how they function as a group. Kathleen Walkup discussed the program she runs out of Mills College in Berkley, Ca. Lyll Harris, Kathleen's student, gave a wonderful presentation on one of the projects she has been working on involving using an medieval italian text as inspiration and model for a piece of her own. My professor, Steve Miller, spoke about his history in the Book Arts, how is work is driven by collaborations with authors and artists, and the people who have been most influential to him. His speech was so inspiring and encouraging for an up and comer as he illustrated how open and supportive communities are and the importance of establishing and maintaining them.

We also were able to go to the Corcoron's Georgetown campus and check out their printmaking facilities and listen to many more small sessions from how to use book arts to artfully represent scientific research to the logisctics of running your own shop, either independently or within an institution. It is amazing how inventive people can be in order to do what they love. We were so blessed to be able to have our closing reception in the Georgetown University Library, over looking the Potomac. The whole experience was so wonderful to experience and inspiring to know there are so many other passionate people who are excited and active.

While I was in DC, I was able to spend some time with my brother, Danny, who I don't get to spend much time with. We had a glorious few days of reckless dining, rogue pedestrianism, and irresponsible consumption of cheap doemstic beer which we are both too old to really do anymore. It was lovely. Highlight of the Weekend: Danny holding this puppy like a tuckered out toddler.

Lessons learned about Papermaking from Letterpress Printing

unny thing about Graduate School is that you never have any time for anything but school, work, and a little sleep. I've been told this is not everyone's experience with grad school. My dad brags about how he had more time in grad school than any time in his life. I do not, hence my ghastly maintenance of this blog. It should be of comfort to all that my absence is merely a result of throwing myself head first into my program and not just being lazy.

This semester has been a whirlwind of making paper, designing, printing, sharpening knives, and paring leather plus so much more. Its amazing how much work 15 credit hours really is. I recently finished a recipe book of my family's Thanksgiving recipes. Its a powerful experience when you come to the end of a project and reflect back on the efforts extended to create this object. This was my first project in which I made the paper. Let me tell you, there is nothing that teaches you about papermaking more than printing on it. I learned so much about how you want to form the sheets for letterpress printing. I used old cotton t shirts Boy and I had lying around. You would never know that the cotton had pit stains and the like from the bright white sheets I pulled. I don't know the science behind it, but somehow when I turned off the Hollander beater to drain my pulp, that cotton looked virginal, as my friend Mukti would say.

In pulling the sheets, I was too stingy on the amount of pulp in the vat and too generous with the amount of water. The result was very thin sheets. And I mean thin. I was determined to stick with them for my book however.

As for the book cover, I made the paper from seasonally patterned fabric I found at the fabric store. At the time I was more concerned about the color and didn't really think about the quality of the fabric. Big mistake. The fabric was similar to the cotton calico prints you can get for quilting but was very low in quality. The Hollander blew the fibers apart such that running your fingers through the pulp, you felt nothing. Ordinarily, you can feel the pulp run through your fingers with the consistency of whipped rice, or shredded wheat.

Each couch (pronounced cooch) resulted in half a sheet on the felt and half still on the mould. Out of the whole vat which should have rendered 20ish sheets, I only got out 5. I was so disappointed. I did the math and were I to be creative, I could still cover the majority for the edition. And the color was spot on.

During for first print run, I realized that I really needed to dampen my paper. Dampening paper, while it sounds scary, is actually one of the best things you can do to produce a quality print and impression. Imagine you spilled a glass of wine on the counter. You grab your dry, hard kitchen sponge to clean it up. You get some of the wine, but you certainly didn't absorb very much. But when you dampen the sponge and then lap up the puddle, you are able to really absorb it. It is the same with dampening paper and printing. Moisture is attracted to and bonds with moisture. It works that way in papermaking, it works that way in printing. The ink absorbs so much more on dampened paper. You have cleaner lines, more even inking, gorgeous impression, and a print that is so fun to roll off the cylinder you get chills every time. With each meeting of paper and type, the printer feels the embrace which really teaches you what it means to create a lasting impression. But all puns aside, it is a practice altering moment for printers and one that not many practice anymore in the interest of speed and convenience.


So what did I learn about papermaking through printing?

• Thicker is better (within reason)
• The quality of your fibers will determine the quality of you sheets
• Dampen. Always. (within reason)

*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project.

What Summer?

ne thing about getting two masters degrees in three years, you have no life. For me, this includes summer break. I mentioned previously about my awesome time at the University of Utah's Book Arts department in May. Sadly, this remains the extend of any exciting summer activities. Instead of hitting up the beach or travailing about Europe like other people I know, I chose to stay in this sweaty little burg and take some much needed Library classes. Thats right, ladies and gentleman, I voluntarily stayed in 105 degree heat and humidity to learn about the Dewey Decimal *ahem* Classification (not system, get it right...), HTML coding, and just how much money academic libraries spend on databases. Some of my classes were wonderful, some were not so much.

