Tintern Abbey in the Autumn

Frontispiece printed on St.Armand Old Master paper.

Tintern Abbey is a summer poem, and we view it very much as a summer book, even though it was conceived in the autumn of 2008, work initiated on it in the winter of 2011 and the first copies were only available in the spring of 2012. Now, with September here again, goat skins and Japanese papers are in the talented hands of Christine McNair who is commencing work on the deluxe binding. Gathering materials for the deluxe edition was an education in understanding the distinction between goat skin and calf skin, and the nuances of Japanese paper.  And as the work carries on, I hope this book will bring the warmth summer with it, no matter how cold and stormy it may get in the months to come.

I intend to produce another dozen regular edition copies to satisfy orders and to have some available for the Merrickville Studio Tour, happening over the last two weekends of September.

So, September will be a month dedicated to Tintern Abbey, and things got underway with the printing of the suite of engravings from the book that will be included with the deluxe edition. These were printed in a run of 15 of each of the seven engravings on St. Armand Old Master handmade paper – really lovely stuff.

While I was cranking away, I printed another 20 copies on white Byronic paper, which will be sold singly, framed or unframed. The one very small engraving could have been done 2 up on a sheet, but I didn’t have another small engraving in book, so it got it’s own entire page.

It’s one thing to offer prints additional to a deluxe edition; it is another to house them safely and sympathetically with the leather bound book in its slip case. I may have seemed unseemly to pounce (as I did) upon a fine press deluxe edition brought to the OPG gathering a couple weeks ago, but it contained a chemise style wrap for the gathering of prints and I was keen to see how they had done it. Mostly, it was what I had in mind: an unadorned paper folded and scored to fit around the prints and slip closed through a cut slit.

For Tintern Abbey’s gathering, I’ll be using Canson Mi-Teintes, which is of a weight almost perfect for the task. My first attempt had it opening top bottom, then side to side, but this would show the flaps along the edge when seated inside the slipcase, so the final version will have it opening from the sides, which still works fine and will look neater along side the book in the slipcase.

 

On Shows, and Selling Books

Just one corner of the Fantasy in the Forest

It has been a week now since Holly and I set up at the Fantasy in the Forest Show. As mentioned before, this annual show is probably our favourite, set up as it is on the shores of an idyllic lake, and accessible via a single lane trail that snakes its way from the highway some kilometres distant. Visitors to the show must take a shuttle in from a parking area, and many feel it adds to the “brigadoon” quality of the experience.

Organizer Jamie Brick and his wife are planning to move the show away from the lake to a piece of land closer to the main road. It’s a good plan for many reasons, not the least being easier access for both vendors and customers, but we’ll miss the lakeside venue.

This year, we set up in Jamie’s old space, he taking over the nearly completed “chapel” that we had used for the last couple of shows. Being indoors rather than under tent makes a difference when you are displaying books and paper. It can get rather humid out-of-doors, on a lake. this year, however, it was warm and dry with cool breezes coming in off the lake.

Display of prints, framed and unframed, in my half of the room.

One view of Holly’s side, overlooking the lake.

We both had a great show this year. I sold some prints and a large framed type sampler and three books, which was a pleasant surprise. Holly sold some paintings. One never knows what will come from exhibiting; we’ve experienced every extreme. A booth show, where paintings or prints must be hung, are hard work beginning with loading the van or truck to unpacking back into the studio. (Book arts shows are easier, having just a table or two to cover). Thankfully, for the Fantasy in the Forest, it was just a couple of MINI Cooper loads, but it still took me until yesterday to get everything put away, freeing the press area for work again. We took the balance of Monday off, then played catch-up during the rest of the week.

Book display, framed wood engravings and the framed type sampler hanging from the door.

Obviously sales are important when doing these shows; we have to pay for the booth, gas to get us there and back (repeatedly this year), food and sometimes accommodation, although for this show that is not a cost. But it is also an opportunity to engage with people, to talk about the work, get feedback, and new ideas – to reacquaint with familiar collectors and hopefully meet new ones. My book sales fell into that category: a copy of Kubla Khan went to an English teacher and Coleridge enthusiast who summers on the lake; a copy of Graven Images went to a dear friend with whom we have recently reconnected – she saw the book when we visited her recently. Lastly, I was startled last year at this same show when a young teenaged girl picked up the Vampire & the Seventh Daughter and paid for it herself, from gift money. She came again this year, and bought Tenebrismo.  She came back again the following day, and we had a very articulate conversation about Kera’s poetry. It always feels good to sell limited edition hand-printed books; they are such oddities in the retail world, and only a few people understand their value, and thus their cost. A fair bit of my time at shows is spent trying to articulate this sensibility, with some success. But to meet someone so young and so enthusiastic about books and literature, well, that’s just really, really cool!

