Monday links: Where have all the Kelmscotts gone?

This copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer was bound in silver by James Brockman and Rod Kelly in 1998-2003. Image is from v.16 of Skin Deep, the newsletter of J Hewit and Sons, Ltd.

When it comes to nerdy book enthusiast news, it doesn't get much nerdier than following a census of copies of a certain edition of a book. But when the book in question is the famous Kelmscott Chaucer published by William Morris in 1896, I can't help myself.

In The Kelmscott Chaucer: A Census (Oak Knoll Press, 2011), William S. Peterson and Sylvia Holton Peterson attempted to track down all 440 copies of the original pressrun. They managed to find about two-thirds of them and wrote about each copy's history and provenance in the book. Now they maintain a blog to post updates about newly discovered copies as well as Kelmscott-related exhibits and other news.

If this appeals to you, too (or if you want to see beautiful images from the book and photos of some of the various bindings that have been performed on it over the years), check out their blog at The Kelmscott Chaucer.

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As a new thing here on the blue bluer books blog, I'm going to do a weekly roundup of links to book arts news stories that have caught my eye. It's one of my favorite features on blogs that I follow, from graphic design-themed blogs to hockey ones, so I hope that it might bring you some news that you might not find otherwise.

If you have any recommendations, please drop me a line in the comments below or contact me.

Links!:

* The Crouch Fine Arts Library at Baylor University has a special online exhibit of artists' books to celebrate Valentine's Day

* At Dimitri's Bookbinding Corner, Dimitri Koutsipetsidis describes his unique binding for a copy of Graham Masterton's novel A Terrible Beauty

* Susan Angebranndt at Green Chair Press continues her project to create a new book each week inspired by a prompt from the Dictionary.com whttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giford of the day. Up this week: Neoterism!

* Speaking of weekly projects, our own local NC book artist Kathy Steinsberger is posting weekly book projects on her Paper Buttons blog.

* And keeping it local, Dave Wofford of Horse and Buggy Press riffs on his new menu design for Watts Grocery over at his blog, Side Spur Ramblings.

There were loads more to share this week, but in the interest of getting the ball rolling, let's call it a post!

Blank books just in time for the holidays!

We've switched gears a little bit in the studio recently -- slowed down on production of the two editions of stitching speechless and started binding more blank books for the holidays. Earlier this week I dropped off a batch to go on sale at Vespertine in Carrboro.

They come in different sizes, binding styles, and a variety of materials for a variety of purposes. Many in this batch are made with a multi-media paper that's ideal for artists working in a range of media -- from pencil to pen-and-ink to watercolor. The sketchbooks also include fold-out pages, so the artist can have different sizes and shapes of page to work on.

The covers on the sketchbook below feature one of my favorite recent paper discoveries -- a gorgeous screenprinted Japanese yuzen paper that we found at the Paper Source store in Charlotte.


Margarite has been helping out as an apprentice in the studio. On Sunday she took a quick break from tearing and folding paper to take some action photos instead. Here she caught me with my thinking face on while sewing a Coptic-bound sketchbook.


Now that's a look of total concentration.

Hope you'll stop by Vespertine to take a look at these new books, not to mention all their other beautifully crafted offerings. Happy holidays!

stitching speechless: new photos

Our biggest project here at blue bluer books for a while now has been stitching speechless, an artist's book based on haiku by Zen art scholar Stephen Addiss. We're publishing it in two separate editions: a deluxe edition printed on handmade Japanese kozo paper and using other traditional Japanese book materials and techniques; and a facsimile edition printed using the self-publishing website Lulu.com. For the facsimile edition, I buy the copies directly from Lulu and then rebind them myself with some handmade touches and a special cover.



Copies of both editions are on exhibit now at the Ackland Museum Store in Chapel Hill, NC until Dec. 18th as part of their "Books and Broadsides" show. stitching speechless will also soon be available through Vamp and Tramp Booksellers.

If you're in the Chapel Hill area and would like to learn more about it, I'll be giving a talk about the whole publishing process next Thursday, Nov. 17th at 7:00 at the Ackland Store.

In the meantime, here are some more photos of copies of the facsimile edition:

"Books and broadsides" at the Ackland Museum Store: 10/21 through 12/18

Busy times here at blue bluer books. Been working on 2 different editions of stitching speechless as well as a number of custom blank book projects.