Now, I'm consumed with thoughts of the impending semester which start in a mere week. Not much of a break. The good thing about this experiment they call graduate school is that because I am doing two programs, each semester is a chance to mix it up, do something different, and prevent the fatigue of doing the same thing all the time. Now my mind races with prices of sharpening stones, goat skins, making my own paper, the complexities of really good typographic design, and how the hell I am going to exert any kind of authority to the newbies when I still feel like the newbie. This semester is going to be a doozie for me. I've got a full plate of classes, plus an assistantship, all while still working at the special collections library. Here is what I'm going to be taking:

Printing III - Students initiate and produce an edition of a relatively extensive book and/or participate in production of a Parallel Editions volume. Emphasis is on production, with manuscript selection and editing being critical aspects. Photopolymer platemaking processes are introduced in a desktop publishing environment adapted to historic tools and mediums. Such subjects as marketing and distribution of limited edition books are covered.

Binding III - A concentrated study of the use of leather as a binding cover material. Various binding styles and structures appropriate to leather treatment are studied. Familiarity with the preparation and application of leather in bookbinding is achieved through a series of assigned projects culminating in a final project. Though not the primary focus of the course, binding design and innovation will be studied and explored.

Tool Sharpening - For all my new fancy leather paring tools, and perhaps, my kitchen knives.

Book Repair - I don't even know where this class is going to go, but it will be a great way to learn to repair books and will let me know how I would like conservation type stuff.

Directed Research - 100 hours of papermaking. I will be making all the paper for my projects this year using old t-shirts and bed sheets.

Practicum in Teaching in the Book Arts - I will be assisting my printing professor with the first year printing class. I'll be there to help the students and do demonstrations.

Graduate Assistantship - With the help of another second year student, I will be assisting the Book Arts Department with any and every thing that they need. I'll be maintaining the work spaces, organizing and managing the exhibition space on the fifth floor, as well as planning for local events we are involved in.

In October there is a conference for people who wish to teach letterpress in Washington DC that I am going to look into going to as well.

A lot, right? Its going to be a lot of work. I will be tired and often. I will be cranky at some points, but I also will have a blast for most of it. I'm already looking forward to Christmas break back in the snowy mountains where it will be cold and I can sleep in!


*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project.

"The Complex of All of These" - Amazing Video

I discovered this amazing video a few days ago and am transfixed by it. I find myself watching it over and over. I love photo streams like this. The artist really shows how intricate and difficult it is to make something completely by hand. So much skill and patience is required for this kind of work and her process is mesmerizing. For those of you interested you should check it out. This is the kind of stuff I'm learning to do and its so wonderful to see the process.

Chapbook

Spring semester I letterpress printed a 20 page, 5 folio, single signature chapbook containing images and text created and written by yours truly. This part fact, part fiction piece pushed me from the ends of devastation and euphoria and everywhere in between.I was faced with, what felt at the time, insurmountable obstacles.

Writing your own material to print is incredibly rewarding and highly frustrating. I am not the creative writer in this little duo, and I have always struggled allowing people read my writing. But I wanted to get this idea that has been rattling around in my head. Boy was going back to where it all began, he and I. And it got me thinking about this cool idea for a chapbook. Only trouble with that is the words you write need to be worthy of being printed on the page. Pressure to write something good...

The extent of my previous art training was an AP Art History class I took in high school (that's right, I got a 5, people). I have no formal training in design, drawing, or even the most basic functions of photoshop. The most consistent thought in my brain during that semester: "Why the hell did I think I could get a master's in ART when I can't even draw?" The artwork to accompany the text was the biggest struggle I encountered. I spent tens of hours pouring over certain images I was determined to make work. Finally, with the support of my professor, I had to abandon all the work I had done and start from scratch. I was faced with not relying on other sources but having to create the images all on my own. Again, I was faced with creating something worth creating.

After hours of toil, tears, and a few break throughs I have my first printed chapbook, The City.

Printing Project: French Fold

First Semester of my printing class was mostly just to get us used to the processes. We had five different projects ranging in different styles of printing and as of yet I still don't have any pictures of all of them. This semester was meant to get us into larger projects and teach us how to plan several elements at once.

