Book Hippies

Great news--in June I will be heading off to Santa, Idaho to spend about a week in the woods with Jim Croft, bookbinder extraordinaire, taking his "Wooden Boards & Clasps" class.

Jim and his wife, Melody (who describe themselves as "hippies"), grow their own flax and make paper from it. Melody also spins flax to make thread to sew books with, and Jim cuts and cures his own boards to use for wooden book covers. Whew! Not only that, he also makes his own bookbinding tools. If you've ever dreamed of leaving it all behind and going off to the woods to devote yourself to your art, Jim is a real inspiration. You can read more about him and his work here:

Idaho Center for the Book Website (pdf file of article on Jim Croft)

University of Idaho website (article about an exhibition of Jim Croft's work)

I grew up on a farm in Northern Idaho, and it's an absolutely beautiful place (mountains, trees, fresh air, crickets chirping, horses (see photo above), etc. -- well, ok, lots of mosquitoes, too!), so I'm really looking forward to spending some time there. Plus it sounds like a great bookbinding class.

Jim describes the accommodations at his place as "civilized camping" so I'll be packing plenty of flannel and mosquito repellent -- hope it doesn't rain, as June in Northern Idaho can be a bit nippy. But really, even if it does, I'll be too happy to care!

Bookbinding Workshop in Santa, Idaho, Part I

In an earlier post, I told you I was going to Santa, Idaho, to learn to make gothic books from bookbinder extraordinaire Jim Croft. Well, I had a most excellent experience down in Santa, and I have the photos to prove it. In this and following posts, I'll give you a guided tour of my time there.

Everything at the Crofts is very basic, but comfortable. Here is the little cabin I stayed in:

If you like comfort camping (sort of like real camping, only with lots of amenities), this might not be your thing, but I grew up doing basic camping (a sleeping bag, possibly, but not always a tent, a stick to roast a weenie on, lots of dirt, and more stars at night than you could ever imagine), so I totally loved my time at the Crofts.

Here is the path I took in the mornings to the Croft's kitchen for breakfast...

...past the Japanese-style outhouse. I think you can work out for yourself how it is used (ok, confession time--I had very little confidence in my aim, so I just kept on walking until I got to the outhouse with a seat):

After a fine breakfast, prepared by Jim's wife, Melodie, it's off to the open-air workshop to spend the first of nine days making books (well, in my case, making book, as I'm incredibly slow and only got one finished). Here is a front view of the workshop (the left side of the building--Jim and Melodie live on the right side):

And here is my book, in it's embryonic stages. I'm using a sewing frame to stitch the pages to flax cords:

We also learned to select straight-grained wood, and split it into pieces for wooden book covers. Here is a selection of wood that Jim split. It is almost entirely reclaimed wood:

I will spend the next week or so using hand tools in an attempt to create something that looks more or less like these books, made by Jim.

Coming in the next post: how to use a hand saw very badly, what horses have to do with books, and so forth....

Book Arts Links: United States

Here are some links to book arts-related places in the U.S. Haven't been to them all myself -- maybe someday! I'll be updating and adding more links as I find more to add. Right now, this is a quick and dirty list -- I'll fix it up more and make it look pretty when I get the time.

If you know of some other great book arts places to visit in the U.S., please let me know about them in the comments section, and I'll add them to the list.

State Centers for the Book: The Library of Congress website has listings for all 50 state centers for the book. They are non-affiliated organizations, and their programs vary quite a bit, but I'm including this website, as some of the state centers may have postings about book arts - related events.

http://read.gov/cfb/state-affiliates.php

Alabama

University of Alabama M.F.A. in the Book Arts Program
http://www.bookarts.ua.edu/

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

The American Bookbinders Museum - http://www.bookbindersmuseum.com/

The San Francisco Center for the Book: http://sfcb.org/

Bay Area Book Artists' Book Arts Jam: http://www.bookartsjam.org/index.php

Pacific Center for the Book Arts: http://pcba.info/

Sonoma County Book Arts Guild, Sebastopol, CA (www.socobag.blogspot.com)

Colorado

Conneticut

Delaware

Florida

University of Tampa Book Arts Studio: http://tampabookartsstudio.blogspot.com/

Georgia

Georgia Tech Paper Museum

Hawaii

Idaho

Jim Croft -- Old Ways Bookbinding Workshops: http://www.traditionalhand.com/oldway/

(I blogged about attending one of Jim Croft's workshops -- you can find the posts here)

