Grimsby Wayzgoose 2013!

“Wayzgoose” is one of those old words of mysterious origin, but what is certain is that it was a time of celebration for printers, and printers are people who particularly enjoy celebrating! Today, the term is applied to  book artists to exhibit and sell their beautiful hand crafted work. And yes,  to celebrate as well.

The Wayzgoose in Grimsby, Ontario is a venerable book arts show, founded by the renown Bill Poole, and one we’ve exhibited at for the past five or six years. Once again, we’ll have a table there offering books and prints. Hope to see you!

 

Printing the Creative Process

Every year, for the past six years I have printed a ‘signature’ (in this case two sides of an 8×11 sheet folded)  as my contribution to the Grimsby Wayzgoose anthology.

It was last year when I sat down with my notebook and pencil and began to brainstorm a sequel to 2010′s The Vampire & the Seventh Daughter fable, bringing back the feisty young herione, Septima, from the first fable. For this year’s anthology, I decided to interpret my notes with metal type, lined paper, scribbled notes and pencil sketches.

My notebooks are rather chaotic affairs at best, so a bizarre mix of type faces was called for. It took a few hours sort out the make-ready, all those different faces and different sizes.

A rabble of faces….

We set enough type for two sheets, or eight pages, along with some rough cut linos or engravings, but time constraints meant pulling out a lot of type, reducing the project down to one sheet, both sides and no block prints. I wanted to emulate the notebook further with the paper I used, and found large pads of graph paper at the office supply store. When I opened the packages, I learned that commercial paper today isn’t what I remember from 30 years ago. The graph paper was extremely thin, and I wondered if the ink  might even leach through. It printed well, however, and I even managed something close to a KISS impression.

Printing on graph paper about the thickness of onion skin.

From the start, I had wanted the piece to mix the traditional (letterpress) along with pencil sketches and handwritten scribbles. My notes are filled with sketches done while I think out problems, so I extracted some of these to use in the piece. This would require the digital laser printer, and help from Holly with some of the more technical aspects of layering images in Adobe Illustrator. Holly came up with the idea to have my ubiquitous pencil lying on the page, and to mess things up a bit with a coffee stain. Most of the handwriting is hers – you can read it!

Mechanical pencil shot, later cropped in Photoshop.

Septima, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter

Inside spread, colour laser print on bond without the type. Holly’s handwriting. (Mine’s illegible!)

Outside spread: colour laser printing on bond

The combined result: letterpress & digital.

I was very pleased with the combined effect of letterpress and laser printing to create what is meant to appear as pages torn from of my journal. I was bothered by one thing: one of the digital layers did not have a pure transparent background, so it left a very faint tint on the page except were the white border an 1/8th inch around the perimeter of the sheet. While very subtle, I decided this was visible enough to make the whole thing look like it was spat out of a digital printer, which it was most certainly not! So the sheets were trimmed, making them somewhat smaller than the required 8.5×11, but still acceptable, I hope.

One side note: at least a half dozen times during the later stages of this project (folding, numbering etc), I found myself reaching over to swipe the pencil off the pile of printed sheets. That’s too funny!

I hope to launch the sequel to 2010′s The Vampire & the Seventh Daughter at this year’s Wayzgoose (April 27). Like the last one, it will be finely printed but accessibly priced, in an edition of 60 on Arches Text paper. The last one had lino cuts, but this time I want the illustrations to be wood engravings. We shall see.

Next job is to write the fable, cut the illustrations, print and bind, all by the end of April. I’ll announce it formally as soon as I decide on a title!

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.

Another Old Year – Achievements

Well, it’s rolled around again, and again I’ll do my  brief summing up. Overall, I didn’t stroke much off the big list of major projects. Work and life got in the way. But as usual, when I add up what I did achieve, it surprises me. A lot of work on marketing this year, and my first exhibition of prints and books in a gallery setting!

Last time, I set the following goals:

1. produce ten books in five years
   I’m not really on schedule for this, since the current book project, Tintern Abbey, was pushed into 2012 by a sudden and welcome flood of work in the studio.
2. step up production value
   What I did produce this year certainly shows more confidence, in keeping with the “get serious!” theme of the next 5 year phase of the press.
3. marketing: on-line presence, adverts, launches, more shows, book sellers
   Some of the ground work on planning and pushing the books paid off, with some books winding up in special collections. We hired a marketing consultant late last year, and I am determined to stop whining and learn to love social media.
4. intensify illustration: my own, but working with other artists as well
   I’ve got some irons in the fire with work from other artists, and my own frontiers have opened up with my first efforts on wood engraving (see previous blogs).
5. form working alliances with writers, illustrators, printers, bookbinders
   I approached a Queen’s University prof to write the intro for Tintern Abbey. He said yes, so that is about to be set in type possibly within days.
6. further my studies in book design and typography.
   That is an on-going project indeed. I did spend some free time trolling through book spreads on line, making some observations but it’s hardly a concentrated study!

