Feats of Bookery!

This book measures about two inches tall. I must draw tiny stamps!

Feet painting! Too hot to paint with my foot like that, so I'm going to be working from this photo.

There's a History midterm tomorrow. The teacher is an amazing lady who normally teaches at Stanford. Of course, her midterms are hard. Eeek.

Arrgh, Books.

This is the first cover I've done. I hope it holds to the board all right. The paper cover is an old sheet of Rives BFK that I did a monoprint ghost on.

And here we have a poor quality photo showing the book board, being glued onto the book cover, and being wrapped around the edge. Also note the jar of funky wheat paste, and big applicator brush. Bone folder is there too. It's just a piece of shinbone, but very necessary.

I really wish I'd done more today as far as the bookmaking homework goes. But the couch soon coming to our pile of crap we call a living room argues differently. It begs to have an organized space to come to, clean of dust bunnies and random bits of paper, including Christmas wrapping under the old bookcases. I have come to the realization that we own far too many things.

Anyway- homework. I'm having what we will call "glue issues" right now. I'm not actually sure it is glue issues, because it could also be the stiffness of the paper. For some reason it won't bend around the book cover board in a good wrap, even with the special bone folder tool. High quality paper, but not as bendable as I'd like.

The content of the books is percolating in my brain. I almost want to do a third book by Monday.

I'm ambitious, but not smart.
I always swallow more than I can chew.
We'll see how it sits on my stomach.

I love macro.

Printmaking Show sign-up went up. Organizing this is going to be a little bit of fun & complications. Of course, in order to obtain a gallery, I have to get up at 5am (or earlier) to go to school and stand in line for gallery sign-up. And pay $15 deposit. I will soon be an awesomely known person in the art building, perhaps.

In History 1B we discussed how Christopher Columbus believed that by finding a route around to the other side of Asia, the forces of Christianity would have a back-door by which to attack and overtake the Turkish Empire occupying Jerusalem. Not to mention the sweet trade route that going direct to China would provide. Also, scientists already knew the diameter of the Earth, so if America hadn't been in the way, Columbus and his crew would have starved on ship on their way to Asia. Columbus, I have concluded, was kind of an ass.

Bookmaking class was all about combining signatures to make a case-bound (or hardbound) book.

It helps to build a mock-up of your book project. I built this at 1/3 size. The final book will be a little larger than 9"x 9". The signatures are not stitched, but labeled and folded together so I can see how the pages will wrap. This helps a ton in planning things out.

Here is the edge of my mock-up. There are 18 sheets of paper, two per signature, for a total of 36 leaves. All this translates to 72 pages. A huge book, especially since the final paper will be heavy.

First, the signatures are punctured and stitched, then they are sewn together using binding tape, which can be ordinary linen or the specialized and more expensive stuff. Then you put them in a vise, and glue the signatures together, while it is held in a vise. I can't stress enough how much the glue smells.

The tape going under the signature stitching. The tape will be firmly attached to the Cover boards. I'll get pictures of that Monday.

I love bookmaking. It is the fusion of crafts and art that I love to sink my teeth into.

Oh, and yesterday, I did do some drawing in Life Drawing, but our model had no muscles or skin. The things I drew in Intermediate Life drawing yesterday I will post tomorrow.

Drawing and painting from models all day is a case of serious Awesome.

First Day of Classes.

I remember when this trolley-car seemed the wave of the future. Fools!

All these cabinets are full of typefaces. Yes. Little lead letters. And the teacher is prepared to show us how to use them.

Today:

1. English 100W- 9:00-10:15
2. History 1B- 12:00-13:15
3. Art 175- 15:30-18:20

1. I am trying to add this class. 100W is the writing proficiency class that SJSU uses to ensure that all of their graduates can, in theory, express themselves in the written word. I've taken 5 English classes at the college level, (and got above a B in all,) but even though they all transfer, I need to waste units in this class. Do you know what word this brings to mind, kids?

2. History 1B is taught by a Professor who used to teach at Stanford. I feel a little for her in that the classroom is tiny and has absolutely no room for any more chairs, and a lot of the students seemed to be zoning out. I also think that it's a small point of amusement when the entire class is told to switch their phones to silent, and one still goes off in the resident sorority's Hello Kitty purse.

3. This class is the reason I show up to school. Art 175 is listed as "Special Topics" but is actually- *drum roll* Book Arts. I am going to build books in this class- whether as sketchbooks or as incredible portfolio pieces. I can't wait to get started.
Unfortunately I do have to somehow come up with the supplies, at least the ones I don't already own. Bookcloth, Board, Bone Folder, and Awl. Next week will be a little akward since I can't afford supplies before getting paid. In the meantime I have all the paper and thread I will ever need.
I may do a little instructional entry sometime to show the binding process. The resulting books we were shown as examples made me completely giddy.

I have cheered myself out of being completely exhausted. I think I'll do laundry, hurrah.