Wood Shop Basics for the Book Artist

The Book Arts Guild and Guild of Book Workers Northwest Chapter co-sponsor

Wood Shop Basics for the Book Artist

a workshop taught by  Susan Collard

September 27 & 28, 2014 10:00am-5:00pm

Art Building Room 207

University of Washington Seattle campus

This class provides an introduction to cutting, drilling, and fastening wood using common hand tools. Each student will make a small board book with poplar, oak, and birch aircraft plywood pages, bound with Tyvek and Japanese repair tissue. The books will include enticing features of the “constructed” book: a shadow box with mitered corners, simple magnetic closures, windows, and a fold-down mirrored page. Students will use collage and assemblage to integrate content into their books.

The class is aimed towards artists with little or no woodworking experience who would like to explore the use of wood and other rigid materials in their books. The major goal is to give students confidence in utilizing wood, as well as other unconventional materials such as glass and metal. Tools and materials for the prototype will be provided.

Susan Collard is an architect and book artist in Portland, Oregon. She has been making one-of-a-kind collaged and constructed artists’ books since 1991. Enchanted by the lyricism of obsolete and prosaic objects, she works from an ever-changing trove of found materials. Susan holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from the University of Arizona. Her work is shown and collected nationally. For more information visit www.susancollard.com
 

Class registration is $155.00 for BAG and GBW NW members; $185.00 for non-members.

Price includes supplies.  The workshop will be limited to 12 participants.  Participants will receive an email confirmation and list of items to bring to the class, location information, etc. Questions? Please contact Kate Leonard (katel@uw.edu).  ETA: Class registration is now full, and a waitlist has been formed.

To register, print and complete the attached PDF form and mail it to Kate Leonard with a check for $155.00 (or $185.00 for non-members).

The workshop will be filled first come, first served based on postmark of mailed registration. If the workshop is filled, a waiting list will be established. You will be notified if you are on the waiting list. If you sign up for the workshop but cannot attend and your place can be filled from the waiting list you will receive a full refund. If there is no waiting list, but you find a replacement for yourself, you will receive a full refund. If your place cannot be filled, your full registration will be retained to help cover the expenses of the workshop. If the class must be canceled, we will notify you and issue a full refund.

Guild Of Book Workers Northwest Chapter Members Showcase- Call for Entries

An Open Members Exhibition on view at 23 Sandy Gallery: October 3 - November , 2014

Submission deadline: August 1, 2014 at Midnight (PST)

Guild of Book Workers NW Chapter Members are invited to participate in a Members exhibition. This show is open to all current GBW Chapter Members and new Members (click here to join the GBW NW Chapter). Members are invited to present one or two examples of their current work which showcases their talents, skills and interests.

MEDIA – This non-juried exhibit is open to book and paper arts related works. This includes, but is not limited to, artist books, sculptural books, book objects, altered books, zines, broadsides, restoration projects or whatever work in this field our Members may be doing.

DATES TO REMEMBER

AUGUST 1, 2014 at Midnight (PST) - Deadline for Submissions

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 - Work Due at Gallery

OCTOBER 3, 2014 - Exhibition Opens at 23 Sandy Gallery

OCTOBER 4, 2014 - Reception at 23 Sandy Gallery, 4-6:00 p.m.

NOVEMBER 1, 2014 - Exhibition Closes at 23 Sandy

ONLINE AND PRINT CATALOGS

23 Sandy Gallery and the Northwest Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers will co-publish a complete online catalog plus a full-color print catalog illustrating this exhibition. Entering this exhibition constitutes agreement that images may be used for publicity purposes.

MARKETING

Postcards, print catalogs, and an online catalog will all be part of a marketing campaign designed to sell works included in this show to the Gallery's university and museum library customers, as well as to regular customers of the Gallery. We will work hard to find good homes for all works included in this show. Works may also be submitted as not for sale.

DISPLAY OF BOOKS

We feel very strongly that books need to be handled to be fully appreciated. Handi-Wipes are provided for gallery customers along with a friendly word about proper book handling. However, if your book is delicate and you would prefer it not be handled, please let us know and we will be happy to put a "do not touch" sign on it. If your book is an edition you are welcome to send a display copy.

SIZE LIMITATIONS

All works are limited to 24 inches in any direction when displayed. One exception to this rule is long accordion books, which may extend out longer. Accordions allow us to shorten up the display width without losing the impact of the book.

FRAMING

Wall-hung work can either be hung framed or unframed attached with magnets. If you are shipping framed work we recommend you ship the work with acrylic instead of glass.

SUBMISSIONS

A maximum of two works may be submitted per Member. Submissions must be received online no later than midnight (PST) on AUGUST 1, 2014. All Members submitting to this exhibition will be notified via email. We reserve the right to decline any accepted artwork upon delivery if the condition or quality is other than represented in the electronic form.

ONLINE SUBMISSIONS

Our online submission form can be found at the bottom of this page. All submissions will be made online.

FEES

This entry fee covers Guild-related exhibition expenses and provides the means to produce the on-line and print catalogs. A $25 non-refundable submission fee covers up to two works and is payable upon submission. Just to clarify, the fee covers one or both works, it is not a per work fee.

SALES

For this exhibition, works can either be for sale or not. All works offered for sale will be placed on consignment. The Gallery keeps 40% of the sale price. The Member receives 60% of the sale price. If your work is not for sale, we'll ask you to provide an insurance value on the submission form. Sales sometimes happen after the exhibition. If a request to purchase a work comes directly to the Gallery after the artwork is returned to the member, the gallery works with the member and client to facilitate the sale. The terms of the consignment agreement herein are extended to govern such a situation.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF YOUR WORK

You may submit up to four photographs for each piece you are submitting for this show. Remember, your photographs will be used in a high-quality, printed catalog, so make sure they are high quality photographs. The 23 Sandy Blog features several articles about photographing your work.