I'll be posting more about those soon, but for now I just wanted to encourage anyone in the Chapel Hill area to check out a new show at the Ackland Museum Store: "Books and Broadsides." It features work by 18 different local book artists, myself included.

They will be hosting a series of artists' talks on Thursday evenings throughout November. I'll be giving one on November 17th, called From concept to codex: Creating an editioned artist's book.

Regardless of the exhibit it's a great little store. Check them out on Facebook for updates on exhibits and events!

Update: Here is a gallery of photos from the exhibit opening last Friday night...

New artist's book!: "Stitching speechless"

I've just finished the first copy of the new artist's book from blue bluer books:

stitching speechless

It's been at least 3 years in the making, so I'm thrilled to finally have a finished copy to feature here.

Stitching speechless features 17 haiku by Zen art and haiku scholar Stephen Addiss. I'll post more information about the process of creating it soon, but for now I will just share some photos.

If you'd like to learn more about stitching speechless and see it in person, I'll be talking about it at Frank Gallery in Chapel Hill this Thursday evening, July 7th. The event will feature two fantastic fellow local book artists talking about their work as well: John Davis and Ariel Rudolph. Refreshments will start around 6 p.m.; the talk will begin around 6:30 or so.

In the meantime, here are some more photos:

New blank books for sale!

I'm very excited to say that Vespertine in Carrboro is now carrying my handmade blank books.

Margarite & I fell in love with the Vespertine location in Pittsboro when we were first considering moving there. We were exploring the downtown area and found this narrow little storefront selling local handmade jewelry, soaps, screenprinted t-shirts, prints, knitted goods, etc. Quirky stuff in exactly our style. I won't say that it was the reason we decided Pittsboro was the place for us, but combined with delicious lunch and beers at The City Tap... well, PBO started to look pretty darn good.

In the meantime a second Vespertine location has opened in Carrboro, and that's where you'll find my books. It's a small selection so far, but I'll be adding more all the time. There are a few small coptic-bound journals like the ones shown above, some Japanese stab-bound ones, and one weirdo that I invented myself that I just call the "star journal":



When the materials and the inspiration come together just right for a special book, I like to honor that by giving it a name. This one is called 'Rodanthe Pier dawn patrol':



The color of the book cloth and the wave pattern on the endsheets take me back to summer morning surf sessions in the Outer Banks when the rising sun turns pitching waves translucent green, and the dark blue ocean is corduroyed to the horizon...



In any case, stop by Vespertine in Carrboro to check the books out for yourself. Even if it's not one of my books, I guarantee you'll find SOMEthing there you'll like!

New local book arts group -- Triangle, NC

I've been an absent blogger for a while, but not for lack of activity and news to report. The past couple of months have seen some exciting developments. For one, I'm finally making progress on a new artist's book project with Steve Addiss that's been in the planning stages for several years now. I'll have a new post about that soon, with photos.

The other most exciting thing has been the founding of a new local book arts group in the area -- the Triangle Area Book Arts Group.

Last year when my library helped to host a series of book arts events at UNC and Duke, two themes kept coming up. First: there was a ton of local interest in book arts and a multitude of practitioners. Second: we were all working individually, with only sporadic contact with each other and no network for sharing news, questions, or expertise.

After the series of events wrapped up, I stayed in contact with the people who expressed an interest and together we have started this group. There are several components. First we have a Google group which serves as an email listserv for all members to share news and plan events. Second, we've been meeting monthly to discuss the direction of the group and follow up on event planning. And third, we've been planning workshops and other activities outside of the monthly meetings. In April Lisa Gilbert taught a workshop on how to create the mysterious Secret Belgian Binding. And last month Mary Yordy and Bryant Holsenbeck taught the group techniques for making paste paper.

Along with the meetings and workshops, we are planning more public presentations to raise awareness of book arts in the local community -- demonstrations, exhibits of our work, etc. It looks like our first foray into that area will be at Frank Gallery in Chapel Hill, where three of us will discuss our work at one of their TGI Thursday artist talks in July. It's tentatively scheduled for Thursday, July 7th from 5-8 p.m. -- I'll post the details when it's 100% certain.

In the meantime, if you're in the area and are curious about the book arts scene, please feel free to check out the Google group and get in touch! We're a very friendly group open to all areas of book arts interest and skill levels.

And if you've read this far, here's a glimpse of the new book:



More soon!