Mission Complete!

Friday the 13th has always been a lucky day for me and this year was no exception.  I did my private defense with my committee members (although my husband was in the room too), and received the piece of paper that says that I met all the requirements for completion. (YEAH!)  In the afternoon I gave my public presentation.  I talked about the inception for the project, , the research, and the journey of making the book.  I read a few of your responses and made people tear up.  Thank you to everyone who made this moment possible.  This part of the journey has finished but your journey is still on going.  I wish you all the best and promise to mail things soon.

Private Defense

Me talking at public presentation

Me and Allison, my friend and fellow classmate.  It was her day too!

The show goes up and Opening Night

The past week was so full.  I had some glitches that, thankfully, worked themselves out.  Hanging the show went smoothly, although I had to make some changes in what I had envisioned for it,  but liked the end result very much. I made the decision to focus on just a few things for my show.  The most important thing that I wanted everyone to see was what all the spouses said about being a spouse.  I decided in order for everyone to really be able to view them, I would frame each response and hang them on the gallery walls.  Otherwise, there would be a few books that everyone would have to gather around and try to see.  I did a picture montage on each side of the walls in the middle of the framed responses. To me the next thing that was important was the paper I printed on because of the materials I used.  I set up a display with explanations of what materials I used and how paper is made.  Lastly, I decided to use a quote from Deborah Mullen on the back wall.  Simple but powerful is what I wanted for this show and I think I achieved it.  I could not have done any of this without the men and women who participated in this project.  I cannot thank them enough.  It is my deep desire that this show helps people to understand us better and to give thought to the lives of people who serve our country and their families.

So on Thursday night I was ready for this event to happen.  Many people came out to see it.  Some of my book arts friends, who also teach at school, brought their classes with them.  It was really interesting to talk to some of the undergraduates about the show, and to hear their thoughts about it. Here are pictures with all the gallery lights on after I'd finished hanging the show.  I forgot to give my husband the camera as opening night happened and only remembered at the tail end. Here are three from that evening.   I'm sure my dad took lots more and will send them to me later.  This Friday will be the final step in this long process.  The private defense with my committee members in the morning and the public discussion in the afternoon.  Wish me luck!

The Show is coming..soon

I've been prepping for the show for the last few weeks with a little aggravation.  The postcards are still not done and the show is only 1.5 weeks away.  Really??  I mean it should be already done. Part of it comes from not getting me e-mailed in a timely manner from the person in charge.  Part of this is due to a new gallery manager and the learning curve.  Then Spring Break happened.  So no advertisement at this point.

I have been steadily working on what is going in the show.  After much internal discussion I made a few decisions that will not be revealed here but you will see pictures of the show.  This weekend, I cut mats and then started to put it all together.

Representation

So what happens to the books now that the work is done?  That is a question that I get a lot.  I sell them or hope to sell them.  After working hard one important thing that a book artist needs to consider is, are you going to try to sell your book on your own or are you going to seek representation with a book dealer.  I am choosing to go with a dealer.  The thought making some sort of prospectus, sending it out, making follow up calls does not rock my world.

I am very lucky in that right up the road in Birmingham is a delightful couple who are book dealers.  Bill and Vicky Stewart own Vamp & Tramp.  They travel all over the USA carrying our precious books with them making calls at special collections libraries, public libraries and private collectors.  

My husband and I made the trip to see them last Friday.  I not only took my thesis, but some other books that I have made while in school.  I am please to say that they took all of them.  Holding Down the Fort will be priced at $325.00.  I gladly give them a percentage of the sale in exchange for peace of mind and time to pursue other projects.

Here is there website.  It is worth checking out and full of treasures.  www.vampandtramp.com

Here They Are!

The final, finished stack of my edition.  Now that this is done, I'm going to start to work on the show.  I am meeting with the gallery manager tomorrow about details.  Only 5 weeks until the show opens.

Finished Binding!!!!

Today at 4:12 pm CST, I finished binding my edition of 50 books.  I am so happy and thrilled to be at this point of the process now.  Here is another pictorial essay of the process.

