Man Booker Binding, Parrot and Olivier in America. Leather on the spine, back boards and canvas.

The spine has been covered in fair goat with a simple design of red stripes. I like the uneven nature of the coloring, it adds movement to what could have been a very static design.


The back board is to be covered in a painted canvas. One of the characters is a Female, French painter. To me it makes perfect sense to use painted canvas. I have used the back of the canvas as I prefer the texture and it is not so white.


On the final page, Parrot gives us the date 'May 10, 1837' The flag of the USA had 25 stars. I have exchanged one of the stars with a Fleur de lys. This represents Olivier, his desire to be part of America but always a French man, not quite fitting in.


Canvas on the back board. The effect is bold and brash, the new world.

Man Booker Binding, Parrot and Olivier in America. Rounding and Backing, End Bands, Edge Colouring.

After sanding the edges colour is applied. In this case a simple yellow wash.


Then it is the end banding. Single core in red with flashes of white and blue. Red, Blue and White being common colours to The USA, France and England (National flags !)


The front end papers.


The back end papers.

Man Booker Binding, Parrot and Olivier in America. Section marking and sanding

The ever-so helpful printer, a new and discreet method of section identification.


Sanding the edges, always a fun thing. The edges will be yellow hence the sanding. The paper is not so good so the sanding is, on one hand easy and on the other hand difficult as it marks so easily. And as you may have guessed, the grain direction is WRONG....WRONG....WRONG !


As the sections are so thick they have stepped out. The text block in the press is a before, the text block to the right is an after. Elbow grease and patience.

Man Booker Binding, Parrot and Olivier in America. Sewing etc

After further reading the work has begun on the text blocks, difficult to sew as the sections are so thick and the paper of poor quality. One has to remember that the text block was never intended to be sewn in the first place, also some very interesting section identification techniques!. Images will follow soon.

Man Booker. Olivier and Parrot in America. The text blocks arrive.

The text blocks are here, having read the book I am gradually forming the design, velvet and silver, burnt paper and print.


Type and New York circa 1830.


But first the text block has to be sewn...

The Man Booker short list.

The Man Booker short list is out, I will be binding Parrot and Olivier in America......

The Decayed Book, the project continues.

As we have a day of sun one of the recent decayed/ eaten books drys out.

This is one of my note books, my ideas, designs and thoughts. A tiny fragment of history. Different inks, pencil and ball-points have made their mark, each leaving traces on the partially eaten and decayed pages. The texture of the surface metamorphosing into hidden worlds.

Tray Number Five..

As I wait for things to dry on Lysistrata, boards and the like, I am working on a small print project. Just for fun....
Simple in print and a simple binding. The eye of the storm at the moment as I am one of this years Man Booker Binders, a few months of hell awaits.

LYSISTRATA re-sewing and end papers.

After some time in the nipping press the sections where sewn using the original holes. The stitch used is an un-supported link stitch. The first an last sections have been left loose so that I can hook guard the end papers.



The image for the end papers is derived from a small illustration within the text block, the printing technique is soft plate off-set. The front end paper is on the left and the back end paper is on the right. The printed paper has been laminated on to a toned paper that goes some way to match the text block paper.



Detail of the front end paper.

LYSISTRATA pulling and cleaning the spine.

Having looked at the text block I thought it best to remove the old binding, clean the spine and pull or remove the original sewing. First I removed the text block by cutting through the paste down in line with the edge of the mull.



Then using a lifting knife (a flexible thin bladed knife) I carefully peeled back the mull and part of the paste down. The original boards are called straw boards because they are made from chopped straw, very cheap and very acidic!



I repeated the process on the other board.



Once the text block was free I could begin to clean the spine. First I peeled back as much loose material as I could, nice to see that bookbinders have carried on the tradition of recycling when ever possible.
Next was the wet cleaning of the spine...

LYSISTRATA removing the mull and old adhesive.

After all the spine linings that could be removed dry, I moved on to a wet cleaning process.
The text block was placed in working boards and clamped in my backing press with just the spine area above the cheeks. A thick paste was applied to the spine to soften up the mull and old adhesive. To keep the paste moist I covered the whole area in cling-film and waited for about 10 minutes before removing the paste and any mull and adhesive that had become soft. I then repeated the process until the whole of the spine area was as clean as I could make it.



Care must be taken, as the paper becomes soft and can be damaged, even more in the case of this particular book. The sections are in fact just a single fold (Folio).....not fun!
What became more evident as the spine became visible was the shocking rounding and backing.



Sections had been crushed, threads broken, old crusty hot glue... not nice. I imagine that this poor book was rounded and backed last thing on a Friday afternoon or after a particularly good lunch.

LYSISTRATA... a new commission....

First a big thank you to Nicky, Haein and Cheryl for their help over the open studio weekend. It was good fun with about 40 people coming.


Random image from Madrid, I just love the colours and textures.


Lysistrata, a new commission, the binding has seen better days and to be frank the construction is not suitable for this size of book.

STUDIO 5 OPEN WEEKEND

It has taken some time but Studio 5 will be having an OPEN WEEKEND..... Saturday-31-July and Sunday-1-August...2010

All welcome!

Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Finished and in Transit 1

Brush Up Your Shakespeare is finished and in transit to the owner.

I had great fun working on this miniature binding, such a contrast to the previous commission (The 4 Gospels being over 2m in length!)

The box is a 2 tray drop back box with a weighted top tray. The top tray is weighted to ensure that the box will stay closed. I find that working on miniatures that because the materials can be light weight boxes and the like sometimes just want to keep gaping.


The binding is in full fair goat with hand dying, pouting lips... Kiss Me Kate. The text block is of the song 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare from the musical Kiss Me Kate, which was inspired by 'The Taming Of The Shrew' by one William Shakespeare.




The Doublers/Doublures are hand printed (Soft Plate Off-Set) with 23 1/2 ct gold leaf laid on top the worked. The front being 'All The World Is A Stage'



With the gangsters on the last page of the text block paying homage to a rather ironic looking Shakespeare, again soft plate off-set with gold leaf.



The One Pound coin to the left gives some indication as to the size of the finished book.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Finished and in Transit 2

With this style of text block construction the pages flow as you go through them. The text block almost escapes from the binding.




Fun to work with and fun to handle.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Doublers are down.

The Doublers are hand printed and coloured with a layer of worked cold gold (23 1/2 ct)
The text block will be attached with the first and last pages being inserted behind the doublers. A non adhesive binding!

Now for the container.

HOLIDAY

For the first time in many years I am going on HOLIDAY.... to Spain.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Kiss Me.

Work progresses on Brush Up Your Shakespeare. A Full leather binding ( Fair Goat ) with a stylised image of a pair of pouting lips.
The dye has been applied with, yes you guessed right.. a brush. All free hand... Next is the gold leaf.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare, when small is small etc....

Having been informed that the definition of a miniature book is any book under 3 inches, I am happy to say that Brush Up Your Shakespeare is a miniature...

Brush Up Your Shakespeare, new work from New York.

I love boxes. This one contains Brush Up Your Shakespeare, a limited edition by the Piccolo Press/New York.



Small but not a miniature.




Charming illustrations by Seymour Chwast, the text is the music and words to the song Brush Up Your Shakespeare from the musical Kiss Me Kate. Top stuff, should be fun....