Tintern Abbey Rolls Off the Press!

A binding in green

I finished printing Tintern Abbey early on Wednesday, April 25, marking almost four full weeks of setting type, dissing it again, proofing pages, changing colours and running the edition. Another month or so prior I spent cutting the illustrations, with some trepidation but with satisfactory results. And in the end, it all came together as a book.

I tasked myself to have at least one copy ready for the Grimsby Wayzgoose; in the end, I managed to bind up four. Three sold at the show, I took orders for two more as well as two deluxe editions. the next step is to get the deluxe copies under way, and binding up more regular copies and publicizing them. I’ll put all the details of the edition in both states up in a subsequent blog entry.

The small title page with engraving.

Normally when I print a book, I keep a notebook handy, or record my adventures and mis-adventures here in this non-substantial space. With the Grimsby Wayzgoose always looming ever closer, the production became a rush… not the most ideal of situations. However, the benefit of a deadline is that a project gains momentum and gets done on time.

I’ve been looking back on the project and trying to remember the bits and pieces of either rewarding or peculiar happenings. From the start, TA was a considerably more ambitious project than any of our previous books. The whole would be printed on St. Armand Canal paper, and would be our longest book at 40 pages. It would be illustrated with wood engravings… not such a great technical feat after printing Graven Images, but cutting the blocks myself proved intimidating, especially with all of Thomas Bewick‘s prints around me while I worked. Let’s just say I gained an intense appreciation for the master’s work. This is the first book using Holly’s calligraphy rendered to plates, and a substantial use of a second colour that is not red.

The title page spread.

Beyond these firsts, there are the usual matters: the nature and quality of the type, the work of setting and dissing it, the functioning of the press, the varying degrees in ink and how it interacts with paper, and the paper itself. I’ll make these subjects of upcoming and more frequently regular posts over the next couple of weeks while I work on finishing more books.

Engravings, text and calligraphy working together on a 2-page spread.

To start with, I’ll finish off my thoughts about printing the wood engravings (the making of them has been dealt with earlier). They printed very well, and without much of the anguish I had from the blocks in Graven Images. Granted the latter were 130 year old or more. I found the Resingrave blocks printed very well, as did the engrain maple. Make-ready was minimal and, in one instance of robust energy or desperation, I printed three engravings in one day (on separate sheets). It went well, thankfully.

Tintern Abbey page spread with engraving on wood and calligraphy on magnesium.

The engravings have been well received, and I have been forbidden from staining them my own jaundiced eye. The answers to my own complaints, I know, lie in practice, practice, practice.

Colophon

Tintern Begins

All the text is in for Tintern Abbey, the next book on the press. The pagination is done in the form of a mock-up of the book. The paper has arrived from Saint Armand in Montreal, and I am very excited to dampen it and begin printing. First, however, the dummy tells me that I have to generate 12 illustrations for this book. <Sigh.> While I’m working that out, I’ll be dissing all the type form the many little projects I’ve done, as well as some still on trays from Graven Images. Then I can begin setting type for the various blocks of text from the poem, and from the introduction by Prof. Mark Jones, Queen’s University.

So that metaphorical train is finally leaving the station. Hoping to arrive early December.

As soon as some illustrations are ready, I’ll print and send out the prospectus.

Paste-up rough mock-up of Tintern Abbey

 

Digitally imposed pagination layout (Thank you CheapImposter!) The big black squares are illustrations, but you have to use your imagination at the moment.

 

Mmmmmmm.... Saint Armand paper cut and folded into a binding maquette for the book. Dig the decal edges....

Wordsworth for Wayzgoose

This year, and as per tradition, at the last moment, I set about to design and print our modest submission to the annual Grimsby Wayzgoose Anthology.

I wanted to try a few ideas around the upcoming Wordsworth book, and a designer title page done in multiple passes using lead type, not magnesium plates.

So here’s the result of the first pass:

And lined up on the press for the second pass:

And after the second pass, including the back page colophon:

Then the third pass, in red:

And then the fourth pass in red to finish the cover:

A fifth and sixth pass for the inside spread, one for the illustration, the other for the text:

It gives Tintern Abbey a rather spooky feel, does it not! I like it. Holly’s design, my cutting work.

But not done yet! Holly insisted I print the Greyweathers Press logo on the back between the colophon and the copyright line. So a seventh pull, at 150 copies made for 1,050 impressions, not including proofs and test runs.

That’s just four pages. Just wait until I print the entire book!

Tintern Abbey

Planning has begun on our next book, Tintern Abbey, the celebrated poem by a celebrated poet, William Wordsworth.

Wordsworth is not my favourite Romantic poet. In fact, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley and Byron all line up ahead, but he was probably more important than the others to the whole notion of Romanticism in the early 19th century.

In October of 2008, Holly and I saw the ruins of the abbey, and they are indeed wonderful, but they do not warrant even a mention in the poem. However, many critics believe the meaning-laden layers of the poem conceal the spirit of the place.