Trim uneven edges of covering

place text block on case, making sure everything is even.

I forgot to take a picture of pasting out.  I place a piece of newsprint under the first end sheet and then paste out the
end sheet.  Take away any extra glue with my finger and then carefully close cover onto the text block.  I then open the front cover a tad and then using my teflon folder, smoothing and making sure the end sheet is adhered to the case well. After doing both sides, I then put it back in the nipping press. 

The stack of finished books on my Kuttrimmer

The studio aftermath  No time to be polite about throwing newsprint in a trashcan.

I did start to clean up my studio tonight. 

Putting Paper on Case

 The next to last step before the end.  Now I am getting really excited as the end it truly in site.  Here is a pictorial essay of these steps.

Marking paper so I place the case correctly

Pasting out the Case

Placing Case on Cover Paper

Trimming all the sides and corners

Nip the case in the nipping press. This will make the case really adhere to boards.

Final step......casing in the text blocks.... :)

Components and Cases

I've been a busy beaver this weekend.  This Wednesday is my self imposed deadline to have all of my book completed.  Friday I made lap components.  This comprises of a piece of Bristol board for the spine and Mohawk again for the part that gets glued to the book board.

gluing spine piece

placing spine piece onto Mohawk portion

Trim lap component

After completing these, I cut all the board 

down to the appropriate size.  On Saturday, 

I began case construction.  

What case looks like after attaching lap component

tearing the excess

Sanding what's left to have a smooth transition

Sanding outside of case to shape it to give it a nice finished look

Stack of finished cases


I have finished covering the cases but will blog about it tomorrow.

End Sheets and End Bands

This week was all about finishing the text block.  I had already attached the first lining of Japanese paper and now I was ready to  put on the 2nd spine lining of Mohawk 70lb. text weight paper.  This lining, unlike the first, is only as wide as the spine and the length goes from kettle stitch to kettle stitch.  These stitches are the first and last holes in the sewing pattern. They serve as a locking devise to keep the sections of the sewn book together.  I set up my standing press to be able to do 3 at a times.

Step 2: Attach spine lining

Step 1: Glue up spines

 

Step 3: Bone down lining very well so it adheres

To bone something is the book binding world is to press down with your bone folder, hence the term, to make sure what ever it is you are gluing together sticks. For spine linings it is very important that the linings are firmly adhered.  This is what forms the book into a solid form.  So as my binding professor likes to say, when you think you've boned it enough, do it some more. 

Bone folders are not necessarily made from the bone of an animal anymore.  For those who have a aversion to animal products you can purchase plastic ones.  The particular bone folder I'm using in this process is made of teflon.  A teflon folder is not used nor should it be for all jobs.  It is good for what I used it for and similar jobs along with scoring paper.  Different tools for different purposes.

The next step was to attach end bands that I had already made from a purple book cloth.  Here are a few pics of that process.

Cutting end band to size

End band is trimmed to stop at the top of the kettle stitch

Finished placement of endband

This week is all about case construction.  I will be making a lap component ( the center of the case that has the spine piece and joint area), cutting boards, etc.  More explanation to come shortly.

Consolidation

consolidate - verb
1. to form or cause to form into a solid mass or whole; unite or be united
2. to make or become stronger or more stable

These are definitions from The World English Dictionary and very appropriate for what happened to the books in the last two days.  Although my intent was to get this done in one day, I just couldn't. Using the paste makes everything slower due to slower drying time.   However, the end result is the same.  To make all of the signatures come together or form into a united whole and in turn it makes a stronger book.  Here are the steps.

Step one:  Jog text block at spine and head ensure that all is aligned

Step two:  Place book under a piece of book board and weights then use a triangle
 to check for alignmentboth at spine and head

Make sure you have supervision

Step three:  Paste up the spine to consolidate.  Making sure that paste completely gets into all areas.

Slow start but speeding up now!

Did you know that books are living and breathing things?  They are. I'll explain in a moment. I had a meeting with my professor a few weeks ago with my mock up.  She liked what she saw and told me to case it in.  Then to let it live at home for a week, then bring it up to the 5th floor and see what it would do.