Illinois

Chicago

Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection, School of the Art Institute
http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm4/about_jfabc.php?CISOROOT=/jfabc
Newberry Library
http://www.newberry.org
Columbia College Center for the Book and Paper Arts
http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Interarts/index.php?site=CBPA
Northwestern University Library - Special collections
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-collections/evanston-campus/special-collections
University of Chicago Library - Special collections
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl
Bookman's Alley-Evanston
http://evanstonillinois.net/booksmansalley.html
Powell's Bookstores
http://www.powellschicago.com

Center for Book and Paper Arts: http://www.colum.edu/book_and_paper/

Indiana

Iowa

University of Iowa Center for the Book

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Pyramid Atlantic

Massachusetts

Boston Paper Collective: http://bostonpapercollective.wordpress.com/about/

North Bennet Street School (has bookbinding courses): http://www.nbss.org/

Carriage House Paper's papermaking museum in Brookline, just outside of Boston (by appointment)

Michigan

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center: http://www.kalbookarts.org/index.html

Minnisota

Minnesota Center for Book Arts

Cave Paper (in Minneapolis): http://www.cavepaper.com/

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

Wells College Book Arts Center: http://www.wells.edu/bkarts/info.htm

Western New York Book Arts Center (http://www.wnybookarts.org/

Women's Studio Workshop

Genesee Center for the Arts: http://www.geneseearts.org/

New York City:

The New York Center for Book Arts: http://www.centerforbookarts.org/

Dieu Donne : http://www.dieudonne.org/

Lower Eastside Printshop

Bright Hill Press & Literary Center: http://www.brighthillpress.org

The Morgan Library: http://www.themorgan.org/home.asp

Booklyn artist's book alliance: http://www.booklyn.org/index.php

Central Booking: http://centralbookingnyc.com/

Calvin-Morris Gallery (sometimes has artist book exhibitions) : http://www.cavinmorris.com/

New York Central Art Supply (has book art supplies): http://www.nycentralart.com/

North Carolina

Asheville Book Works

Penland

North Dakota

Ohio

Dard Hunter's Studios http://www.dardhunter.com

Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland http://www.morganconservatory.org/

Paper Circle (South East Ohio's Center for Paper and Book Arts): http://www.papercircle.org/

Oklahoma

Oregon

C.C. Stern Type Foundry  http://www.ccsterntype.org/

Pennsylvania

University of the Arts - Bookarts

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Museum of Printing History in Houston, TX. The Houston Book Arts Group meets there.

Utah

Book Arts Program at the University of Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Seattle Center for Book Arts: http://seattlebookarts.org/

Book Arts Guild: http://bookartsguild.org/

University of Washington Book Arts Collection: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/collections/bookarts.html

Wessel and Lieberman Booksellers (they sell artist books): http://www.wlbooks.com/cgi-bin/wlb455.cgi/index.html?id=2QbhcRj6

Washington, DC

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Part III, Bookbinding Workshop in Santa, Idaho

Days 6-9: Well, things are getting a bit intense now. I only have three days left, and many, many things still to do. I carved my wooden pegs (you can see them at upper left). I will hammer the pegs in the holes in the book covers, so the cords will stay securely where they're supposed to. The book is opened, so you can see where the cords came in one hole and went out another:

I also needed to cut out the brass pieces of my book clasp, and then use nippers and files to shape them. Jim believes in doing every little part of the book in the "old way", so I even designed and drew the pattern for my clasps by hand.

Here are the brass pieces for my clasps, plus the cardboard patterns and some of the files I used to shape them. The brass is some that Jim got from architectural salvage places.

And here are the clasps, ready to be attached to the book covers. The brown parts are pieces of leather that I glued around a piece of parchment, then attached to the brass pieces (sorry about the fuzzy photo--I must have been overly excited when I took it).

Next, I carved out places on the cover boards for the brass clasps to fit into. You can just barely see my pencil marks on the cover board showing where the clasps will go. This board is sitting on a groovy little thingie that hooks over the table edge and has a lip at the back edge to rest the board against. That way, I can put pressure on the board while I'm carving it without the board sliding all over the table:

My book will have a leather covered spine. Here Jim is demonstrating how to pare the edges of the leather so it won't bunch up at the corners of the book spine.

Eeek! It's the last day, time is running out, and I'm still behind. Here I'm putting a thin tissue backing on the spine of my text block.

The next thing I did was assemble the book and attach the leather to the spine. It's a pity I didn't take any photos, as it took place at 10 o'clock on the last night I was there, and I wish I had a record of my desperate attempts to coax a chunk of limp, wheat paste soaked leather around the cords and generally where it was supposed to go. In lieu of photos of that event, here are some of other accommodations on the Croft place. If I had been more adventurous, I could have set up my sleeping bag here...


