![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
I recently got a note from New North Press in London about their book The Travelling Barmaid. It featuring ‘stories from behind the bar’ written by Lisa Rahman and is hand-set and printed letterpress using the metal type the press has collected over the years. On the press’s website, scroll down to see the more spreads from the book, and the lovely cover.
Last Friday I went up to the vendor’s room at the Guild of Bookworker’s standards conference to check out the paper and other bookbinding supplies. I had in mind to buy a piece or 2 of Cave Paper’s beautiful handmade paper. It’s expensive, but I’ve always wanted to use it in a chapbook. So now I have 2 different colors, plus some hand dyed linen thread (from Kinglet Cottage Designs). All I need is the poem!
There were lots of other vendors there as well. One was Talas, with a large array of binding supplies, from calipers to leather hides to glue brushes. Since I’d been thinking only about paper I didn’t look very seriously at their table. But then I spied a steel rule kit — about 5 years ago I took a class from Hedi Kyle where she showed us how to use narrow strips of metal rule to evenly space boards. Nearly every time I do a bookmaking project, I remember those rulers, fleetingly think “I should figure out how to get or make those,” and promptly forget. Now here they were, staring me in the face. What could I do but buy them? They come in 1/8″, 1/4″, 1/2″, 3/4″ and 1″ wide strips, and I’ve already used the 1/4″ one!
The Etsy Bookbinding Team blog had an interview with Swedish bookbinder Sebastian Alvarez the other day. I quite like the sewing on the front and spine for the one on the left. There are more in his Etsy shop with envelopes for the text block, and others with collaged covers.
![]() ![]() |