With five editions still in print, it creates a nice little display. Left to right: Graven Images, Kubla Khan, Tintern Abbey (on lectern), Tenebrismo and Vampire & the Seventh Daughter. Some framed engraving proofs from Tintern Abbey are on the wall.

Announcing Tintern Abbey

Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern
Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks
of the Wye during a
Tour, 13 July,
1798

by
William
Wordsworth

~ ~ ~

Five years have passed; five summers, with the length

Of five long winters! and again I hear

These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs

With a sweet inland murmur. —Once again

Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,

Which on a wild secluded scene impress

Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect

The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

~ ~ ~

A letterpress limited edition of 80 copies, 40 pages, hand set with cold type in Goudy’s Italian Oldstyle, with calligraphy rendered digitally to magnesium plates by designer Holly Dean. Illustrated with seven engravings by Larry Thompson. Printed on a Vandercook 219 onto St. Armand Canal paper. Dimensions: 9.5 inches tall x 5.5 inches wide.

REGULAR EDITION: Half bound in cloth with painted papers created by Holly Dean. $160.

DELUXE EDITION: Copies numbered one through fifteen quarter bound by Christine McNair in leather with painted papers created by Holly Dean, in slip cover. Complete with set of engravings printed on St. Armand Old Master paper. $260. SOLD OUT

Shipping and handling additional. Discounts to the trade.

Orders welcome at studio@greyweatherspress.com

~ ~ ~

More than five years have passed since Greyweathers Press published its first book, Coleridge’s popular poem Kubla Khan. Once again, we return to the Romantics to celebrate our first half decade and to commemorate a visit we made to the Wye Valley in the fall of 2008.

William Wordsworth wrote ‘Tintern Abbey’ to be the thoughtful and serious end-note for the poems assembled in Lyrical Ballads (1798), which included the work of his friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We are pleased to present ‘Tintern Abbey’ on its own, featuring an introduction by Professor Mark Jones of Queen’s University, Canada.

~

Remembering Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey from inside the nave.

It all started with our trip to England, back in October 2008. Holly and I took a rambling jaunt around the English countryside that took us from Land’s End to Yorkshire. Along the way we dipped into Wales while following the Wye River, stayed in a village called Llandago and visited with Nicolas and Frances McDowall of Old Stile Press who live just up the road from the ruins of Tintern Abbey. About 10 years go they created a simply lovely book of the poem. All their books are stunning – hand printed sometimes on paper made on site. They have an image rich website worth exploring!

The lane way to Old Stile Press, mer-person sculpture at the hairpin.

I liked Nicholas’ idea of being a ‘book builder’,  of using letterpress, fine papers and bindings as an elegantly designed platform for presenting art – both in the design of the book, and in the overt and integral use of art as illustration. I think it would be over-wrought to say that the visit changed my life, but it greatly influenced the direction I intended to take Greyweathers Press. The trip to England came at a time when I was doing some heavy thinking about printing, books, writing, art and, not to be ignored, making a living! Not that I was planning to pack it in, but there are many applications for letterpress and I believe it helps to focus. The visit to Old Stile, and three or four other likewise inspirational destinations including Eagle Press, Strawberry Press and St. Bride Library in London, provided the needed inspiration to carry on printing books.

Contemplating books, printing and art amongst the ruins. The scenic Wye River Valley that inspired Wordsworth can be seen beyond the windows.

Unlike Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, Holly and I didn’t walk “the sportive wood run wild.” Rather we stuck mostly to A466, and wandered leisurely through the roofless splendor of Tintern Abbey. The ruins of the Abbey served only to act as part of the title of Wordsworth’s poem, simply to locate him in context for his reader. However, for me they connected influential literary aspects of my distant past with present passions, forming a sort of conduit resulting ultimately in our take on Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, making it, I suppose, the press’ legacy of our England tour.

The smallest room in Tintern Abbey was the library, about the size of a walk-in closet.

