Category: General

Recently Leila, my little black cat, died. That’s the flipbook I made about her there on the left. She was elderly and had bad kidneys. She wasn’t the best pet — she liked to hide under the bed a lot and was often too nervous to stay around us much. She always came out to see my husband Harold when we didn’t live together, but when she & I moved in with him 2 years ago, she developed a deep dislike of all things male, no matter what we did. Even so, I miss her alot, especially her inexplicable visits — she’d jump into my lap while I was working on the computer and stand (never sit) in my lap for 15 or 20 minutes and then just as inexplicably jump down and leave again.
And I’m really glad I made that flipbook about her. Because I often gets notes from people who buy one about the antics of their own black cats. And I’m surprised how many people name their cat Leila or Lila or some variation. A woman even bought the book because HER name is Leila!

This upcoming Saturday & Sunday I’ll be in Silver Spring, Maryland at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Fair. I had a table at this fair several years ago, and it’s a great chance to see and handle a wide variety of handmade books. (And it’s a great excuse for me to visit my Mom & sister, who live near by!)

Kat Ran Press has put up a wonderful online exhibit of postage stamps designed by well known type designers. All are tiny beautiful examples of typography and calligraphy and lettering as well as designing within a constrained space. Along with pictures of the stamps, they’ve included a bit about the designer and his fonts.
The exhibit is in support of a book Kat Ran published, Designing the Mentoring Stamp, about Lance Hindy’s process in design a US postage stamp. To the left is a stamp from the exhibit, a German one from 1953 to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Gutenburg Bible and designed by Walter Brudi.

My friend Lucy Childs started Another Room Book Arts about a year ago to sell artist’s books. She’s got quite a collection of work, in all price ranges and from all over the world. She’s having a trunk sale in a San Francisco home this Saturday, November 1st from 11 am – 4 pm. Peter Thomas, of Peter and Donna Thomas Miniature Books, will do a presentation at 1 pm. (Peter is always funny and entertaining, and maybe he’ll play one of his ukulele books!) The trunk sale takes place at 128 Precita Avenue, San Francisco, near the 24th Street BART. Lucy says she’ll have artists’ books, paintings, and sculptures and “low-priced goods just right for our new economy.” It’s a great chance to actually “read” and handle the books.

One of the things I look forward to when attending book fairs is catching up with Elaine at Blue Chair Press. We see each other about once a year & she always seems to be working on something totally different, and recently at the BABA Book Jam was no exception. Her newest project is chairs made from vegetables and fresh flowers — that’s one of my favorites to the left. Many of the chairs last only the few hours it takes to construct and photograph them. With the images she’s made cards and a small book of only green veggie ones. So of course, being partial to green chairs, I bought the book. It’s now on the “chair” shelf in my office — along with my small but growing collection of chair art.
You can see all the chairs here.