I am in Utopia.

The Golden Cockerel Press edition. Decorations by Eric Gill, printed by Robert Gibbings in 1929, lovely stuff. Bound in a very un-inspiring, faded blue buckram. Some light damage to the tail of the spine... a perfect candidate for re-binding. The first job is to clean the pages with a soft brush. This is to remove any material that has found a home with-in the pages such as biscuits and small people.


Once the small people have been given a new home the text block is removed. This may appear to be a little bit on the crude side but it is an important step. The boards are a deep yellow in colour, rather like straw. This because one of the components of the board make-up is... straw. We call it Straw Board, gripping stuff.


The next step is to clean the old spine linings off.It is important to be able to understand what sort of old adhesive has been used, in this case Hot or Scotch Glue. It is very similar to Rabbit Skin glue. I place the book, spine up in a finishing press with old boards to support and protect the text block. I apply a coat of paste to the spine and cover with cling film. The cling film keeps the paste moist thus re-activating the old adhesive, allowing me to gently remove the old kraft paper and mull. The sine is cleaned slowly to ensure that the paper is not damaged. More paste is applied as required.



When all the old stuff has been removed the spine is allowed to dry, I usually leave it overnight.



The sewing is removed and any final cleaning is then carried out. The sections can then be pressed individually to remove the old backing and battle can commence.

Water Book

Towards the end of last year Designer Bookbinders organised an international competition, being a fellow of D B, I was encouraged to enter. The title of the book is Water and is series of works about... wait for it.....water.
So here is my offering.



Reduction Lino cuts for the end papers. Fun to do and simple-ish.



Hand sewn endbands with edge decoration in blue and gold leaf.




Edge to edge doublers, these have been worked on the book to give the feeling of water worn wood.



The leather is hand dyed with over 1,500 individual impressions. That took some time to do, I suppose it is a sort of trad binding for me. The design is based on the Golden Temple in Kyoto. Rain Falling on the decorative carp in the surrounding lake.
The surface of the leather was then worked with a fine wire wool, leaving the gold in the impressions ( Hand Tooled ) and residue of the gold left in place to enhance the ripple effect.Small inlays in the boards and doublers echo the water drop on the end papers.



I like the finished result, fun to do and something of a challenge as I do not usually work with gold leaf in this way.

Tooling, boxes and the last few days at Anandwan.

Tea break finished, the crowds gone. Time for some work, using what was on site, an iron as a stove proved perfect, smoth hot plate and thermostat. Practise and yet more practise.

It looks easy, not much to it you may think. You would be wrong.... As Mr Amru was to discover.....

How we smiled at the bosses work. But top man that he is, Mr Amru knew when to step back at let others have their go.

Many thanks to Tom Mc Ewan for he made the hand tools ( Please se the links on my web site ) top stuff.

So after five days and many boxes and albums later I bid farewell.

I would like to thank all who supported me, their encouragement, advice and help. Thank you.

Boxes, photo albums and tea breaks.

The box making continued at a pace. I had made a small press from a car jack and some wood in the studio. It worked! the wood made it light enough to put in my case and did not send the security people at the air ports in to a state of panic. Pressing blocks were made so that the boxes could be pressed.

The fine looking man on the left is David Penton. David is a good friend and studio 5 member. He is also the person who after 2 or 3 glasses (it may have been more) of wine induced me to go to Anandwan ( I would have gone anyway I just wanted the wine, please do not tell him that though!) He is also the guy who has taken many, if not all of the images for this and our previous trip to Anandwan.




As the box project neared completion the students were able to realise that they could make boxes, and with a little more practice, good boxes at that. The aim was to use what we had on site, to make the boxes for a purpose... not just an empty exercise. It is intended that the boxes will be used to protect and display the units greetings cards. With further development who knows what else they will find to box... books... linens who knows.



The next project was to make simple photo albums. The construction was a basic self guarding ( self compensating ) fold and glue method.



If you remember the previous blog where we made book cloth? well here it was used to make the case for one of the styles of photo album. I think it looks good and it was top to to be able to see the students work coming together in this way... again no empty exercise but projects with results.



We also worked on 1/4 leather albums as we thought it a good practise and important for the students to be able to work with different materials, to be able to extend the product range.



Tea break. Enough said I think.



The next blog will dwell on the finishing of the leather bound albums, tooling with gold foil. Great fun in a hot climate.



Just one more image. As Anandwan is well known we were at times besieged with visitors. Imagine learning with hundreds of eyes following your every move, it is bad enough having me as the teacher.

Anandwan Book Cloth. Part Two.