The relationship between text and image, letter and letter, baseline and baseline is a delicate, complicated balance between white space and legibility, readability and optical alignment. I've read all kinds of essays, papers, and chapters from old typographic style manuals explaining how all the different styles of type faces interact or fight against the reader. In any project where you have a body of text, more energy goes into the planning than into the printing. You spend hours pouring over the text not only looking for typos but line spacing, letter spacing, how many words are in a line, how many lines are in the paragraph, where the text lies on the page, how does the text interact with white space, does the text belong on the recto or the verso, how close should the text lie to the fore edge, how close to the gutter? Hours and hours of planning...

French Fold Assignment: Our first project this semester is called a french fold wherein everything is printed on one side of a sheet of paper then the paper is folded twice. I chose to make a traditional french fold, like the birthday cards my brothers and I printed out from the family computer back in the good old days of dot matrix printers and Prodigy. Anyone remember that? Anyway, in terms the kids from day care would understand, you take a piece of paper and fold it hamburger style, then fold it again hot dog style and you've got yourself a traditional french fold.

For the text I had boy write a short short (a short story aboout 200 words or less) and I created the images.
The images are the nutmeg tree and the nutmeg seed. I found the images online, traced them and transferred them onto a linoleum block. The linoleum block is then carved around the image, leaving a relief block to be printed. First I printed the lightest color, in this case white. Then I carved away all that I wanted to stay white and printed the next darker color. For the cover the next color was light green. Then I carved away all that I wanted to stay light green and printed the last color, dark green. This exact print cannot be printed again, because by the end you only have the darkest color of the block left to print from. This process is called a suicide block. This process is incredibly time consuming with all the carving and multiple press runs, but incredibly fun and exciting. I personally love the raw, jagged lines. Its almost like a wood cut, but not quite :)
The inside image is made in the same process. You can only barely see the white in this photo (an argument for artists books in person, not online). I printed the red next, then the brown.
In the long process of planning the text, I had the crazy idea I would have this display letter at the beginning of the text. So I had to figure out just how much room to make for this O, what size font to use and just how to place it so it looks optically aligned. I printed the text first. I struggled soo much getting that damn little O in just the right place. But finally I got it right!

The Elevator: A History... And a little Print too

Setting: UA Amelia Gorgas Library.
The main library at the University of Alabama consists of seven floors. Seven. Due to the ridiculous numbering structure imposed upon this building, many believe there to only be five. My departments both live on the "fifth" floor which is actually the seventh. Why the confusion? There exist two "mezzanine" floors which happen to be numbered the same number as the previous level with a delightful M pulling up the rear. The levels are labeled as follows: 1, 2, 2M, 3, 4, 4M, 5. Confusing? Indeed, particularly when the expectations of the average freshman student exclude their ability to form an argument. The building consists of two public elevators and one staff elevator which will henceforth be the only elevator I occupy. What follows is the story of my day...

I arrive at school at 8:43am. Tired from the previous day where I had spent eight hours working the press for my first print from my Suicide Linoleum block, I lock up Lady and realize I have forgotten the plastic grocery bag I usually bring to cover her seat in the daily event of rain. Slightly perturbed but determined to be optimistic about my day, I walk into the library to find the elevators swamped with librarians with galleys and galleys of books to be shelved in different areas throughout the library. No Worries, I thought. I'll just take the stairs, a little more exercise won't hurt. After 103 stairs (I counted), I arrive in the Type Lab ready for my second print.

A little shop talk and off to the press. Luckily I jump at the chance and get to use class time to print. I can't find the color in the swatch I wanted to use yesterday, so I find another I don't like as much and get to mixing my ink. After a few minutes and some bating from my professor, I change the color mixture towards what I had originally wanted (he found the swatch in 3 seconds). After a moment later I realize I made a much better color than either and am not too discouraged about my day. Finding, mixing, blotting and warming up the ink has taken half an hour to forty-five minutes.

Next I clean the five rollers on the press to make sure there is no residual ink from who ever used the press last. The day before I skipped this step and had to clean off all the ink I had put on because my blue was coming out green. Always clean the rollers first! Wait fifteen minutes to let the rollers dry. Then I get the ink on my pallet knife, bead the ink onto the idle roller of the press, flip on the motor, knock the press into "Trip" position, and lower the idle roller and the oscillating roller onto the two rubber inking rollers and watch how the ink slowly covers the rollers. A couple more beadings of ink and I'm ready for my proofing. But before I can move on, I have to arrange my linoleum block.

The print I run must match perfectly with the print I ran the day before which can be tricky. Thankfully, I made a map of my furniture and quickly I can arrange the press bed just as I did the previous day. Soon I have all my furniture set up, the appropriate amount of packing under my block to get it type high, and have tightened the quoins so my block won't move. Another twenty minutes.

