Just a quick announcement that I’ve replaced the “Artwork” page on this site with a great little gallery script called Plogger. I’ve uploaded all the artwork so far, and will keep adding to it over the coming weeks.
Anyway, check out the new artwork pages and see what you think.
Yesterday I spent the day in London doing a whistle-stop tour of a few exhibitions as background research for the Book of the Erinyes.
First stop was the V&A in South Kensington to see a small display of Fine Bindings for the Man Booker Prize 2009 designed by the Society of Designer Bookbinders.
It’s only a small display (6 books) but it’s well worth seeing these bindings “in the flesh” as they’re great. The display can be found in Room 74 (20th Century section) of the V&A until 21st March 2010, and admission is free.
The binding illustrated here is by Rachel Ward-Sale. More information about all six bindings, their binders, and the techniques & materials used can be found on the Society of Designer Bookbinders website.
After the V&A I headed up to Soho to see Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption at the Lazarides Gallery in Greek Street — an exhibition of political comic book and graphic novel work by artists and writers including Dave McKean, Pat Mills, Peter Kuper, Janek Koza, Dan Goldman, and pop culture figures Lightspeed Champion and V V Brown.
I’m particularly fond of Dave McKean’s artwork—especially the magnificent Sandman covers—so it was great to see some of his larger-scale collages close-up. His artwork on display was about the widespread corruption surrounding AIDS relief to villages in China.
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption is on until 28th November 2009 at the Lazarides Gallery, Greek Street, London. Admission is free.
I’ve been putting some hours into the Letterpress side of the Book of the Erinyes recently, and have made a fair bit of progress.
Yesterday evening I managed to print out the text for the first section (there’s only one page of text per section).
I’d spent an evening the previous week meticulously setting most of the type (shown inked up and sitting on the press, below), which just left me to finish it off this week and start printing.
After a handful of adjustments for typos or overly-worn letters I was lucky enough to get a decent print on the first real attempt.
In some ways it’s strange — I could type and print the text for this page on my computer in less than five minutes, so why spend six hours slowly picking each individual letter, arrangingthem, inking it up, running test prints…?
The answer is in the finished result. If you’ve ever seen a piece of letterpress-printed type you’ll have noticed the way the metal letters slightly indent the paper and the shine of the oil-based ink (it sparkles just a bit when it catches the light).
The Book of the Erinyes is being printed on a heavy (220gm) cartridge paper, which is probably the thickest paper I can get away with putting through the press. The body text is 12pt Goudy Old Style, with larger sizes of the same font being used for headings.
The combination of letterpress printed type and a good quality paper makes the finished page really enjoyable to handle and hold. I was thinking of scanning a copy, but a scan just can’t catch the tactile qualities of the paper or the look of oil-based ink sitting on the surface of it.
One of the fashions of the “Gothic Revival” during the mid-1840s to 1860s was for “monastic” style bindings that imitated the Medieval wooden book covers.
Rather than reproducing these in wood, the Victorians (presumably for reasons of cost and mass production) recreated this style with Plaster of Paris and a filler (possibly papier-mâché and antimony?), which was then formed in a rigid frame usually made of metal. Another source suggests they were made from “fibrous plaster and paper pulp reinforced with metal”. I suspect some more research is needed on my part!
The technique was patented by the British firm J. Jackson & Son. Print runs of over 1000 were needed to offset the expense of producing the complex molds, according to bookbinding historian Bernard Middleton.
From what I can find out, the technique seems to be especially associated with the British illustrator and illuminator Henry Noel Humphreys (1810–1879). Humphreys was influenced by his study of medieval manuscripts during a stay in Italy as a young man.
The finished results have been described as resembling “nothing so much as cast iron” (Bookbinding in the British Isles: sixteenth to the twentieth century, Part 2. London: Maggs Bros. Ltd., 1996)
Black papier mâché of a Victorian Gothic Revival design in imitation of carved wood, featuring arches entwined with flowering vines in the central panel of each cover; covers bevelled. Spine with “Holy Bible” at top and surface of same also encrusted with vinework. Gilt roll on board edges and gilt dentelles on turn-ins; all edges gilt and gauffered in a diamond and dot design. Brass clasp, part missing. Binding attributed to D. O. Smith of London, as per McLean who illustrates an identical binding on an 1851 Bible from the same publishers.
More details at The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company
Parables is Humphreys’ first printed illuminated book in a papier-mâché binding. The publisher recorded that 2,000 copies of Parables were printed in 1847, of which 1,000 were sold to D. Appleton in New York with a changed title page. Longman’s printed a second edition in the same year. Each of the four corners has a wreath containing the head of an angel, a lion, an eagle or an ox, representing Gospel authors Matthew, Mark, John and Luke. Stylized oak leaves occupy the top and bottom central rectangles. The central figure is a sower within a wreath around which two ribbons are wrapped on a staff. “Scripture Parables” appears on the ribbons in raised Gothic letters.
More information at University of Rochester Libraries Rare and Special Books Collection.
The central design of this papier-mâché binding is the royal coat-of-arms as it appeared on the reverse side of the gold sovereign of Henry VIII. The binding is signed “H R”, for William Harry Rogers.
More information at University of Rochester Libraries Rare and Special Books Collection.
The carved cover is taken from one of the compartments of the Prince’s tomb at Canterbury, slightly altered by the addition of a label where the title was inserted and by the extra adornment of the mouldings. The turn-ins are blocked in gold. The design is identical for both covers. Two decorated raised borders are separated by a border of bosses. The central rectangle is filled with symmetrical medieval decorative motifs. The coat of arms of the Black Prince is on the centre. The title words are within a ribbon, which is above and on each side of the coat of arms.
