March 19, 2008

Welcome to the March Newsletter!

A quarterly compendium of news, knowhow and whatnot. All members of the Guild of Book Workers are welcome and encouraged to post comments.

The March 2008 Edition of GBW Northwest has been a real collaboration, and a joy to put together as a result. (Except for Blogger's formatting issues, which I have been struggling with. Placing photos in text is like working in quicksand, so please excuse my abandonment of exacting standards.) My principal tasks this issue have been encouragement and assembly. I hardly had to write a thing! This makes me feel really good about the newsletter's secret community-building agenda.

Well, take a look. The newsletter opens with official GBW business--our workshop coordinator Shu-Ju Wang has set up a fall workshop, and the GBW Exhibitions Chair Karen Hanmer has more information on the upcoming Marking Time show. There's also a call to action I hope you'll all respond to. Roberta Lavadour has a very 21st-Century idea for a Bookless Book Exchange, an online library of books which anyone can print out and assemble. It's a challenge to individuals to create something simple and clever they are willing to share. I'm curious to see what people come up with. . . do participate, and check out the results in the June newsletter.

Roberta has submitted detailed instructions for her twined binding to Bonefolder, and hopefully they will be available in an upcoming issue. For us, she's written the story of how she developed the binding with the deadline of her presentation at the Dallas Standards conference looming over her--a classic tale of ingenuity and persistence in the face of panic. Sophia Bogle, who wants to make sure the patient art of book restoration finds its place in the newsletter, has shared a set of instructions on measuring books for clamshell boxes. And Sabina Nies has contributed a piece on The Biannual Bookbinding Competition in St Remy les Chevreuse, France, encouraging entries in the 2009 event with inside info on her experiences as entrant and visitor to the 2007 competition. Finally, there's news and photos of what some other members have been up to.

Many thanks to all of you who have contributed!

Susan Collard

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