Hiroko's book

Specially bound copies of a new book by Hiroko Karuno, "Kigami and Kami-ito", the results of years of study in the traditional Japanese method of making paper thread from handmade paper. This thread has been used to weave "shifu" cloth for kimonos and other textile items since at least the 17thC.  Hiroko wanted us to create a few copies of the book bound in her shifu, three versions of which are on view here.  The creation of the cloth alone, first the thread, which can be dyed with such things as gardenia seeds, loquat leaves and Japanese chestnut skins, and then the weaving into 6' lengths about 14'' wide took several months of meticulous work.  You can imagine that this supplied a nervous moment when cutting the lengths up for making the cases.   Paperback copies of this extraordinary work are available at The Paper Place on Queen St. in Toronto or from The Japanese Paper Place.

Bookbinding II wrap up

One final effort from the BBII class. A millimetre style German case binding with Japanese paper trim at the head and tail edges. I supplied my paste papers for the covers and particularly enjoyed the apocalyptic landscape of the one second from the right.   We sealed the washi trim with Klucel G and polished it up with a piece of beeswax that was in with the sewing supplies. I may redo the edges of mine with SC6000 as it works better.  Very happy with the application of the class and their  results. 

The Brand New Pointyhead Press T-shirt!

Available on Saturday 29 November at the OCAD Book Arts Fair.
Laura models the new design and wears it well.  Get yours on Saturday!

Split board bindings at CBBAG Nov. 23

OCAD Book Arts Fair November 29, 2014

Upcoming at the OCAD Book Arts Fair on November 29, 2014
New from Pointyhead Press: the relaunch of "Fragmenta Disjecta".   Fragmenta was the first Pointyhead Press publication in 1998.  Now revised, redesigned, expanded and in colour, Fragmenta Disjecta, literally 'scattered fragments', a spoof on rare book catalogues, was put together by me and my colleague Reg Beatty as a submission to the 1998 Grimsby Wayzgoose Anthology.  Our modest efforts, photocopied in black and white, resulted in the release of a policy  statement on the production values of these contributions, to the effect that henceforth all such work must feature letterpress techniques.
Now to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Press,  Pointyhead has upped the production values considerably and while this new edition shows no signs of moving towards the letterpress end of things, we hope the new "Fragmenta" will provide an enjoyable experience to the reader. The attached picture displays the book arranged with the original objects.

Bookbinding II Bradel bindings at CBBAG

By the end of week 3 we had sewn a text block with concealed cloth jointed endpapers, rounded and backed, trimmed and decorated the top edge, sewn end bands, attached the boards and covered in full paper. I chose one of my paste papers because I like my own cooking.  Next week we start on our split boards binding.  An old form but a good one.

Five Kinds of Black

This just finished for customer Jason Logan  at The Toronto Ink Company who is in the fascinating trade of making ink by hand from peach pits, sea shells and other unlikely materials.  Photographs are by Kristn Sjaarda.

This modification of a classic "clamshell" box combined with Jason's "advertising" graphics made for a dual purpose structure that shows off the five bottles of Jason's hand made ink while protecting the  bottles in transit.  Jason liked how the reference to the clamshell box's usual use in libraries to house valuable books went sympathetically with the notion of the ink as a material in the creation of manuscripts both ancient and modern.

Two Eccentric Bindings for The Mad Hatter

George Walker's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass"

See them at the Osborne Collection in the Lillian Harris Library in Toronto

beyond the scroll case

Some nice results from Beyond the Scroll Case.  Boxes are built up with thin card around various shapes, trimmed with leather and covered with an amusing paper.

Laura the Printer's Devil gets her chance on the Albion at Massey College Print Room.

The new Aga Khan Museum in Toronto

Last Sunday Mary, Manu and I attended the pre-opening of the brand new Aga Khan Museum in Don Mills.  Devoted to historical and contemporary Islamic Art, the museum has extraordinary exhibition space and was showing some of its best stuff. There was everything from an enormous 15th C. carpet to a miniature book about 3" tall. I had been working on producing one of the exhibits for the opening, a series of flip books  by Pakistani artist Bani Abidi and gladly accepted their invitation to the "soft" opening. The final preparations were still being completed- no labels yet on the exhibits, pieces of masking tape indicating the positions of as yet uninstalled work-but that took nothing away from the experience of this beautiful building. We wandered around for an hour or so, missed the tour of the glass roofed mosque as I had to get to work and finish the flip books!- and left altogether impressed. Definitely worth a look.