Volume 6, Number 3 $8.50 ARTISTS’ BOOKSBOOKBINDINGPAPERCRAFTCALLIGRAPHY Volume 6, Number 3 2 4 8 10 12 14 16 17 20 24 26 30 32 33 34 38 39 40 41 42 43 Mary’s Star Book. Mary Conley We Love Your Books: ABC Exhibition 2007. Emma Powell with Melanie Bush Works on Paper. John Cutrone and Seth Thompson Ruling Pen Basics. Matthew Coffin On Your Own Terms. Mobile Books. Florence Miller Hidden Bookbinding Cloths. Catherine Burkhard Calligraphy and Handmade Paper: Equally Beautiful American Fine Bindings: Book of Origins Eugenie Torgerson: Thinking Outside the Box. Eugenie Torgerson Exchange of Ideas. Julie Gray Small Books, Large Talent: Miniature Metal Books. Yana Safronova Quilted Books? John Cutrone Pocket Full of Surprises. Pat Pleacher WWC Painted Books. Annie Cicale First Class Mail. Debra Glanz Teeny Tiny Cards. Jane LaFerla. BOOK REVIEW by Rona Chumbook The Monument to Ephemeral Facts. Douglas Holleley Subscription information Magazine information Contributors / Credits Bound & Lettered exists thanks to its readers and subscribers. What makes Bound & Lettered different from many other magazines, however, is its reliance on its readers for article ideas and submissions. We want to hear from you! If you have developed a how-to project, organized an exhibition, or created a piece that you feel deserves recognition in Bound & Lettered, send me an e-mail at [email protected]. We are always looking for new ideas from expert and novice bookbinders, book artists, and calligraphers. Bound & Lettered is a partnership between its editors and its readers. Let’s work together to make sure talented artists gain the recognition that they deserve. –Paul McNeill, editor CORRECTIONS. Eugenie Togerson’s name is misspelled on the caption for Year of Days, on the inside back cover of 6.2. In the previous issue, (6.2) we neglected to mention that Victoria Lee was the photographer for the “Kalligraphia” article.You can contact her through e-mail at [email protected] FRONT COVER Clockwise, from top left: Miniature Metal Book. Gennady Safronov. His miniature metal books are solely handcrafted; a skill that requires incredible patitence and attention to detail. Photo by Evgeny Abramenko. “Small Books, Large Talent: Miniature Metal Books,” page 30. When Sea Laps Land. Ann Alaia Woods. Charcoal/graphite pencil on handmade paper. Suminagashi on Asian brush calligraphy paper embedded in handmade abaca paper. 2007. 8" x 10". “Calligraphy and Handmade Paper: Equally Beautiful,” page 17. Tool Room Box and Journal. Eugenie Torgerson. Lidded box holds artist’s journal. Binder’s board, cloth, paper, glass, hardware, original digital illustrations. 13" x 10" x 4". Photo by Bukva Imaging Group. “Eugenue Torgerson: Thinking Outside the Box,” page 24. BACK COVER Top to bottom: Dolmades. Ashley Ioakamides. watercolor and graphite on Lanaquarelle 90# CP, Pilot Parallel pen. Photo by Annie Cicale. “WWC Painted Books,” page 34. Sit at Cafes. Annie Cicale. Photo by Annie Cicale. “Exchange of Ideas,” page 26. RULING PEN BASICS BY MATTHEW COFFIN Traditionally, drafting ruling pens have been used to rule lines of varying thickness on mechanical drawings or illustrations. In the 20th century, lettering artists discovered these ruling pens while exploring options for creating expressive lettering. Artists soon learned that they could create dramatic letterforms with the pens. These drafting and traditional ruling pens were not well suited for calligraphic lettering, therefore they needed to be redesigned for calligraphic purposes. The shape of the ruling pen changed dramatically, quickly taking the form that we find today. Gottfried Pott, a German calligrapher, was instrumental in this transformation. Calligraphic ruling pens create thick or thin strokes by tilting the nib relative to the writing surface. Thin strokes are written with the pointed tip of the nib, while thick strokes come from the wide edge. How you hold the pen is important because it determines how easily the pen can be tilted, and the ease of tilting determines the ease of changing the stroke’s width. In addition, hand and finger muscles must be relaxed; otherwise tension creeps in and restricts hand and arm movement. If you like to create very rough-edged lines, the pen must be extremely tilted on its edge close to where the blades separate. 10 BOUND & LETTERED Adjusting your ruling pen blade gap Hold the pen so that your index finger presses against the mechanical screw Holding the pen with the barrel above the palm of the hand. head (bottom of the viscous inks require a much almost up to the thumb screw. nib), while the thumb and finwider blade gap. Experiment with This depth allows ink to flow gers grasp the pen barrel. Make pen and ink and you’ll discover between the blades (where they sure you can clearly see the all you’ll need to know about separate) and fill the reservoir. blade gap. With the opposite proper blade gap adjustment. Once the ink fills the reservoir, hand turn the adjustment nut remove the nib and dab clean either clockwise or counterFilling your ruling pen the top and bottom nib surclockwise to close or open the There are two main ways to faces. I use paper towels or toiblade gap. The appropriate fill the pens: 1) dipping let paper to clean nib surfaces. blade gap depends on the thickness or viscosity of the ink 2) eyedropper or syringe filling. Another simple way of removDipping is simple and easy. ing excess ink from the nib surthat you want to use. Thinner, You’ll need an inkwell with a faces is to touch the surface of free-flowing inks work best mouth wide enough to fit the the nib to the mouth of the with narrow blade gaps nib and thumbscrew. The inkwell. Even though the nib (approximately the thickness of inkwell also must be deep surfaces may still have ink on a piece of standard writing enough for the nib to submerge them, this will remove excess paper), while thicker, more that could drip off during normal lettering.A gentle touch will do the job. Please be sure to not touch the writing edge when removing excess ink! Eyedropper or syringe filling keeps ink from getting on the nib surfaces, but this technique requires extra equipment and cleanup. Squeeze ink into the space where the nibs separate until ink is visible in the pen reservoir. If the blade gap is set correctly for the type of ink you are using, ink should not drip from the pen as the pen is filled. Overfilling can cause the ink to spill onto the outer surface. If this happens, clean the nib surfaces. Showing the proper hand position to adjust the blade gap. It is possible to achieve Rotate clockwise to close. Rotate counterclockwise to open. EXCHANGE OF IDEAS BY JULIE GRAY PHOTOS BY ANNIE CICALE In November 2006, Virginia Meltzer served as host to a creative and exciting idea. Nine book artists from different backgrounds exchanged handmade books. The idea seems simple on the surface, but the variances of the artists’ experiences, training, talents, and modes of expression made for wonderful interactions & resulted in handmade books that the artists will always treasure. There was no theme to the books, adding great diversity to the pieces. Some of the artists never met in person. Some, however, were very close friends. What they all have in common is a love of bookmaking. This passion will keep them tightly bound forever. The Journey by Elizabeth Simmonds. “Text is very important to me, so I chose to make a T.S. Eliot quote as the central theme of the book. I ran the quote across all the pages of my accordion text. I decided on gel pens and a simple monoline hand to help with the text’s readability.” Linocut Printmaking by Arlene Lane. Leather spine and binding make up the structure. Pages made from Davey board mounted with hand printed Linocuts printed on handmade paper with inclusions using Speedball water-soluble green ink. 26 BOUND & LETTERED