What I did do this year was a lot of little things done, including:

1) a new years card – I’m silly late this year, though!
2) Pondered reorganization, and made some minor progress
3) Tintern Abbey book got pushed, although my Wayzgoose anthology contribution made for an early study of the idea
4) Two rare commercial jobs, both invitations
5) Did the usual shows, organized one of them
6) Saw the work produced by Saint Lawrence College students from the printmaking course I taught the previous fall at their year end exhibition (That was a highlight!)
7) Collaborative calendar with the Ottawa Press Gang – (I’m April)
8) Wrote an article for Ornamentvm on the Canadian fine press scene
9) Took professional advise on marketing
10) Produced a broadside type sampler
11) Tried out wood engraving, although rightly that belongs to 2012
12) Spoke to the 2nd year architecture students at Carleton University about book arts
13) Had my first gallery show in Kingston at Studio22

Almost everything mentioned above is covered in some form or another in the previous couple dozen blog entries.

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

Impression | Expression

A Fine Day for a Book Arts Show

Many thanks to the volunteers who combined their efforts to make the CBBAG Ottawa Book Arts Show & Sale a success. Attendance was quite good, with steady traffic all day long. The speakers program proved popular, with George Walker giving the keynote, and the exhibit “The Nature of Words” impressed everyone. Here are some shots taken by Holly Dean:

Signage hand printed by Steve Quick, Weathervane Press from wood type.

 

Tanya Deacove and her beautiful hand-bound books.

 

Hugh Barclay of Thee Hell Box Press impresses customers with his finely printed work.

 

CBBAG-OV President Steve Quick seen here at the Ottawa Press Gang table.

George and Michelle Walker of The Biting Dog Press

 

Holly's father and step-mom, Peter and Dea, peruse Graven Images at the Greyweathers Press table.

Holly Dean's table

Our volunteers greeting people as they enter at the CBBAG-OV table.

Three views of the exhibiton: "The Nature of Words"

CBBAG Ottawa Book Arts Show & Sale

Oh, look, a blog!

Well, it has been a while. There are some picture-heavy posts coming, but for now, here are a couple images from recent activities.

Greyweathers set up at the Wayzgoose.

The Greyweathers table at the Grimsby Wayzgoose. By way of explanation, a ‘wayzgoose’, is an archaic English name for a gathering of printers. Ontario’s Wayzgoose is held annually in April every year, and has been for over 30 years now! It’s a great time to meet with other printers and bookbinders, check out some incredible work and, oh yeah, sell some books too. Holly and I share a table. This year she brought her amazing Muse Journals.

I’ve been doing a bit more commercial work, generally a response to the ever-present pressing need for cash! However, this is a job I would have done anyway, for my friends Laura and Jaimie, both artists, who have started up a business creating amazing interiors and furnishings from reclaimed materials. Check out Rusty Nail Reclamations. They are having a big sale next week, and wanted that unmistakable letterpress treatment, shown here in our house font, Italian Oldstyle, on the magnificent paper from St. Armand, Montreal.

If you’re in the region, come out and see what wild things Laura and Jaimie are up to!

Exercising the imagination

Last Sunday had me in Kingston in my old role as support crew for Holly while she participated in the Kingston Women’s Art Festival held outdoors in City Park , now a grand old dame by show standards, having run for well over 30 years. The Festival offers short of a couple of hundred vendors in a beautiful park venue with live music, and the monies raised go to worthy womens charities in Kingston. Holly and I rose at 5 am, arrived in Kingston by 8 am to find her spot and set up the tent and hang her art. The festival has a token $30 booth fee which allows the opportunity for many young women to exhibit for the first time. Walking around the show this year, I was struck by the very wide variety of amateur and profession art and craft, although jewellery still has probably the strongest contingent, something that can be said for most shows these days.

Well, I really didn’t want to go on and on about it. The day was overcast, but aside from a brief shower, rain did not cause any problems. Shortly after the 10 am start, I hied myself down into the old town to distribute Studio Tour brochures to galleries, shops and coffee shops, only to discover that on Sunday, the first two categories were not open or did not open at all.

Killing time waiting for the clock hands to point upward, I pulled up in Coffee & Company on Princess Street.

In anticipation of a reunion of old gamers, I brought along a note book with campaign notes written down 25 years ago. It was a curious experience to pick up – or rather start anew – where I stopped in 1985. Over the intervening quarter century, I found I had accumulated a plethora of new ideas, or other not so original ideas culled from fantasy and SF that I have been exposed to over the years. After an hour, I had 10 or 12 brainstorm pages with notes, drawings, maps and ideas that morphed neatly into a story, and used up a goodly portion of an old notebook, too.

(Yeah, just try to read it!)

Most of the stuff won’t be used. The sketch of the dungeon is just a doodle, something I now do frequently to help me focus. When I’m sketching or doing anything with my hands, I can think out a problem or play with ideas when otherwise I would be distracted by happenings, no matter how trivial, around me.

By the hours end, I had achieved my goal, creating a story with an overall rationale, several interactive elements, arcs and beats, none of which interfere with character freewill. Going in, I had a dilemma: run a balls-to-the-walls high level one-off dungeon with appropriate weary old veterans, or start on the assumption of a campaign with first level characters. Solved. Now I have to find time to haul out the manuals, design a dungeon and write it up. Fairly straightforward now that the big elements are in place. The players may never bother discovering the story behind the dungeon, but it helps enormously in creating the scenarios.

But then again, whether it will happen or not is still up in the air. The session this weekend may be postponed. Whatever the case may be, I spent a very enjoyable hour in a neat cafe in a beautiful city exercising my imagination. No regrets here!