December '23
Well, we are here now, at the end of another year. As I’m writing this Chen and I are at home sick with COVID-19 for the first time. It was inevitable, but very poorly timed. Cross your fingers for us that it doesn’t interfere with our upcoming research travels, but I’m also not going to complain about more days in the old house reading and working on my bookbinding. Anyway, where to start.
The shop is as beautiful as ever. I’m continually surprised that I can keep adding more things into it and still find more space. A new press, member shelving, and another stitcher have all been brought in, with a large board shear on the way. The shop changes to fit what it and its constituents wants to work on, and what it seems to want to work on is books. So I’m leaning into it. I also want to work on books this coming new year.
I’ve been quiet about the shops latest acquisition, partly because I had no idea it would work. I had found out about this press from one of the Facebook groups, and knew approximately what it was—that it was an automatic cylinder press, that it was very small—but equally knew there wasn’t much information about them, and if it was missing any parts it would be difficult to have replacements made. Still, I was interested. The previous owner had ran the press, had kept it in storage for many years, and was not selling it because he wanted to make any money out of the deal. He had listed it for $100 for anyone who would pick it up.
I thought about it for a week. The press was in Isle, MN, which is about 14 hours away from Detroit. I thought better of it. I am getting too old to move presses on a whim. They say you lose a year off your life every time you move a press. Press movers are still around, so it can’t be true, but after moving a few presses over 1000 lbs you start to believe it. I went to email the seller to tell him I couldn’t buy the press, when I saw a message from him. His son would be in Michigan later that week, and he wanted to know if I wanted the press dropped off.
How could I say no?
The press arrived on a Friday. We had the press dropped off at a friends who had a forklift (thanks Joe) and moved it from there to our shop on press moving skates (thanks Signal Return). It was not an easy move. The roads from Joe’s shop to mine are terrible, and I was terrified the press would move on the trailer. After the press was in the shop, the skates failed, and we essentially dragged the press into position. We had cheeseburgers and fries on the way home, as is our pressmoving tradition—we eat badly after long days of work.
At the end of the day, I was grateful. I still am. So—meet our Webendorfer Little Giant #1, or “Webby” for short. Here is a short video of the press feeding paper. It still needs new rollers before it can start printing. It will hopefully be a great help with future bookmaking endeavors.
I am writing from my home studio, which is where I am learning bookbinding. Earlier this year Amos had taught Chen & I how to sew and bind a book, and walked us through considerations for their construction. Over the summer, we spent a day with Nao Inoue at Marumizu-gumi in Tokyo, which gave us some ideas on how to case in a book, and a broadened sense of what materials existed (Japan, China, have many more options available for cloth and paper). With what I and learned, and some materials picked up along the way, I’ve began to teach myself bookbinding with the hopes of offering that as a service sometime next year. I’ve set out to make 100 of the same size journal, with small variations, to teach myself process and to better understand what I like in a book. So far I’ve learned that I like patterned cloth, or fairly boring buckram covers, a large joint (or French groove), sewn on, 4 leaf endpages that are a thicker, rougher paper, and that I’m not so fond of headbands.
I’m on my 26th book now, so wish me luck with the rest. Here are some notable experiments, including two books with fabric covers from China, a bookcloth covered book with a well for a photograph, and a paper covered book made from an old poster.
Last—when’s the last time you’ve been to your library? Have you been to your library. Let me tell you, it’s great. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a library, so I went to the main branch of the Detroit Public Library and got some books on bookbinding. I learned that you can use your library card to rent audiobooks as well, so I am now listening to Stranger in a Strange Land while I work on books. I also learned you could send books to your kindle, which I have done as well, and have checked out a digital copy of a collection Margaret Atwood’s writings and speeches.
Anyway, go to the library. Make some books. Print some things. Avoid the television. Safe travels through the designed world.