I hope to have the book finished by June, for the Ottawa Book Arts Show. Here’s a sneak peak at the progress so far:

Hey, ya gotta start somewhere!

Busy Winter Days

This is a post simply to catch up all the little things that have been happening here in the studio.

Previously I posted about printing the labels for Graven Images, as I desperately try to finish off the 28 bound copies that had been standing around the press, in a state of undress:

So I used this monster from another age

to cut these wee things

(Doing delicate tiny work with old 19th century cutters is a tricky maneuver).

So, today I puddled about with glue brush and PVA resulting in this:

followed by gluing down the print mount flaps. All that’s left is the numbering of this particular portion of the edition, and another ten or so copies will be off into the big world.

I’ve been scheming about streamlining the studio, and took a baby step this week. For the last five years, I’ve used this plastic container to hold my coppers, brasses and thins (these being the names of the very thin pieces of metal that shim up the final gaps in a line of hand-set lead type.

It worked fine, but it has to be carried from another part of the studio, so I am always afraid of dropping it, which would represent another layer of hell that Danté never mentioned. So, I smiled sweetly and Holly kindly surrendered this awesome toolmaker’s bit chest, with miniature drawers that fit the thins beautifully, and fits perfectly on the desk, where it will remain.

 

Next 25 copies ready

Cover and spine labels for Graven Images

Today, I inked the press up and printed the cover and spine labels in order that I might finish off the freshly bound copies of Graven Images. Tomorrow I’ll cut them down, glue them onto the cover and spine, then prepare send off several copies to satisfy orders from late last year.

I intend to hand-bind several more copies using the hand-painted papers Holly made back when we thought they’d all be done that way. These are earmarked for special destinations. The two that I’ve already done worked out quite well.

Now on to other projects!

Ten (or More) Things I (re)Learned Printing Graven Images

1. Settle on a binding design from the outset, and stick to it. The binding of Graven Images has been something of a problem. I didn’t have a set plan from the outset, and that created headaches all through production. Originally it was going to be a handsome envelope or folder with the prints loose inside, and it grew on its own from there. Plans to bind the edition myself evaporated in face of time constraints, so the job was handed off to a commercial binder. The results were adequate, but still full of small disappointments.

2. Set limits. At one point, there was some discussion around the dinner table about creating fictional text to accompany the illustrations. I guess that was my line of death, but it would have been an interesting endeavour. The painted covers are covered below, and the final binding of the edition was a compromise imposed by money and time.

3. Use tried and true papers on big projects. There’s a reason so many private presses use only a certain few commercially available papers; there’s no need for further experimentation. Sigh. Looking forward to St. Armand, Fabriano, Arches Text…. and insolvency trying to pay for them.

4. Smoother paper = better halftones. Better impression generally. Canson Mi Teintes paper proved problematic, with one side being rough, intended for pastels. I lost my nerve, and declined to print a large halftone of the box of wood engraving blocks when I realized it would be printed on the rough side, and the last page after already printing the three other pages. I’m telling ya, this racket takes nerves of steel!

5. I’m happier when I can work on the production of a book beginning to end in a concentrated period of time. Because of much going on in my life, I knew that Graven Images would be spread over a long period of time. Two years, in fact. I planned it that way, breaking all the work into its parts, and it all worked out according to plan. But I didn’t like it as much as working on a book every day, continuously for six or eight weeks.

6. I’ve mastered printing type. Just in time to see the early signs of age and wear on my precious lead type.

7. Think twice, maybe three time before betting on a lot of art work for any book. Holly and I planned to have her paint all the covers for Graven Images. What were we thinking?! Trying to reproduce her painted covers using digital laser printing added another dimension of frustration to the job, for everyone involved.

8. I need storage for unbound sheets. At one point, I had the makings of 75 copies of the edition laid out flat in one box. Very heavy! Very big! Always tripping over it.

9. I need storage for bound copies. Graven Images is a big book, not just in terms of labour, but its actual size. And it is by no means even close to the largest folios done by some presses. Even binding up 25 copies a time requires some place to put them, when I even lack bookshelves for the books in my own collection!

10. I need to better organize my work area. Holly has caught me more than once this winter standing at the foot of my press, arms folded and staring into space. My space works very well indeed, but improvements can and will be made. Additional storage. Moving things further back that I seldom use; moving stuff I use frequently closer. A hanging wall cupboard is in the works. Perhaps some shelving.

11. I can print wood engravings. I can even print 130 year old wood engravings. It’s not as easy as it looks. And for the 130 year old engravings, apply lesson #2.

12. Promotion. Promotion. Promotion. I print books with the attitude that I would be happy to live with the entire edition until I pop off. But really, how sensible is that?

13. Live with the variables. There are far too many variables involved in producing a beautifully printed page to be able to control them all. So get over it, and find creative solutions.

14. I love printing, and there will be more books. Wordsworth’s famous poem Tintern Abbey is up next.

A Busy Month

Pausing to examine my last blog, I see that more than a month has passed since my last contribution. It has been a busy time: Studio Tour, work on more prints in the 2010 series and a trip to Picton, Ontario to participate in the Maker’s Hand craft show.