All books have different elements in them.  Paper - machine made or handmade.  Adhesive - Animal, synthetic or grain i.e wheat/rice paste. Thread weight. Board construction, etc.  All of these make a difference to how the book reacts to humidity and temperature.  So taking a constructed book to different environments will help you see, literally, how it reacts.  Do the boards of the case bow in or out?  Warp?  Is the paper on correctly on the cover and folded correctly in the text block?  If not, then that too can affect its' performance.

Since I am using handmade paper for everything.  This is very important.  All that being said I, as far as I know, did everything right.  Including sizing my paper when I made it.  It did not do anything weird here at the house and last time I checked it at school, it looked good to.  I meet this Thursday with her again.

After I got that done.  I became lazy!!  Time began to slip away and my calendar was getting messed up do to my lack of doing.  So I lit a fire under my rear end and away I've gone.  Late last week I trimmed all sections, collated each book and punched the holes to sew.  Yesterday and today, I spent sewing all 50 books.  I'm doing a French Web sewing style.  I really like it.  I is fairly straight forward and looks pretty after it's done.  Of course, it will all be covered up once the next step is accomplished.  Here are pics of part of the process.

Sewing sections together

Boning down each section after sewing

You can kinda see the sewing form.

Mock-up test 1

In order to make the most perfect edition ever you need to make a mock-up of what you want it to look like at the end.  I set up an appointment with my thesis advisor, also my binding professor, this last Thursday.  I had taken sheets I considered "bad" and sewn a complete text block and made a case without it being covered to show her.  We had a good discussion about it.  She liked what she saw and made the suggestion that I cover it and leave it at home the majority of next week and then bring it in to school to see what is would do there?

What do you mean, "what it would do?".   Basically, the humidity or dryness of an environment can affect the book and how it behaves.  With using handmade paper, that can cause some issues.  The boards of the case can pull causing bowing up or in (cupping), drying time can be affected.  All kinds of things.  I know my house is more humid than the 5th floor of the library.  But - since all of the paper I have in my thesis is handmade, I don't think I'll have much issue.  Many times the problem stems from using a combination of machine made and handmade.

This morning I made wheat paste, a fun process of watching it boil in the microwave and stirring it down for about 5 minutes.  Then I covered the case with one of the "bad" cover papers.  Tonight I cased it in.  It's drying now.  I can't peek inside.  That would cause bad mojo.

Another important item is that I ordered the board for the cases and hope to receive it by the end of next week. And I sorted all the sheets so in the end I will have an edition of 50.

Here is what the book looks like as it's drying.  It's the thing under the two weights.  Also shows the stacks of each of the signatures for the book.  More later!!

What letterpress looks like in action and end result

I took a short movie of me printing last week.  It's really fascinating.  Just kidding.  It's actually quite slow and boring to watch but for the one printing, it requires full on concentration to make sure that everything is printing well.  The folio you are watching being printed is whats called a gate fold.  I thought it was going to be the most challenging but turned out to print real well.  The photo's are of the finished folio.

The most challenging one turned out to be one side of the second to last folio.  As you might remember, I am printing a copy of each persons response as a Thank You for participating.  I had 1/2 of a response on the base already aligned correctly and decided to go ahead and print the entire thing ( the entire response is printed on 2 different spreads).  I put is on and printed a proof.  Something did not look right.  At first I freaked out that I had printed it entirely wrong but then again upon further inspection, there had been a mistake in my editing.  Now I was faced with the dilemma of having to cut the plate apart with accuracy.  I ended up with 4 slim lines of text that I had to reconfigure to make the sentences from the remainder of the paragraph and then place the last part of the whole text beneath.  This is what it looked like in the bed of the press.  There was lots of breathe holding but I believe it worked out.

Printing is done!!

Just a short post but I wanted everyone to know that I'm done with printing the thesis.  I'll be posting pictures and talking about it more over the weekend.  I'm so excited and relieved this part is done.