I came across this rather nice slide show featuring a selection of Mary Delany’s flower collages, with appropriate soundtrack. After clicking the play arrow, be sure to enlarge it to full-screen view (middle button on the bottom right). Keep in mind, it’s all cut paper.
Everyone knows that white cotton gloves should be worn when handling precious books and manuscripts, right? Well, it turns out that the need for white gloves might be just as based in fact as all those Eskimo words for snow you’ve been told about. The British Museum, for instance, does not want you to wear white cotton gloves when you are handling most of the items in their collections. I know this from personal experience. When I spent time in their Prints and Drawings Students’ Room some years ago, I was not made to wear gloves, and, in fact, they were not offered. I’ve always been curious about that. And now I know why. It turns out that materials are more likely to be damaged if you are wearing gloves. Awkward cotton gloves reduce dexterity and make you clumsier. The risk from bare skin against precious items is overblown. Clean hands are preferable.
From the British Library's Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Blog.
According to a 2005 article by Cathleen Baker and Randy Silverman, Misperceptions about White Gloves, in International Preservation News:
…it appears that cotton glove-use spread to the rare book and archives reading room only in the last decade of the twentieth century, suggesting this practice is less than 20 years old. This development was probably driven by the good intentions of some curators with ready access to archival supply catalogues in which vendors have increasingly represented glove-use as a standard component of library and archival practice. Yet, while many curators remain convinced of the efficacy of glove-use for patrons in reading rooms, others do not…
In other words, it’s mostly marketing. I love it when accepted wisdom gets turned on its head.
My friend Shirley sent me a British children’s book from the 50s that is (more or less) about human evolution. She thought it looked like perfect material for an altered book.
She was right.
A couple of months ago, a call went out from MarinMOCA for their annual altered book show. I got out my scissors. A little natural selection, anyone?
I gutted the book. It has some basic human biology in it as well, but I decided to focus on the evolution bits for the sake of cohesion. I mounted the cutouts with dry adhesive onto stiff paper. Then I arranged the chosen elements into layers.
I cut out several identical black frames from stiff black Strathmore paper and folded two accordions from black German Ingres (the stuff is strong, but thin enough to fold into a nice pliable structure). I anchored the cutouts onto the paper frames.
Then I added hinges made of the Ingres onto the back of each frame.
I used 3M 415 double-sided tape for mounting. Why use glue when it can be avoided? Especially when there’s a good archival alternative.
The downside is it has no open time for repositioning. Stick it once, and it’s there forever. That’ll keep you on your toes. Additionally, I hadn’t made a tunnel book in a long time. I’d forgotten that it can feel like binding a Slinky. Eventually, however, a rhythm emerges and it’s not too bad. Also, I quickly remembered that the best way to handle double-sided tape is to not peel off the backing paper all at once after positioning. It’s best to line up the page into position and then slide the liner off the tape as you go:
On the up side, I’d also forgotten how theatrical and fun a finished tunnel book can be, especially a larger one like this.
The finished tunnel is a tight fit into the original cover. If I had more time, I might’ve considered altering the spine to fit more properly. On the other hand, this way seems more in the altered book spirit.
I’ve had a few original (not altered) tunnel projects sitting around half finished. Now that my appetite has been whetted, I want to make more tunnels!
If you’re near the San Francisco Bay Area, consider checking out the 3rd Annual Altered Book Show at MarinMOCA in Novato, where Modern Marvels: Man will be on exhibit. It opens April 21. More details are on their website.
I could not believe my eyes! What should I make? Book cloth? New curtains for the studio? Or how about a new studio apron?
…each of the nice people who commented on my last post! To show my appreciation, I am putting my vending machine capsule books into a cookie jar and randomly drawing one for each of you. Thank you all for your comments and good wishes!
I’ve emailed everyone whose mailing addresses I don’t already have. If you think you should’ve been one of those people and haven’t heard from me, please let me know.
My experiment in blogging began three years ago today. Chewing with the Paper Chipmunk has changed quite a bit since then. A lot of things have changed since then.
Peek-a-boo...I see you...
But one thing has not.
My very first post was about the black widow spiders in my studio. They, alas, are still here. As I walked in the door the other day, I spied a rather large specimen darting behind a big heavy bookcase that is bolted to the wall (this is, after all, California). I can’t move the bookcase, and there isn’t much I can stick back there with which to remove her nor, I am imagining, her several hundred children waiting to hatch.
I’m not particularly worried about being bitten. Black widows, as far as I know, keep to themselves and don’t wander too far. She’s kind of cute, in her way. I’ve since seen her hide upon sight of me a few other times. Charming. Really. Delightful. Most delightful.
And now that I’ve probably scared off all my spider phobic readers (Wait! Come back!), I want to announce a celebratory blogiversary giveaway—my very first. I never dreamt three years ago how many fabulously eccentric, fun, funny, creative and all-around wonderful people I would meet through this blog. Thank you all.
Leave a comment, and I’ll send you a little surprise. I loved Amanda Watson-Will’s idea of sending a little something to several people (and, I must say, her little giveaway book was delightful). I’m not sure if my small surprise will be delightful, but that will be the idea here, at least for all legitimate and welcome comments (alas, unfortunately there’s been a dark side to having the blog as well…). The deadline is the end of this coming weekend (before Monday 12th) California time.
And I promise—you won’t find any stowaways in the the package.
I suspect this won’t be available past this week, but I wanted to mention a BBC Radio 4 program called The Stationery Cupboard. It’s about why people have such a deep attachment to stationery and office supplies. I thought my fellow paper fetishists would enjoy listening to it as much as I have. It’s a half hour long. [Update: as of May, it's still available.]
From BBC Radio 4
Thanks to Green Chair Press for alerting us to this delightful xkcd cartoon. [Update: and thanks to Dinah Mow at More Idle Thoughts for letting me know that if you go to the site, the cartoons have further commentary if you scrawl over them.]
They are bad luck to climb on as well.
Heavens. I’m feeling superstitious about my last post mentioning ladders and superstition. Shortly afterwards, I fell off a stepladder. Remarkably little damage was done, considering. I’m ok. Still, a bit unnerving. I’ve been trying to tidy up the studio a bit (which sounds so tame—actually, I can’t work in there at the moment. It’s utter chaos). Perhaps there should be superstitious beliefs about high shelves.
I’d sworn I was not going to commit myself to anything this year. Then I signed up with Book Art Object … and now I just signed up to also do a second 10-book edition for Book Art Object. My second title will be Poison. I’m wondering how strict the definition of “book” is over there. I was originally thinking of another “children’s” board book, but then I started contemplating the medicine bottles filled with capsules I did several years ago. I also recently came into possession of a bunch of discarded psychiatry journals. Possibilities there, somehow? Perhaps not straight capsules, but something similar that provides texts and pictures. Or perhaps something completely different—say, a book about how some people are poison? Just dreaming up ideas at this point. I like this part of the creative process—mad scribbling of ideas and playing around with things to see what might work. And it’s much more enjoyable if I start now, rather than waiting 8 months into the project.