More information at Memorial University Digital Archives Initiative.
One of the elements of the handmade Book of the Erinyes will be the use of marbled paper — sometimes on the outside cover, and sometimes on the endpapers/inside cover.
As with all the parts of the book, I’m determined to make it all myself, so I bought myself a copy of Techniques for Marbleizing Paper by Gabriele Grünebaum.
First I made an alum solution, using 6 teaspoons of Alum in 450ml of water. The alum solution works as a mordant — it fixes the marbling colours onto the surface of the paper. After bringing the solution to the boil then letting it cool, I sponged it liberally onto a number of sheets of paper then left them overnight to dry.
The next day I prepared the marbling size, using 6 teaspoons of Carragheen Moss Powder dissolved in 4 pints of hand-hot water, and left it to cool before starting some experiments, following the patterns in Gabriele Grünebaum’s book.
I decided to use Acrylic Inks — they don’t require any dispersing agent to be added for marbling, and the pigments are strong enough to retain a good strong colour even when spread across the surface of the size. The ones I bought come with pipettes in the lids of the bottles, which made the process even easier.
I was fairly pleased with the results, but I’m obviously going to have to get a lot more practice to control the process.
Nonpareil pattern:
Nonpareil pattern:
Wavy Combed:
I’m happy to say that I’ve printed out the title and half-title pages.
On Wednesday at the Letterpress workshop I monopolised the press to run off 30 copies of each (I’ve finalised the limited edition to 30 copies).
Due to the nature of Letterpress there are slight variations between each one — differing amounts and distributions of ink because of how I inked the text on each pass. This is one of the things I really like about Letterpress.
Next up will be the Contents page (which I’ve already set, and is waiting in a galley) and the first actual page of the book.
I’ve just got back from this week’s letterpress workshop where I managed to print some proofs (photo below) of the title and half-title pages of the Book of the Erinyes.
These two pages will make up the first signature of the book. The signatures only consist of 2 sheets (8 pages in total, Crown Quarto size — 7½″ x 10″) because of the thickness of the 220gm cartridge paper I’m printing on.
The half-title page is set in 48pt Goudy, and the title page is in various smaller Goudy & Goudy Italic type with a decorative block.
As the pace has started to pick up on the Book of the Erinyes project I decided it was time to get some much-needed bookbinding practice.
I’d sewn together a collection of blank signatures a week-or-so ago and tipped on the endpapers, but I was feeling somewhat nervous about the case binding.
Today I took the plunge and put together my first case binding, and attached it to the signatures to produce a finished book.
I was fairly pleased with the results — although the edges of the pages are very uneven from where I’d had to cut them with a knife since I don’t have a guillotine or a plough for trimming the pages properly.
I’ve been teaching myself bookbinding, and there have been three books which have been a great help:
I’d recommend all of these three books to anyone thinking of teaching themselves hand bookbinding.
The Handmade Books DVD from Shepherds was also an invaluable help — although the books mentioned above are excellent, watching the techniques being demonstrated lets you fully understand the process.
So my first book is bound and I’ve learnt a lot about all the necessary techniques that I can use on the Book of the Erinyes. I’ve got at least a couple of months until the text and photographs for the Book of the Erinyes will be ready, so I’m going to do a few more practice pieces using blank paper over the coming weeks.
Last year I did an evening course in Letterpress Printing at the Brighton Independent Printmaking centre. Last week Les Ellis, the course tutor, invited me back for a 4-evening follow-on course where I could work on my own project, but with Les Ellis and colleague John Packer on hand to refresh my memory and provide expert advice.
I’ve just got back from the first of these four 3-hour Letterpress Printing workshops, and I’m happy to say that I managed to remember most of what I was taught on last year’s course.
This evening I manage to get the half-title and title pages hand-composited and locked into chases, ready for proofing and printing next week.
The half-title page is set in 48pt Goudy, while the title page is a mixture of 30pt Goudy (for the title), 24pt Goudy Italic (for the subtitle), and some 12pt Goudy for the small print. It also includes a very nice decorative block. I hope to be able to show you the results next week.
I’m really pleased with the progress today — I managed to get more done in one session than I’d hoped. Next week’s session can’t come soon enough.
Just got back from seeing Romilly Saumarez Smith: Bookbindings for Eileen Hogan at the V&A.
It’s a small exhibition, just outside the National Art Library, but it’s definitely worth a visit.
Obviously I was on the look-out for inspiration for binding the Book of the Erinyes, and Romilly Saumarez Smith didn’t let me down.
Romilly Saumarez Smith studied book binding and paper conservation at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts and went on to become the first female forwarder at Zaehnsdorf’s Bindery (Zaehnsdorf’s Bindery was taken over by Shepherds in 1998 and the bindery now trades under the single name of Sangorski & Sutcliffe.). In the 1990s she began increasingly to use metal in her bindings, and gradually moved to making jewellery.
One of the innovative materials Saumarez Smith uses for binding is pillow ticking (the strong cotton fabric used to cover pillows and mattresses). The ticking is coloured with multi-layered washes of leather dye, backed with Japanese paper and rubbed with beeswax. She also uses dye and wax resist techniques to great effect.
The exhibition at the V&A is on until 2nd August 2009. More details on the V&A website.