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

Typesetting Begins on Tintern Abbey

I cleaned up the press room and then got out the lead to begin setting type on the next book, a fine press version of Tintern Abbey. In spite of having already played with some ideas on the computer, I still changed the size and style of the introduction title (10 pt italic caps from 14 pt roman small caps), and had already consulted the the bible (Robert Bringhurst’s Elements of Typographic Style) for some guiding doctrine. And that’s just one line into it!

The letters ‘INTERN ABBEY’ are set in 12 pt small caps, and you guessed it, the missing “T” will show up curing another printing in red (or green) as a raised capital, probably 18 pt. The third word in (first) brought me quickly to another quandry: to use dipthongs, or not to use dipthongs, that is the question. And Hamlet thought he had it bad. The dipthongs in my font of Italian Oldstyle include fused versions of “st”, “ct” “oe” and “ae”. Ligatures (ffi, fi, ffl, fl, ff) are standard in the font and in common use, but dipthongs can be consider a bit twee, if not downright pretentious. Since the poem is getting on over two hundred years old, I think I can get away with dipthongs, so the word “first” is made up of just three pieces of lead, the “r” being the only single character.

My original plan was to fully justify the text, but when I examined my reasons for doing so it came pretty much down to “cuz I want to” which is not necessarily acceptable. I took some time earlier today and flipped though my own small collection of finely printed books, and noticed that in most of these (but not all) designers fully justified the text block when the block was quite large, perhaps as wide as 6″. Most of the smaller books had flush left, or jagged right if you will. It looks better in these books, so I’m fairly certain it will in Tintern Abbey. I’ll know when I proof the first spread of type. These other fine presses were using smaller type, which may be a factor. (Note to self: pick up a truck load of 10 pt type in next type order!)

The introduction is written by Queen’s University Professor Mark Jones, and I expect it may be the first time his words have ever been set in metal.

OCAD Book Arts Show Triumphant!

There’s an old joke that floats around the letterpress and book arts scene: “You never sell books at a book arts show!” It’s not really a reflection of book arts shows, but rather the challenge of selling hand printed books in general. And this year I saw lots of books selling at the OCAD Book Arts Show, and even waved goodbye to a couple of my own. One of the things I love about the OCAD show is the very obvious presence of students exhibiting their work. It brings a raw freshness to the book arts, and I am always astonished at how many young artists are being attracted by old school books and printing.

The venue is quite striking as well, as I tried to caption in my first experiment with panoramic photographic stitching, early in the show. Crowds filled the hall for most of the day. (Click photos to make them larger).

The Great Hall at OCAD in Toronto, with the Book Fair in full swing.

A less distorted view from our table at the OCAD Book Arts Show

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!

Remembering the House of SpecFic

During my youth, I patronized a specialty bookstore in Ottawa called the House of Speculative Fiction, which more or less describes its slant. Recently, culling through my library, moving piles around hoping more space would magically appear, I found this:

It brought back a memory or two. Like the card says, the store was located in a house just a few doors from Bank Street on Fourth Avenue. The splendid drawing on the card was very much based on the taciturn proprietor who sat at the back of the store reading. I did (a very cursory) search on the web and learned that the store opened in the late 1970s and served as a base for up-and-coming Ottawa science fiction and fantasy writers, including Charles de Lint who has gone on to international renown. I could not find out when it closed, but I think it might have been in the mid or late 1990s.

I did find a quote by Robert Sawyer on his blog commenting on the odd practice of separating Science Fiction and Fantasy one step further, by gender. It seemed interesting to me then that the publishers often made the authors names gender neutral, using first and middle initials etc. to head off any bias. And yet, I’m sure there were guys who shunned that section, just ‘cuz.

In a Chapters recently, I noticed the fantasy shelves outweighed the science fiction by a long shot, the realization of a fantasy of my own, back in the days when the tables were very much turned. However, the wisdom I’ve acquired since then is that quantity does provide choice, but it does not usually provide quality. Take away the dribbling romance blended with watered-down horror, the “Dragonlance” type serials, cancerous “Shannara” franchises, and the schlockier slapstick send-ups of the genre, and what’s left is, well, not much. This is fantasy’s day, but gads! there’s a lot of dross on the shelves.

As for myself, I’ll take any Christmas money that comes my way and head to my book dealer, Bytown Books, to stock up on the new year’s fantasy and SF reading.