December 2008 – Page 3 – Green Chair Press Blog

Adhesives: Laminating

For my recent book Walking, I wanted to print the insides on one long piece of paper. I had paper long enough — 26 inches — and with the correct grain. But it is a thin Japanese-like paper and I didn’t want the interior to be semi-transparent.
The solution was to laminate another piece of paper to the printed sheet. I tried using wet glue, but my gluing skills aren’t good (or patient) enough. Plus the whole thing curled, despite putting it under weight (it curled because the papers I tried were stronger than the thin paper, and when glued together, the stronger paper pulled at the lighter paper). I tried a non-wet adhesive (Yes paste) which doesn’t cause the paper to curl but it’s hard to work with on such a long sheet.
That’s when I remembered my Xyron laminator. I bought it originally to make kitchen magnets (it sandwiches a piece of paper between a magnet and thin protective plastic) but I also had cartridges that would apply glue to one side of a piece of paper. You feed the paper through the machine, turning the handle and the cartridge applies the glue or magnet sandwich. No electricity or batteries needed. The glue is spread evenly and the resulting sheet is easy to apply to another piece of paper. It’s not wet glue, so the paper doesn’t curl. The Xyron comes in several sizes. I happen to have the 9″ one, which turns out to be over-kill (and wasteful) for most of the projects I do — the 5″ wide model would have probably been a better choice.

Books on Books: The Creative Entrepreneur

I was excited to see my friends Carolee & Jennie, aka PodPost, at the table next to mine at the BABA Book Jam in October. We got to visit and catch up. But best of all was seeing their happy reaction when author Lisa Sonora Beam showed up with her book The Creative Entrepreneur, which features PodPost (you can see their trademark badge sashes in the book spread to the right). The book shows you how to make and keep an Artist’s Business Journal — a visual approach to business development for people who want to make a business out of their creative work. While I only got to browse through the book, what I saw was fun to read and fun to look at. It has a special appeal this time of year when I’m starting to think about getting organized for next year (what is it about November and December that makes me feel like such a disorganized mess that I spend all of January trying to straighten and clean up my life?)

Alphabet Rug

There’s not much of description (or a price) for this alphabet rug by Alan Fletcher, other than it’s subtitled “paper cutout alphabet rug,” but it’s awfully cheery and playful. See what there is to say about it here.

On Collecting

Kewpie Crown Top perfume bottle In 1999 my mother-in-law gave me several old perfume bottles, mostly figurines. All from the early 20th century, they are wonderful to look at. As I found out more about them, I got hooked and added to the collection. In a few years I had a shelf-full and decided that was enough. That’s one of mine to the right — a crowntop kewpie doll perfume bottle from the 1930s. Sadly last month she got knocked off her shelf and broke. My husband glued her back together but should I replace her?
Then the other day I saw this obituary in the NY Times. It’s about a book collector and says in part:

Helmut N. Friedlaender, a book-loving lawyer and financial adviser whose quietly assembled collection of early printed books and illuminated manuscripts caused a stir in bibliophilic circles when it went to auction, died on Tuesday in Yarmouth, Me. He was 95 and lived in Manhattan… At a two-day sale in April 2001, Christie’s auctioned off most of Mr. Friedlaender’s important collection, which he had assembled over the previous 30 years…. Once the collection was dispersed, he started on a new one, said Felix Oyens, a friend… This time around, Mr. Friedlaender went after Baedeker travel books, nowhere nearly as rare or expensive as even the least of his early books…. Mr. Oyens offered a theory about this curious detour: “I think the Baedekers simply gave him an excuse to walk into a bookshop.”

All the collectors I know keep on collecting, sometimes replacing one collectable with another when they are done with one habit, just like Mr. Friedlaender. I never gave much thought to why I decided to stop collecting perfume bottles — but I have kept collecting. I replaced bottles with my small and still growing collection of artist’s books.
But what to do with my kewpie doll? My collection is modest, with nice but not stellar examples. On the “do it” side of the argument: My bottles make me happy and sit in a prominent place in my office. They are so much easier to display than books — what’s interesting about them is all up front (most of my bottles are empty, so the scent that should be hidden under the stopper isn’t). On the “don’t do it” side: She’ll be pricey (for me) and hard to replace. And how much is my collection just a pleasure to look at, or a more serious endeavor? I’ve already taken a look at my bottles to re-evaluate what I have, in a way I haven’t looked at them in quite some time.
The article about Mr. Friedlaender got me to look at my artist’s book collection with a new eye too, and before I replace my kewpie, the current habit needs tending. Another book as my Christmas present to myself would be just the thing!

Books on Books: How to Make Books

One of the first books on making books I ever bought was Shereen LaPlantz’s Cover to Cover. I still refer to it — and share it — especially when someone newish to bookmaking asks me about making a book for a particular purpose. The instructions and diagrams are clear and there are lots of photos of finished examples.
Recently I got Esther K. Smith’s How to Make Books. It’s a quirkier, more up-to-date complement to LaPlantz’s book. And I’ll be keeping it in my library for sharing with others when they’re looking for book ideas. It starts with “instant books” made from a single sheet of paper and moves on to accordions and sewn bindings. There are lots of photos and examples, and the diagrams are colorful and fun. An added bonus: hard bookboard covers that are de-bossed and wonderfully tactile.