I "Trip" my block twice to get plenty of ink on there, place my newsprint paper in the paper guides, knock the press into "print," and roll out my first proof. I am ecstatic. The ink is beautiful. But I have a lot of work left before I can print. There is a lot of chatter in my proof. Chatter is the lines left on the block that are relief enough so they will print. Some of my cutting was not deep enough from the previous night. I take out my block, get my cutting tools and work out what chatter I want to keep and what I want to cut out. This takes another half an hour to forty-five minutes. I run another proof and decide I want to take out the very thinnest piece of packing. Another five minutes getting that out. Now I am ready. I print.

4 hours, 2 press cleanings, 50 prints drying. Not too shabby. I stick around, helping others carry their prints to drying racks, carve my block for the print I must do again in a few days and by 2:45pm I'm beat, sick of the Type Lab, and ready to go home to my Kiddo.

I go to the public elevators. Remember, I am on the fifth (seventh) floor. I get in and press 1 and silently hope that by some miracle it will not stop on any other floor. What is about to happen is not exceptional which is exactly why it is irritating. The elevator stops on floor 4M (the floor immediately below mine, also known as the true sixth floor). A girl gets in, goes to press 1, sees I have done so and stands in her respective opposite side of the elevator. The elevator stops on 3 (fourth). Bama girl walks in wearing Bama girl uniform (Nike Dri-Fit Tempo shorts, oversized T-Shirt almost as long as shorts) and confidently presses 2M (third). Immediatly, Bama girl realizes she doesn't know what the hell she's doing...

BG: Shit! Oh God! Shit y'all, what floor do I want?
Me: What do you want?
BG: Blank Stare
4M: What are you looking for?
BG: Blank Stare
4M: A book?
BG: Blank Stare
Me: Circulation?
BG: The desk. I need the desk.
Me: The CIRCULATION desk?
BG: The big desk, you know, outside the elevator?
Me: The circulation desk. Its on 2.
BG: Laughs as she hits 2

The elevator doors close, we travel one floor down to 2M (third), the doors open, no one is there but a girl sitting at a table and we all avoid awkward glances. The doors close again. Down to 2 (actually the second floor now), BG gets out, the doors close again. 4M girl turns to me, "You just saw every floor, huh?" "Pretty much." "That probably happens to you every time, huh?" "Pretty much." We arrive at 1, the doors open and floods of people invade the elevator before 4M and I even have a chance to get out. 4M shoots me a glance which says That sucks, I'm sorry, and walks away.

I go out to Lady only to discover it has rained. Her seat is wet. I wipe it off as best I can. Get on and ride home with a wet bum, and find this waiting for me...
Caption: Here's a treat for my Bebe.

Moral of the story: Chocolate and boyfriends make everything better :)

So What Have I Been Up To...

Two weeks of school down and what do I have to show for myself?

Here are some stats:

Days of the week I have class: 4
Additional hours required per week for studio work: 10
Number of rooms I occupy at the Library for class, studio and homework: 3
Number of pages read thus far: 401
Number of people in my largest class: 29
Number of people in my smallest class: 9
Number of stairs to the fifth floor of the Library: 106
Pieces of letter press sorted: 900+
Sandragraphs I've printed: 40
Paper Sections for books I've cut: 20
Single pamphlets I've made: 2
Double pamphlets I've made: 2
Money spent on tools and supplies: $98.49
Hilarious Drooling incidents in class: 1

Using these tools, I made...

These!!



I know it may not seem like much now, but just you wait. Bookbinding I will be making a new book every week. This doesn't mean I'm only making one book either. Several copies need to be made in order to turn in for my assignments. Practice makes perfect, right?

This is a print I made in my Printing class. Thick glue, scraps of fabric, thread and muslin glued onto a block of plywood and set to dry. Once dry, set it up in the bed of the press, ink it up and away you go! This picture is only a proof so the actual print has more detail and is not quite finished. Tomorrow I print them all again, but with text! Once I have the final product I'll put up a better picture.

My lecture classes, while not as physically fun, are equally interesting and stimulating. We talk of censorship and restoration, what makes a book a book, learn how to identify the format of a book, if it is made with handmade paper, and if a section or gathering of leaves is comprised of one piece of paper folded and cut. And we read read read.

So this is what I have been doing so far. I haven't even gotten dirty yet. Give me a couple more weeks and I'll be in the thick of it. So until I have more lovely hand-made goodness to show you I'll leave you with the deep thoughts of the trio sitting behind us at Jason's Deli...

*Imagine a soft, somber, reverent voice*

"I mean, I just don't think anyone really understands...understands what Alabama Football means to my life."

Textbook Nerdiness

I bought my text books today. I was flipping through and got excited about some of the illustrations.

For you nerds who are interested...