Rare Book School 2009 Day 5 in C'ville

Another amazing day at RBS. Started as usual at our lovely inn with a great breakfast (blueberry pancakes, bacon, etc). A quick stop at Para for coffee and we were back in the room discussing color photo techniques.

We spent the morning discussing and looking at aquatints, chromo-lithos, separation (thank you, Gaylord, for your examples from Farmers). [One color=tinted; two or more color/chromo]. When in doubt about how a technique can possibly be done, remember that it might well just be trolls doing it...

"Bibliography is not for sissies." T. Belanger

"Those who do not read put themselves at the same competitive

disadvantage as those who can not read." M. Twain.

Trivia: TB told us "All the Nat. advocates for pulping of newspapers after "scanning" were *all* ex-CIA." Unclear if this is true, but Terry gave the scouts honor sign...it must therefor be true...

We had our final lab, printing the cuts we've been working on. It worked quite well...I'll be posting images of my output later (proof-positive that I am not an artist...or even a copier...).

Lunch was exceptional. Revolutionary Soup should not be missed by anyone coming to Charlottesville. The lunch was great, nice sandwich and *amazing* Spicy Senegalese Peanut Tofu soup. The best, however, was in the Men's Room (how often do you here than?!?). I've included an image, but it is hard to read. On the wall, next to the sink, it read, "Employees Must Wash Thier Hands Before Returning to Work". However, light pen has crossed out "Employees" and written "Petit Bourgeois Labor" above. This, in turn, has been corrected, "Lumpen Proletariat, actually" to the side. Very nice.

Bookseller's night was good fun. Stopped by several shops and met some nice dealers. Did not find anything for us, but some of our group did. Back in for the evening. Resting up for the last day. Very sad that it is almost over...

Rare Book School 2009 Day 4 in C'ville

Another great day in C'ville. Today started with another great breakfast at the Inn (the peppered bacon is possibly the best I've had). Walked up with Chris Lowenstein with the usual stop at Para Coffee on the way to class.

Wrapped up steel engraving this morning (basically, steel plates are engraving with either mezzotint or stipple). The most interesting element is that the ability to engrave steel has effectively been lost as a craft...far easier to work in copper and then coat with (one molecule) of steel. Far easier and longer lasting... Work by Sartain is remarkable. Must find myself a copy of The Ironworker.

Mattoir-A very cool tool used for stippling.

"MEGO"-My Eyes Glaze Over.

RBS moto: "You can read it, can't you?"

Moved on to Lithography. "Mother stones" are used to "save" images (often broken large stones used). Daughter stones used for printing. Very uncommon to find daughter stones with retained image as they are easily cleaned and reused...those that remain tend to remain by accident or serendipity. We were given Necco wafers to "wear" until they split as a means to understand wear and death of daughter stones....

First lithos began circe 1805...common by 1820...started seeing using in the US in the late teens. Intaglio and lithography fight it out for a while (text still dominantly letterpress)...tipping point around 1870 (pre=engraving; post=lithography).

Spent our afternoon lab etching plates. I'll post the results later. Shockingly, it actually worked and the output was not shockingly horrible (admittedly, nor was it good ). Hard to fail to understand the complexities of a process when you actually give it a try (even at a very simple level. We etched zinc plates in nitric acid at a rather high concentration with dip and rinse. A steel plate might take dozens (and dozens) of cycles...amazing craft.

Then moved on to COLOR. Saw an amazing example of "art" color litho...with separation that required 22 unique stones to create the final image. Amazing. More on color tomorrow...

Spent the evening finishing up the detail work on my linocut for tomorrows lab. I really can't recommend this program highly enough...both Suz and I have had a great time, learned a great deal and had great fun with our classmates.

Rare Book School 2009 Day 3 in C'ville

Another great day in C'ville. Spent today looking at various engravings and etchings (copper, steel, etc) and learning about technique and implications. We had a lab in the afternoon where we did dry-point etchings, inked and printed them. Suffice it to say, you can talk about inking a plate and cleaning it for printing....and then you can do it and *understand* what it means. Very cool.

Useful notes:

Mezzotint: Black islands in a white sea.

Aquatint: White islands in a black sea. (also stipple)

Copper plate: approx. 1500 prints at the very most.

Steel plate: approx. 100,000

Steel over copper (1 molecule thick): effectively unlimited as when it wears, you can remove the steel and reapply it.

"A stipple engraver is an etcher."

"Common sense in direct conflict with good taste."

"The good is the enemy of the best."

"You can have Good, Fast, or Cheap in any combo of TWO...but only TWO."

And my favorite: "The difference between an original and a reproduction is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

Highlight: We handled the original plates for the hand-painted aquatint edition of Oliver Twist.

We lost power in early afternoon...exciting in a classroom effectively underground. We continued on thanks to our very cool Zemco lights (see image in prior post). We had a nice tour of the Albert Small Special Collections and Movie Night in the evening.

I finished the evening at a wonderful Mediterranean bistro with five lovely and brilliant biblio-women. Had a great meal, a very good beer (Arrogant Bastard Ale) and outstanding company. It was a great day and wonderful evening. Can't wait until tomorrow.

Terry Belanger teaching by candlelight

Well, Zelco light. Lost power during class but soldiered on...

Rare Book School 2009 Day 2 in C'ville

Our first full day at RBS started with a wonderful breakfast at our inn. While they generally do not start breakfast until 8am, they were ready to serve those of us attending RBS at 740 so we could make it by our 830 start. Breakfast included a pesto and prosciutto strata, fresh melon, apple crumble muffin and peppered bacon. What a great day to start the day.

