Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

HaberuleIn my letterpress classes I am constantly reminding students to use a ruler or pica pole to measure things — Is the type straight on the page? Is it really centered? How much furniture do they need for the lockup? Some resist (although everyone comes around by the end of the day), but others start immediately to reminisce about using a type gauge, like the Haberule ones on the left.
I looked up the Haberule the other day, to see if perhaps I could find one to show students. I immediately found the Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies, full of tools that were useful not-so-long-ago, but have been mostly supplanted by computers. Look here for info on the Haberule (be sure to look at the comments, which explain how it works).

Early Office Museum

CyclostyleWhen I wrote about the Lifestyle Craft letterpress combo kit the other day, dinah commented that it “looks to me like the ancient ‘cyclostyle’ thing schools used (50+ years ago) to print PTA notices.” I didn’t know what that was, but wikipedia says

The Cyclostyle duplicating process is a form of stencil copying invented by David Gestetner in London in 1890. A stencil is cut with the help of small toothed wheels on a special paper underlaid with carbon paper which serves as a printing form. Gestetner named the Cyclostyle after a drawing tool he used. In 1875 Thomas Edison received a patent for the “electric pen”, which a decade later became the basis for the mimeograph machine. Gestetner’s cyclostyle was similar and provided more automated, faster reproductions.

I also found a picture of the machine at the fascinating Early Office Museum website. Look here for the “exhibit” on early copying machines.
The exhibit and the cyclostyle brought back memories of my mom making duplicates at home of the choral music she wrote using a gelatin-based system. According to the museum, it was a “hektograph” or “spirit” duplicator.

Bookmaking Supplies on Etsy

Yesterday, I wrote about bookmaking tools I found on Etsy. Today’s post is the supplies I found, in addition to Susan Scott’s Yardwork bookcloth, that I wrote about earlier.

Piacere Mio sells single jars of PVA. PVA
book board Diane Falvey of Iris and Lily will custom cut book board to your specifications. She also sells pre-made text blocks.
KarleighJae sells leather hides and pieces — like this amazing green one. 3 pieces of cut Italian Lambskin at least 6″ x 18″ are $25. (She also sells Davey board scraps.) Another shop, awal1, sells faux and real leather in a variety of colors.
 Green Leather Hide
Vintage wallpaper scraps The two sisters who run Snippets of Time sell vintage wallpaper samples that can be used for book covers. They also sell other ephemera, like maps and bingo cards.
Ana Buigues of contexto sells leather faux bookbinding endbands, including a sampler of various colors for $3. Faux endbands
Washi Several shops have paper for sale: washimatta sells packs of washi, as does Washi Paper and Pebble Stone Papery. My Marbled Papers shop sells washi, marbled and Suminagashi papers.

Bookmaking Tools on Etsy

When I first started selling on Etsy (it’s been exactly 3 years!) there were few books and no bookmaking supplies. Recently I was looking for unwaxed linen thread, and discovered that there are now lots of shops selling tools and supplies, usually in small quantities with low shipping costs. Here’s some interesting tools I found (tomorrow I’ll post the supplies).

Micro Scissors Wren Haven Tools sells these nifty micro scissors in 2 sizes, as well as felt covered weights, boxmaking and bookmaking angle tools for cutting. They even sell a angle for left handed people!
Instead of my manual method for making perfect bound books, you can use Kirk Whitham’s binding machine from his Atomic Binding shop. He’s got 2 sizes, to make up to 5-1/2″ books ($69 + shipping) and the larger to make up to to 11″ tall ($99 + shipping). He’s got heaps of info about it on his website including a you-tube video. Perfect binding machine
Book press UberArt sells this solid oak book press for $70 plus shipping — years ago my husband made me one with a bench screw mechanism as explained here. Mine presses multiple books at once, unlike UberArt’s, but the materials alone cost as much as the Etsy press.
Randy Arnold sells wooden bone folders, including this one made of ebony with a pearl inlay. Piacere Mio sells bone folders made of bone, as well as single jars of PVA. Ebony bone folders
screw punch Instead of a Japanese screw punch, you can buy this “Bookbinder’s Screw-down Double-sided Hole Punch.” Kristin, of The Indigo Raven, says it drills through 2-3mm of cardstock, matboard, buckram… It has two hole size options: 1.6mm (1/16th”) and 2.3mm (3/32nd”). The punch can accommodate materials up to 3mm thick.