dvc-gbw october 2011 newsletter

8/3/2019 DVC-GBW October 2011 Newsletter

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Pressing MatterThe Publication of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers

In This Issue:Fall 2011 starts o with a bang! - Jennier Rosner

he Page Illuminates: Book Highlights rom the Internet - Valeria Kremser

wo Members / Six Questions - Meet DVC Members Claire Owen & Erin Paulson

Exploring Wax ablets - Nancy Nitzberg

Pam Spitzmueller to each Workshop - Constructing Books with Foldout Plates/Maps

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It is starting to seem like our chapter has its own seasons. Tesummer is always rather quiet and all and spring are verybusy. We started this all season with a bang! Fiteen peopleshowed up or our very rst binding bee. Over the summer,Alice Austin, her husband Jon (who is now a DVC member more on that later) and I worked on the catalog or the

Philadelphia Artists Books ravel to VeniceExhibit. We decidedon a simple binding structure and thought it might be un togather a group together to bind it. Such a great turnout! Ittook us only two and a hal hours to bind 75 books. It wasun seeing everyone and doing something together that weall enjoy so much. We will denitely have to do that againsometime. Every member will get a catalog. We are hoping tohand deliver as many as possible and mail the rest.

Since I last wrote we have made some additions to the DVCexecutive committee. Valeria Kremser is now Webmasterand Alice Austin is Exhibitions Chair. Tese are appointed

positions that will become elected positions next time we holdelections.

Check out the newly updated website: www.dvc-gbw.org. Valhas done a great job adding all kinds o things and keeping usup-to-date. She has added links to members websites and iyours isnt listed, please let her know. Val also got us up andrunning on Facebook, so be sure to check us out and like usi you are on Facebook. Tere is a link on the homepage o thewebsite. And i that wasnt enough, Val also designed a logoor us. You can see it in this newsletter. Isnt it great?

Over the last two years Alice has put a lot o work into exhibitsand it seems only air that she be ofcially recognized or it.She will still continue as Secretary/reasurer or the oreseeableuture, but that may change with our elections next year. Iwant to thank her or all she has done to make PhiladelphiaArtists Books ravel to Venicesuch a great show. And it isnteven over yet. She still has to carry all the books to Venice,install the exhibition there, organize an opening andyes--carry it all home again. I you run into Alice, please let herknow how much you appreciate all she has done!

From our Chair: JenniFer rosner

Delaware Valley Chapter oFFiCers

Jennier Rosner [email protected] Austin [email protected] Kyle [email protected] Carbone [email protected] Hildebrand [email protected] Kremser [email protected]

I learned recently that the Guild o Book Workers oers amilymembership. wo amily members may join with a singlemembership ee and receive a single mailing, but have separatedirectory listings. Do you have a amily member that wouldlike to be a member o our chapter? Next time you send inyour membership renewal, sign them up!

Jennier RosnerChapter Chair

Binding Bee September 10, 2011


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Tis trip down the internet tubes takes us to paperdragonbooks.blogspot.com. Paper Dragon Books is located in Brooklyn,NY, and was established in 2006. Tey specialize in ne binding, making boxes, and books or galleries, museums, and privatecollectors. Tey have been blogging their exploits in the world o ne binding since October 28, 2008.

Teir blog details dierent techniques used or ne binding and box making. Some the most exciting posts are about the boxchallenge. Te challenge chronicles the design and execution o ull leather clamshells in astoundingly short amounts o time.Tese posts discuss complicated leather altering techniques including craquele, airbrush, and egg shell patterns. A recent pos

revisits surace guilding.

Besides being busy with the box challenge and many other projects, this year some o the olks over at PDB were also helping toound the Designer Bookbinders o America.

You can nd more ino about the DBOA at designerbookbindersoamerica.org and PDB at paperdragonbooks.com.

Valeria Kremser

Box urtle Presshttp://www.boxturtlepress.com

The Page IllumInaTes: bookhighlightsFromtheinternet

Founded in June 2011, DBOA preserves and maintains the highest standards in technique and design used in the creationo design bookbinding, through teaching, discussion, and displaying the work o those members living and working withinNorth, Central, and South America.

Photographs from paperdragonbooks.blogspot.com

Large Paper into Small Spaces:Constructing Books with Foldout Plates/Maps

A workshop with Pam Spitzmueller*

Participants will construct a sampler atlas based on techniques used

in historical atlases. Te key components o a successul olding platebook are the type and order o olds in the sheet, the attachment othe guard structure to the map or olded plate and the book structurethat binds, protects, and saely presents the plates to the reader. Wewill view images o historic maps, ocusing on where damage has oc-curred and why and discover good techniques rom the past.

