My Hippo Has No Ears.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

Imagine a ra
ndom conversation if you will.

Hi, I hear you are a bookbinder? Yes I am... Do you work with leather? Yes I do..... Good, my hippo has no ears.......

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

The Real Business of Bookbinding and Book Arts.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

The real business of bookbinding/book arts.

If I Ruled The World.

A little while ago I did a little canvas for the Chelsea Arts Club fund raiser for the charities that the club supports. To my amazement it had a few bids .... which is good.

Now it is for sale at Sotherans, a book seller in London. I was asked what I thought about it, my reply was that I am delighted for a number of reasons.. First it helped raise funds for charity. 2nd is that the person who won the work in the charity auction liked it. 3rd that someone else, in the book business, liked it enough to want it in their shop. Each step is interesting from my perspective as the value, either in the monetary sense, in the value of it as a work of book art and in the awareness of my work and perhaps book arts has increased with each step.

These are all good things. My primary income is from my work with the book, it is a job but it is still a job of work. I am delighted when someone would like to have my work. Once the work has left my hands it is not mine, what happens to it I have little or no control over, I can make suggestions of course, but ultimately it is not my call.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

https://sotherans.co.uk/products/cockram-mark-if-i-ruled-the-word-long-live-the-book?_pos=1&_sid=ece0b93dc&_ss=r 

 

Postcards From London. A sub cult.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

Finished, limited edition of 10 miniatures (plus 3 AP's) of

Postcards From London.

The technical stuff....

Flat back case bound in ¼ Leather. 24 colour and black and white illustrations of Postcards, or to use a technical term... Tart Cards.... from the telephone boxes of central London. Fore edge fold, stab sewn, 50gsm paper. Each has a unique cover. 74mm x 55mm x 5mm when closed. Forward by the author, that will be me then.

"The origins of London’s Tart Cards can be traced back to the 1960’s London in and  around Soho as handwritten postcards, either  displayed in local shop windows, outside prostitutes’ flats, or walk in photographic studios. With careful wording and references, the cards hid the true nature of what was being advertised. By the mid 1980s tart cards were black and white photo copies with printed text, telephone numbers with hand drawn illustrations appearing in telephone boxes.
Towards the 1990s neon colours, either as the card stock or printing added splashes  of intense colour to the backdrop of making a telephone call in London and other major cities.
By the start of the 2000s the  illustrative quality had changed to include colour nude photographs, mobile phone numbers and on-line sites.

These cards are now part of the urban landscape with the cards from the 1980s and have become part of the under or counter culture of London. They are regarded by many as street or accidental art and as such have a sub cult following.
They continue to influence mainstream art and artists. There have been a number of exhibitions, publications. They have inspired collections and been the subject of research in social history, communication and advertising."

 

I had forgotten how much fun miniatures can be.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

 

 

 

The safest cover to show!

La Ville, colour and texture.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

Work in Progress... La Ville.

Experiment, practise etc etc....

Texture and colour.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

Postcards From London.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

Work in Progress. A little bit of jigging up on the old blocker for spines... POSTCARDS FROM LONDON. A limited edition of 10 miniatures.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

The Mummification of La Ville

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

Work in Progress... La Ville.

I refer this stage of the binding as the mummification process. Basically ensuring the spine is set ready for a little sanding. Once this is done, later today, work will begin on finalising the design and setting out the shapes. This is going to be fun.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

 

A Gathering of Leaves.

My biblionautic chums and friends.

The Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Exhibition... A Gathering of Leaves, now on at the Bodleian Library Oxford. Then on for a mini tour of the UK.

In a little shock.. For more info on Imbre Flores....

 

https://studio5bookbindingandarts.blogspot.com/.../imbre...

Congratulations to all.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

 

La Ville appears and disappears.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

La Ville. A commission.

End papers and doublers. The ink has dreid... A few days ago and having placed an order for some spray paint with amazon some 5 days ago and still waiting, I decided to go to the old school technique of cotton wool and acrylic. The effect is the same, the lino cut appears and disappears when viewed from different angles.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

THE FESTIVAL OF BOOKBINDING: LECTURES AND DEMONSTRATIONS

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

Even more preperation for a talk and demonstration on Minimalist Tight Flat Back artist's book in Oxford early next month.