Once the Formica work surface was spotless a small length of cotton fabric was damped out. Natural fabrics are best for making bookcloth and the damping out ensures that there are no wrinkles, eliminates the risk of water marks later on and keeps the fabric in contact with the work surface.

Next a piece of paper was glued out. The only available adhesive on site was a PVA 'Fevicole' turned out to be pretty good stuff. The paper was cut bigger than the cloth by 2cm on all edges.
The paper was then picked up using a ruler. This makes it much easier to handle the paper and gives far greater control when applying the paper to the cloth.
The paper is carefully placed over the cloth, ensuring that the glued surface goes toward the still damp cloth and that the 2cm overlap is equal.
The paper is tamped down using a hard bristle brush. This tamping down gets rid of air pockets and ensures that the paper has a good bond with the cloth.
The final tamp.
Along all four edges P V A was applied to the paper ( only for 1cm ) the whole lot is then peeled off the work surface......
..... then laid out cloth upermost.
The P V A along the edges of the paper are pressed down. This was/is important as it will make sure that the bookcloth will dry flat and become taught... like a drum skin. This technique is called drumming on... simple really. A small piece of waste paper is tucked under on egde of the paper, this will allow a knfe to be slipped under the dry bookcloth for easy removal from the work surface. Job done.
One of the nice things about teaching is when you see the student becoming the teacher and passing on the skills.
The next thing to do is to find a use for the book cloth.....

Anandwan book cloth. Part One.

The students continued the box making, learning that it is not the amount of glue that you use but how you use it.


I had decided that the best way forward was to have a number of different work shops on the go at the same time. One of these separate work shops was how to make book cloth from an old sari.
As the work shop was open to the elements on three sides the first order of the day was to clean down the work surface.


After much elbow grease the demonstration began.
First is to find a suitable cloth. We found some cotton, which as with any natural fabric is perfect. This was place face down on to a Formica surface ( near enough any non porous surface will bo the job, in Studio 5 I tend to use a huge double glazing panel )

Happy New Year.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year. Have fun and lets enjoy 2009.

Mark

Anandwan,Boxes part two.

After showing Mr Amru the intended work shop the demonstrations began.

I had already printed a series of images for the making of the boxes.
This was backed up with demonstrations.


As with any group of individuals, there was different skill and ability levels. Each student was treated as an individual, I find that it is better to find solutions before you find the problems. To look ahead, anticipated problems cease to be problems, just a series of solutions.

We worked with the available equipment.
Some of which would be frowned on in the UK. One such animal was the guillotine.

A beast of a machine. That said, it did the job.


It is always the same. You pay attention to the demonstration, you think that it is easy, no problem. Then work shop leader invites you to have a go. Then you wish you had paid more attention.



The secret is to be accurate, understand the materials you are using, accept that in the beginning mistakes will be made...learn from them and move on.


Pointing out the finer details.


Realising that as a teacher, it is just as important to learn from those you teach.


And when it is best to take a back seat and let the individual student shine.


One thing I did learn , the importance of the Tea Break.

A mini studio 5 in India.

I love my job, one of the highlights is being able to leave a cold, dark and damp England for the warmth of India.

At one point it looked that I would not be going. The terrorist attack in Bombay had caused a degree of concern. My wife, friends and studio members asked me to think long and hard. I had intended to fly into Bombay, spending a couple of days checking out the suppliers and getting over the jet lag before going on to Anandwan. In the end it was decided that it would be best not to spend time in Bombay but catch the first flight out to Nagpur ( The nearest airport to Anandwan )

This sounded fine in theory but in practise it was a different case. The flight from London was the usual mind and bottom numbing 8 or so hours. Having to check in some three hours before spending an age wandering around London Heathrow, terminal 3, trying to buy something to keep me occupied. Once in Bombay I face the agony of some six or so hours before the flight to Nagpur. The joy of travel.

Following the flight to Nagpur I then faced the next two hours lurching on and off the road in a four wheel ambulance ( the only way to travel ) The rest of the day was spent recovering.


Waiting on a pink, concrete bench with a mini Studio 5 for my transport


The transport. Please note that the studio equipment is given priority.


With Mr Amru ( the head of the section where I would be working ) talking over the box making projects.

Back from India.

After a very busy ten or so days I am back in the studio.

Being back in India and in particular Anandwan was fantastic. Not a holiday, hard but rewarding work with top people.

It was good, really good, to see friends from my previous visit.


The all too few days I spent with the students was full on work. I had taken a mini studio 5 with me so we were able to get some serious work done.

Over the next few entries I will endeavour to let you know what we did and how we did it. I have jet lag ( not fully recovered from the Japan tour ) and am going to bed.