...or in this sweat lodge/ tepee affair (I think they put on a canvas cover if someone stays in it).

And here is my finished book. Yay! Note the leather spine that fortunately shows no sign of the late night pasting struggle:

Here is a view that shows the clasps. I made every bit of the clasps by hand, even down to making the nails out of pieces of brass rod. I will keep this book forever, as a memento of my time at the Crofts, but will be making other books with wooden covers (a slightly different design), which I will unveil here at a future date.

And so, after nine amazing days of dirt, mosquito bites, sawing, filing, gluing and general backwoods bookbinding, I packed up my stuff, hopped in my car and headed back down the road, sad to leave, but so very happy that I came here.

You can find out more about Jim Croft and the workshops he teaches at his website:

http://www.traditionalhand.com/oldway/

Part II, Bookbinding Workshop in Santa, Idaho

Days 2-5 or so: After arising and making my way down the spooky steps from my sleeping nest in the loft of the Croft's guest cabin, I had an excellent breakfast, prepared by Melodie Croft (Jim's wife), and laboured away on my Gothic book.

After sewing the pages to pieces of thick flax cord, I "fluffed" the ends, then soaked them in wheat paste and twisted them into points. After they dried, the points were seriously hard, and thus I could lace the paper to the covers by poking the cords through holes I had drilled in the wood board covers.

Next, I worked on the boards for the covers. I had to saw a piece of board (in this case, sycamore wood) to get covers the proper size. I don't have a photo of me using a hand saw, but lets just say it wasn't pretty. I did get better (eventually), especially after I realized I was holding the saw at the wrong angle.

After cutting the boards, I had to file them until they were smooth, and shape the edges of the boards so they would fit properly when I laced them to the paper. It was interesting that each board had to be shaped a little differently, and I continually had to go back and make little adjustments as I was going along, in order to get the paper and boards to fit together properly so I wouldn't end up with a hideous, misshapen thing that could only come out in the dead of night.

Here are covers for both of my books (the one I made, and the one I haven't finished yet).

Hurray, lunch time! A short jaunt past Rusty, the Crofts' dog, ......

....taking the path through Melodie's beautiful garden.....

....to the outdoor kitchen for a lunch I didn't have to cook myself. What could be better?!

Then back to work. After much shaping and swearing under my breath, I got the boards to properly fit into the "shoulders" of the sewn paper, laced them together (note my pointy, glued cords) and the thing actually starts to look like a book.

Jim uses hand tools to make his books. Here are some that I used. This is a photo of some hand planes, which gave the wood a beautiful, smooth surface.

And here is one of my book covers, clamped into a workmate thingie. Lying next to it is a farrier's rasp (a rasp used to file horse's hooves). It works great to smooth off edges of the covers and file them down (now you know what horses have to do with books).

Finally, supper, a little swig of Jim's homemade mead, then off to bed in my little loft nest, listening to the pygmy owls hooting outside, dreaming of book covers...

Next time: wrestling leather, beating up on brass.

The Thread that Binds, Part II

I finally finished binding my copy of The Thread that Binds. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had thought about doing a wooden cover, as a tribute to master bookbinder Jim Croft (who is interviewed in the book) but as often happens, went charging off in another direction altogether.

I created a medieval-style leather binding that emphasizes thread and stitching, which seemed to fit the content of the book:



This copy of The Thread that Binds will have a home in my ever-growing collection of books on bookbinding.

Cherry Wood Book

Just finished another Coptic book with wooden covers. This one is made from quarter sawn cherry wood, with a piece of mica inset into the cover.

I used an old time finish on the wood (thanks to Jim Croft, who brewed it up). It's made of beeswax, pine pitch, and raw linseed oil. I just rubbed it in with my fingers, then buffed it with a soft cloth.

When I got the piece of wood, one edge was rough (on the right side in the photo). I decided to leave it that way when I cut the book covers.

The Thread That Binds

A while back, I sent away to Oak Knoll Books for an unbound copy of The Thread That Binds: Interviews with Private Practice Bookbinders. Here you can see the pages:

For the last couple of weeks, I've been pondering what sort of binding I want to create for it.

The bookbinders interviewed talk about their lives in the book arts -- how they got to be bookbinders, and the ups and downs of a bookbinding life. Jim Croft, who taught me many things about bookbinding, is one of the interviewees, and so I want to make a binding that honours his passion for gothic books with wooden covers, but also reflects my own bookbinding interests, too.

This part of designing a cover is always the most fun--thinking, making little drawings, thinking some more, messing about with papers and leather and wood and things, drinking tea, rejecting what I just thought about, thinking some more.....