* THE FESTIVAL OF BOOKBINDING: LECTURES AND DEMONSTRATIONS *

Designer Bookbinders & the Bodleian Library proudly presents a Festival of Bookbinding on 8th & 9th July 2022. The Festival will bring together lectures, demos, practical bookbinding sessions, mini demonstrations & a trade stand to help celebrate the opening of the exhibition “A Gathering of Leaves – the 4th Designer Bookbinders International Competition 2022”.

We're featuring each of the lectures & demos available for booking over the next few days. We continue with a demonstration by Fellow Mark Cockram (@markbookartist) on Fri 8th July, 1:30 – 3:30pm, “Minimalist Flat-Tight Back Binding”.

A demonstration showing a minimalist flat-tight back binding, incorporating laminated board attachment to cloth covered boards. The demonstration includes applied mixed media, and a Drum leaf Text Block. This is an introduction to a combination artist’s book that explores traditional and contemporary aspects.

Discovering his passion for bookbinding and book arts whilst working in Paris in the late 1980s, Mark enrolled on the bookbinding course at Guildford College, graduating in 1992. Mark’s oeuvre is exploratory and diverse being exhibited internationally with work represented in public and private collections. Since being elected Fellow of Designer Bookbinders, Mark has been a regular binder for The Booker Prize.

The Lectures & Demonstrations will all take place in the lecture theatre of the Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries (@bodleianlibraries) in Oxford. Tickets will be free but we welcome any donations to help cover costs – a donation can be added whilst booking:

https://tickets.ox.ac.uk/webstore/shop/viewItems.aspx...

Tickets for the lectures can be found below the “Courses, Masterclasses & Workshops” section, in the “Lectures & Talks” section. NB. tickets are not necessarily listed chronologically, so keep scrolling down if you're unable to find the event you're looking for.

@db.int.bookbinding.competition

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

Minimalist Tight Flat Back Artist's Book

My biblionautic chums and friends.

 

Preperation for a talk and demonstration on Minimalist Tight Flat Back artist's book in Oxford early next month.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 Creating the text block..

La Ville. Printing.

My biblionautic chums and friends.

La Ville. A commission.

The last week has seen me crouched over my bench, lino tools in hand... cutting lino for the front and back end papers and doublers for La Ville. Today is print day.... I love the smell of printing ink!

A montage taken and abstracted from the prints...

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

La Ville. Considered Spontaneity.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

La Ville. A commission.

The last few days have seen me working over the first of two lino cuts for the end papers and doublers.

Below is the first pull of half of the front end paper/doubler, just to see how it is going. Still some way to go but it should work.

A montage taken and abstracted from the prints...

The first pull.

The lino.

The design for the binding has been sort of finalised, perhaps I should say the technique I am going to be using has been finalised. The binding will come together in the application of the covering technique. A degree of considered spontaneity will be involved.

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

DIMENSION A Remboitage diptych Artist’s Book

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

A new exhibition in Book Art SpacE.

DIMENSION

A Remboitage diptych Artist’s Book

Mark Cockram 2022.

A unique diptych of antique leather covered boards hinged with palimpsest parchment. Black on black worked prints on paper

to each of the inner boards. The images either seen or unseen depending on the angle of viewing.

BASE exhibition No 6

 

Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839, the daguerreotype was almost completely superseded by 1860 with new, less expensive processes, such as ambrotype, that yield more readily viewable images. There has been a revival of daguerreotype since the late 20th century by a small number of photographers interested in making artistic use of early photographic processes.

The first authenticated image of Abraham Lincoln, a daguerreotype of him as U.S. Congressman-elect in 1846, attributed to Nicholas H. Shepard.

To make the image, a daguerreotypist polished a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish; treated it with fumes that made its surface light sensitive; exposed it in a camera for as long as was judged to be necessary, which could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting; made the resulting latent image on it visible by fuming it with mercury vapor; removed its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment; rinsed and dried it; and then sealed the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure.

The image is on a mirror-like silver surface and will appear either positive or negative, depending on the angle at which it is viewed, how it is lit and whether a light or dark background is being reflected in the metal. The darkest areas of the image are simply bare silver; lighter areas have a microscopically fine light-scattering texture. The surface is very delicate, and even the lightest wiping can permanently scuff it. Some tarnish around the edges is normal.

Several types of antique photographs, most often ambrotypes and tintypes, but sometimes even old prints on paper, are commonly misidentified as daguerreotypes, especially if they are in the small, ornamented cases in which daguerreotypes made in the US and the UK were usually housed. The name "daguerreotype" correctly refers only to one very specific image type and medium, the product of a process that was in wide use only from the early 1840s to the late 1850s. The image needs to be viewed facing the image as when viewed at an angle the image appears to disappear.