The class is just great and I can, after one day, not recommend it highly enough to anyone so inclined. The class is small (12), the instructor brilliant (Terry Belanger) and the subject matter extremely interesting. Getting to handle examples of everything while discussing it is great. Being handed blocks and tools and told we have three days to carve the block should be interesting...if not "good".

The day ended with a wonderful presentation by Stephen Greenberg of special collections at the National Library of Medicine. He spoke of treasures and exhibits at NHL, like Turning the Pages Online (allowing the examination of selections from their collections); the wonderful exhibit "Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine" and, the famed Disney, ADA project, "Clara Cleans Her Teeth". It was good fun and very interesting.

Dinner with friends. About to start carving my block (image, at some point, to follow). What a great day.

Rare Book School 2009 Day 1 in C'ville

Day one has been great fun. We made it down to Poplar Forest at about 1015 and spend a few hours there. We took the tour and then explored the grounds. It is a remarkable house and, in many ways much "nicer" than Mont. (that is, it is livable and a rational scale). If the universe treats us right, we will rebuilt it one day as our home. Hope springs eternal.

I've included images that show a tulip poplar (apparently among the tallest trees in North America) from the north porch (front) of the house (showing the circular brick columns). The image of the south of the building shows the sunken garden...if you look closely, you can see the triple hung windows at the rear. The last Poplar image shows one of the

two brick privies (octagon, even).

The last three images show sites from UVA and/or RBS. The Rotunda in the background during our tour of campus (Suzanne and Chris are in the center). E.A. Poe's room on The Lawn. Terry Belanger offering us a welcome and an overview of RBS.

Lovely reception, yummy dinner of cold salads (lovely, as it is hot and humid...my favorite). We start bright and early tomorrow at 830 am. more to follow.

En route to Rare Book School...

We have made it safely to the DC area. It was a long drive, about 10 hours. A bit of rain and an amazing electrical storm...bolts ripping the sky apart for half an hour or so. We passed on bad, multi-car accident north of DC (at least a dozen cars, traffic backed up for miles, glad it was on the northbound side). Must be to bed as tomorrow is Poplar Forest (Jefferson's second home and Suzanne's favorite place on earth)...RBS welcome tomorrow afternoon. More to follow.

Ready to hit the road to RBS, 2009

Suzanne and I are packed and more or less ready to leave tomorrow morning for Rare Book School (not counting the myriad of minor loose ends). We should be able to load up the van and be on the road in the early AM tomorrow with a destination of Washington, DC (to spend the night with a friend of Suzanne's). We will leave early Sunday to spend the day at Poplar Forest (Jefferson's second home) before return to C'ville for a Sunday afternoon/evening gathering of the RBS attendees.

I will be taking Book Illustration Processes to 1900 with Terry Belanger.

The identification of illustration processes and techniques, including (but not only) woodcut, etching, engraving, stipple, aquatint, mezzotint, lithography, wood engraving, steel engraving, process line and halftone relief, collotype, photogravure, and color printing. The course will be taught almost entirely from the extensive Rare Book School files of examples of illustration processes.

Suzanne will be taking The Printed Book in the West since 1800 taught by Eric Holzenberg.

This course will survey the technological advances in papermaking, illustration processes, composition, printing, binding, and distribution which fueled the development of the modern book industry. It will also give an overview of those phenomena – William Morris and the modern fine press movement, artists' books, the rise of book-clubs and organized bibliophily – which have arisen to balance this industrialization. The classes will make extensive use of RBS's strong collections of books and periodicals embodying the advance of printing in the West since 1800, as well as the plates, tools and other artifacts that enabled that advance.

Needless to say, we are both extremely excited and I may not sleep at all tonight. I'm going to go reread sections of Gascoigne. [Edited to correct Suzanne's course. I am a twit.]

An unexpected book arrives in the mail, a checklist for the Declaration of Independence

Every now and then you get surprised. I picked up my mail today and had a lovely copy of Stephen Matyas, Jr. new "Declaration of Independence: A Checklist of Books, Pamphlets, and Periodicals, Printing the U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776-1825. With an appendix checklist of American newspapers printing the Declaration of Independence."

It can be purchased here. He is also offering it as a free .pdf at his website. He also included a "short checklist version" and a .pdf "additions and corrections." It is a remarkable work, in my first blush review, and I look forward to using it for years to come.

As it happens, I have about a dozen various reprints out of a recent collection...it is a lovely case of serendipity that this should land in my hands from the biblio-deities.

Foxing explored...

The Private Library has a great post up on Foxing. Good read for all who deal with it or wonder what it might be...

More broadly, I'll use this as another opportunity to encourage your active following of Private Library. It is, far and away, the best blog about on and about collecting and collections. In addition to great posts, his collection of bibliophilic links sets the bar against which all others should be measured... Enjoy.

David Wolfe is fishing for a big one....

This is the most recent work by David Wolfe, of Wolfe Editions fame. He is one of the best letterpress guys I know and I never cease to be surprised by what he creates. I love that he does not limit himself to presswork.

David took a class at Haystack and, because he is wildly more talented than I (or, most likely, you), this is the result. As I say, he never ceases to amaze me. Let me know if you can't live

without it...

Specifications:

Hook: hand forged 3/4 inch steel stock

Tag: aluminum wire and red copper wire, veiled with copper covered steel welding wire

Butt: copper pot scrubber

Body: aluminum tape,

Rib: aluminum wire,

Wing: steel, brass, brass rivets

Throat: steel wire

Topping: copper covered iron welding wire

Head: steel wire

Size: 21" x 15" x 3"

Weight: 9 lbs.