Checking tags as the gates open at The Maker's Hand.

The Maker’s Hand is something of an anomaly amongst craft shows. It is not that large, perhaps 50 vendors, set in a town as opposed to a city, and yet it fields some of the best talent in Ontario, and attracts a healthy crowd of buyers. It is a show that has to date been managed by craftspersons, deliberately kept small and all of us – participating artists – must submit new work to be juried every year. The show is a counterpoint to the massive, consumer oriented 800 plus vendor binges seen in major cities, where the promoters insist on referring to art and craft as ‘merchandise’ and push artisans to create goods in the lowest price point possible. It’s all sound capitalism, but somehow it does not say much for the caliber of customer they are hoping for. Well, we are, all of us, trying to make a living.

Holly and I sold well at the Tour and the Maker’s Hand, with my humble linocuts receiving a lot of attention and many heading off to grace other peoples walls. Holly’s new Muse Journals received a lot of praise.

All the while, Graven Images has been proving itself a success, which is a delight and a relief. As of today, it has sold it’s first $1,000, which I dare say cuts a swath out of the expenses to date, taking into account the fact that only 20% of the edition is bound as yet, so the outlay has not ended yet. Ah well. Multiple copies have gone to book sellers in Seattle, and expressions of interest have come from New Jersey and London, England. I just mailed off the first of this edition to be bought by a university’s special collection, namely my alma mater, Carleton University, and a copy for the Rare Book collection at the Toronto Reference Library will be winging its way there from here on Monday. Previous editions from the press have found a place in the collection of Otago University in Dunedin, New Zealand, and the National Library of Canada purchased my first three editions just prior to the cancellation of that practice. They have reverted to insisting that book artists donate one copy, or two if the edition is larger than 99, as per the law entrenched in the Constitution, no less. Even if there exist only two copies, and the value being tens of thousands of dollars. But that’s okay, because I’ve been hearing through sources that some in the National Library are keen to end the collection of books and their costly storage, unless sent to them as digital files. So far I’m not aware of book artists being asked to send digital copies of their books.

Speaking of the National Library, that is where the Ottawa Chapter of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild meets monthly, and last Wednesday I gave a slide presentation on the making of Graven Images, particularly on the extreme make-ready required to print the very old blocks. I’ll do a blog later with the images from the demonstration.

Graven Images Bound, and Unleashed (at last)

One-fifth of the editon, freshly labeled.

It has been a long road, and in many ways there are still problems to solve, but for now, Graven Images is finished at last. Well, twenty copies at least. I pasted the face labels on this morning and the spine labels this afternoon.

Labels ready to be pasted onto the front cover of the book. The spine got a label also.

Also this afternoon my copy of Parenthesis (the Journal of the Fine Press Book Association) arrived like a portent to remind me just how far I have yet to go in my journey. *Sigh*  Graven Images will be but one of many, and even now as I begin to flog this book, I am looking forward and further on to the next project.

Once again, Graven Images is printed by hand on Canson Mi-Teintes paper in an edition of 100 copies. Included are thirteen mounted wood engravings, hand printed on Fabriano Accademia paper. One block perished on the press, and has been reproduced digitally from an early proof, rendered as a magnesium plate and printed as the title to the portfolio. Likewise, magnesium plates were used for two halftone illustrations. The type is Italian Oldstyle, set by hand. There is a forward describing the recent discovery and nature of the collection. Dimension: 9.25 x 12 inches, 30 pages including 14 plates. Quarter bound in cloth and paper. Price $160.

…Sew Little Time Indeed.

So little time, in fact, that I’ve sent 20 copies of Graven Images out to be bound at a professional bindery, namely Smiths Falls Bookbinding. They will be ready for next weekend, the final weekend of the studio tour. I think Allan thought I was a bit touched when I told him I had planned to hand bind the entire edition myself. He was able to accommodate easily some of the peculiarities of this particular structure, and I’m looking forward to seeing the bound edition on Thursday or Friday. Sometime between now and Friday I have to print labels for the cover and the spine.

The first weekend of the studio tour went well, both Holly and I had fair sales, although there isn’t the robust crowds of previous years, probably because there is a great deal more to capture the attention of the populace on any given autumn weekend. The studio looks spiffy, thought; I’ll get shots of it next weekend.

It has become traditional to have a guest artist named Jamie. In previous years, it was Jamie Brick, who has bowed out to do a show in another part of the country. This year, we have Jamie Carter, who has turned our rustic living room into quite a swish little gallery with his mixed media photography, which involves some kind of alchemical process to transfer silver nitrate onto canvas, and that’s just the beginning. (Photos coming, pending permission).

I have five new linocuts for the show, plus one that was used for the CBBAG (bookbinder’s guild) swap (nude at a window), so I printed an edition of that and combined it with a splash of colour in the form of marbled paper. Pictures later.