 

Please further note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

We Go To The Gallery.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

It is not all about books. There are boxes... in this case for a modern 1st edition. The start of all the retro Lady Bird Books.

We Go to the Gallery. This is a very interesting book... try to find it on line.

Though the box protects the contents it also indicates the contents. Now I realise that I have not titled the box. More it has just a graffiti style/stencil 1 a to the spine and front. I have found that most collectors know exactly where things are in their collections or, in the case of a book person, library. So an 1 to the spine will surfice and be, I hope, intriguing to those that see the library/collection.

Please further note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

 

Finished...... Alphabetum Romanum The Letterforms of Felice Feliciano.... Both book and box.

My biblionautic chums and friends.

 

Work is finished...... Alphabetum Romanum

The Letterforms of Felice Feliciano. Both book and box.

 

A smallish book beautifully printed by the Greenboathouse Press. 

 

A flat back bound with Palimpsest Parchment in a two tray drop back box.

 

As, dear reader, I hope you can tell, I had fun with the box. The colours of the book are echoed within the box construction. I realise, of course that the title of the book is not Q. However, the cropped Q in the forward is just to cool not to be used. 

 

Please further note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

 

Finished...... Alphabetum Romanum The Letterforms of Felice Feliciano

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

Finished...... Alphabetum Romanum The Letterforms of Felice Feliciano. .... Just the box to make.

 

A smallish book beautifully printed by the Greenboathouse Press. 

 

A flat back bound with Palimpsest Parchment. Leather jointed end papers to edge to edge paper doublers. Applied leather end bands. The choice for a flat back was dictated by a number of aspects when I first appraised the text block. The sewing holes where already pricked, the paper is heavy with many folios persection.. this resulted in thick sections and last, but not least... yes the big one...grain direction... which is, as one could say...against the grain.

 

It is so important to be able to understand what one is working with. What can and perhaps more importantly, what cannot be done. I always encourage experimentation to find out what is the can and cannot. 

 

All to often many binders go in to default mode when making a designed or contemporary binding, full leather, to throw everything at it. Inlays, onlays, lots of bling and that sort of thing. And because it is leather they say it is a fine binding. Trust me, I have seen many full leather bindings with the bling that I would not, in any way, call a 'Fine' binding. I consider that what makes a fine binding, as in many things, is the finesse of the final work, be it in leather, cloth, paper etc.

 

The design for the binding of Alphabetum Romanum and the colours are inspired by the text ... as is usually the case. Truncated letter forms echo the cropped large Q in the forward, as per the instructions from the printer. And who am I to argue with the person who designed and printed the text block?.

 

Sometimes simplicity is the important thing.

 

Please further note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

The binding.

Leather jointed end papers to edge to edge doublers.

Detail of above.

The truncated Q.
 

Finally, a note from the printer relating to trimming etc.

Alphabetum Romanum The Letterforms of Felice Feliciano

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

 

Work in progress...... Alphabetum Romanum The Letterforms of Felice Feliciano. 

 

A smallish book beautifully printed by the Greenboathouse Press. 

 

A flat back bound with Palimpsest Parchment.The design of the binding, the cropped letter forms is inspired by the text... More about that later.

Please further note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

 

Studio 5 Masterclass in Knife Sharpening for the Bookbinder.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

 

Today in Studio 5... A Masterclass in knife sharpening for the book binder/bookartist/restorer etc.

 

Unlike many teaching establishments my minimum number for any class is one with a maximum of five (It is Studio 5 afterall). Today is one!. The participant DM'd/emailed me asking for a special class, it is as easy as that.

 

We will be investigating different methods, stones and the like. Along with edge paring practise with calf, goat skin, vellum/parchment and paper.

 

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

 

Open Evening Class at Studio 5.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

Prep for the Studio 5 Evening Class. Every Wednesday evening that is available (sometimes I am out of the studio!).

Other evenings are available!

Please note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.

 

 

Another Blast from the Past.

 

My biblionautic chums and friends.

 

Another blast from the past! From an auction sale....

 

Reliquary Number 1.

 

I had fun making this one.

 

For further details please follow the link.

 

Reliquary Number 1.

 

Please further note.... there are other studios/binderies doing stuff, spelling and grammar. Please further note, the opinion of the author may change at any moment. This is due to having an open mind of sorts.