November 5 & 6, 20119 am to 4:30 pmTe Library Company o Philadelphia1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

*this workshop is currently ull with a wait list.

uPcomIngWorkshoP

Photograph courtesy of Pam Spitzmueller


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When Steve Jobs introduced the rst iPad in January o 2010, soon ollowedby the various competitors announcing their tablets, some o us interestedin early writing materials and book orms couldnt help thinking o thesimilarities between these devices and the historic wax tablet. Even earlierelectronics such as the Palm Pilot with stylus inspired the comparison. Noto mention the blackboard in the orm o a portable slate. . .

Portable and great or making quick notations, the wax tablet predatesthe electronic orm by almost 3000 years. Portability made it a very useuor correspondence, business records and or note taking by studentsInormation could be erased by smoothing the wax, and when the waxwaned, it could be recharged by pouring more melted wax into the recessedareas o the wood or ivory support.

Te wax was used as a writing surace and it was inscribed using a stylususually made rom wood, metal or ivory. Oten, two wax-covered suraceswere bound together so that when closed, the wax sides acing inward. Tisprotected the wax and any incised writing in it.

Wax tablets were not only used or temporary notations, as wax tablethave been ound containing inormation that was clearly intended to bepreserved. Te most recent documented use o wax tablets was in the1860s, in Rouen, France, to maintain business accounts.

I there is interest in visiting a collection o Roman era wax tablets inPhiladelphia, reed pens and papyrii including one lea rom an early codexwith verses rom Matthew, please contact Nancy Nitzberg at [email protected] and a group visit will be arranged. Friday aternoons are best orthe curator.

Nancy Nitzberg

Tour oPPorTunITy - exPlore WaxTableTsWITh nancynITzberg

Wax Tablet, Louvre. (corrected)

1. How long have you been a member o the GBW?C.O. I dont remember the exact date I joined but Ibelieve it was the late 80s.

2. Where are you rom originally?C.O. I moved to Philadelphia rom Rochester New

York in 1976. Te guild was a great way or meto meet ellow bookmakers here in Philadelphia.

3. When did you realize you wanted to learn bookbinding?C.O. I studied printmaking at Rochester Institute oechnology and it was there while in graduate schoolthat I realized that as I developed prints in series,that books would be a logical ormat to use. I tooka binding class while at RI, and continued study herein Philadelphia.

Two Members / Six Questions - Claire Owen & Erin Paulson

Photo: Claire Owens printshop

We are adding a new column to our newsletter with this edition: Six Questions. In each newsletter we will prole a member othe Delaware Valley Chapter by asking the ollowing six questions. We think this will be a un way to both get to know a littleabout a ellow member, and keep up with what they are working on. We will be contacting each o you in the near uture!


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4. What is your avorite book structure these days?C.O. Currently Ive been using box ormats to developdioramas in unique book works. I recently took araOBriens single tray box ormat which I have lovedusing since.

5. What are you working on right now?C.O. I am currently working in collaboration with poetBeth Feldman on the book Sage. I made our paintingsor the book, and will be binding three digitally printedcopies.

6. ell us something about yoursel that might surprise us.C.O. I dont know how surprising this is, but a guiltypleasure o mine is watching the old tv show DarkShadows. Its so NO like shows today, that it seemsa dierent thing all together. And I have a weakness orall things Gothic.

Photo: Claire Owens studio

1. How long have you been a member o the GBW?E.P. I have been a member o the Midwest Chapter or oneyear; now that I have relocated to Philadelphia, I amexcited to become a member o the Delaware Valley Chapter!

2. Where are you rom originally?E.P. I was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, but have livedin Chicago or the past nine years.

3. When did you realize you wanted to learn bookbinding?E.P. My undergraduate degree is in photography, and Ibegan to be interested in making books to house my narrative

photographs. It was my frst Artists Books course with MelissaJay Craig at Columbia College in Chicago in 2006 that reallycemented the act that I wanted to make books or the rest omy lie.

4. What is your avorite book structure these days?E.P. I love all variations on the French wist sewingstructure, and am interested in making some wire-edgebindings this all!

5. What are you working on right now?E.P. I just began the MFA Book Art/Printmaking programat UArts. As most o my past our years has been devoted tobook and paper arts, Im excited to learn about printmaking,particularly etching and lithography. While here I plan to keepusing embroidery in my artist books, sewing on handmadepaper, and combining this with printmaking techniques andexplorations o dierent book structures.

6. ell us something about yoursel that might surprise us.E.P. I love paring leather so much that I would be perectlyhappy doing it as my only proession or the rest o my lie(and even happier i I were doing it in France).

Photo: Erin Paulson in her studio

dvc-gbw october 2011 newsletter

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