PREPARING YOUR IMAGES FOR SUBMISSION

You may upload up to four views each of your works submitted. Some key points to remember:

• Name your files as yourlastname-1-a.jpg, yourlastname-1-b.jpg, yourlastname-1-c.jpg, yourlastname-2-a.jpg, etc. Your last name is followed by a HYPHEN and then the artwork number, which corresponds with the submission number on the online submission form. Another HYPHEN and then the a, b, or c letter are the additional views of that work. Like this: yourlastname-1-a.jpg

• All JPGs must be 300 ppi, sized to 7 inches (or 2100 pixels) wide or tall in the longest direction.

• Composite images are not acceptable. One view per image submitted only.

• Black backgrounds on your photographs are not acceptable. Please shoot your photos on a neutral gray or white background. This allows us to present a cohesive printed catalog. (Black backgrounds are also bad because books lose shadow, dimension and scale on black backgrounds.)

SHIPPING

All artwork in this show will ship to 23 Sandy Gallery. All shipping and shipping insurance costs to and from the Gallery are the responsibility of the member. Complete instructions will be provided

RESPONSIBILITY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE

The Gallery is insured and shall be responsible for the safekeeping of all consigned artwork while in the Gallery’s possession. The Gallery shall be strictly liable to the Member for loss or damage (except for loss due to earthquake, flood or damage resulting from flaws inherent in the artwork), to the full value member would have received from the Gallery if the artwork had been sold.

ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM

Click here to access our online submission form.

CONTACT EALASAID HAAS WITH ANY QUESTIONS

Email: roadie@thebookroadie.com

Phone: 408-910-1411

We recommend that you print this page for future reference. The language on this page, combined with the language on the submission form constitute a binding, legal consignment agreement covering the terms and conditions of this exhibition and the relationship between member and gallery.

Updates to the GBWNW Chapter Board

The GBWNW has recently elected new board members to represent its chapter.

Co-chairs: Bonnie Thompson Norman of Seattle (inkdart [at] gmail [dot] com) and Elsi Vassdal Ellis of Bellingham (elsi.vassdal-ellis [at] wwu [dot] edu)
Communications: Olivia Rose Muzzy of the Seattle area (orosemuzzy [at] gmail [dot] com)
Co-chair, Exhibitions: Ealasaid Haas of Portland (roadie [at] thebookroadie [dot] com)
Workshops: Sophia Bogle of Ashland (diybookrepair [at] gmail [dot] com)

Let's thank our previous board members for their hard work and welcome in the new board members for our chapter!

March 15--Art of the Book Symposium in Tacoma

The Horizon Exhibition is coming soon to the great Northwest! The last of six stops on its national tour will be the Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. The show will be on display February 3-March 30, 2014.

On March 15, the Collins Library will host a special event open to members of the Guild of Book Workers, Puget Sound Book Artists, and The Book Arts Guild. Three members with work in the show--Suzanne Moore, Monica Holtsclaw, and Susan Collard--will give presentations in the morning, followed by a catered lunch at the library. There will, of course, be time to tour the Horizon Exhibition. In the afternoon, the group will travel to nearby Pacific Lutheran University, with printing demos by Jessica Spring and Chandler O’Leary at Elliott Press and an exhibit of Tacoma Wayzgoose prints. Information on registering for the event will be available in January. For GBW members traveling from out of town to take part, there will additional opportunities to get together for meals and museum-going as well as carpools.   

Special thanks to Paula Jull, our chapter chair, for her leadership in getting the exhibit to the Northwest, and to Jane Carlin, director of the Collins Library, for being an enthusiastic supporter of the book arts. We hope as many members as possible will make it to Tacoma to see the show.

Registration for the event opens January 16--please see complete info at the Puget Sound Book Artists website. 

Chapter Meeting at 23 Sandy Gallery--4:00 pm, January 26

The GBW Northwest Chapter is rich in members, but currently lacking in regular opportunities that gather that membership together. We will be holding a chapter meeting at 4 pm on Sunday, January 26, to welcome new members who have joined in the last year or so, and to discuss the future of the chapter. The meeting will be held at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland. If that sounds good and you’re planning to come, please email me at smcollard@gmail.com. 

Whether or not you can attend the meeting, please know that your input and involvement in the chapter is important to the rest of us. If you would like to become more involved, please consider stepping up as an officer. There are several offices currently unfilled, and others that will become vacant in 2014. We are (I think) the youngest chapter in the guild, and in many ways still working to get up a full head of steam. If you would like to contribute ideas or time, please feel free to contact me or our trusty chair Paula at jullpaul@isu.edu . Thank you, and hope to see you soon!

Minutes from the July 20 Chapter Meeting

GBW NW Chapter Chair Paula Jull made the trek from Pocatello to Portland for a chapter meeting, held at 23 Sandy Gallery on July 20. Also in attendance were Laura Russell, Shu-Ju Wang, and Susan Collard from Portland, while Elizabeth Uhlig made the trip up from Eugene.

On the agenda:

Horizon Exhibit: A Northwest venue for the Horizon show has not been confirmed, but Paula is still hoping to help make this happen. Any library or museum hosting the show has to pay approximately $2000 to cover insurance and shipping costs to the next venue. This is a serious obstacle for many institutions, and is one reason the full schedule for the show is yet to be announced. Those in attendance all felt that having the exhibition in the Northwest would be very desirable, especially for members who will not be able to see it in Salt Lake City or other sites. We authorized Paula to spend some of the available funds in the chapter treasury to help offset costs for an appropriate institution to host the show. If this goes forward, we would schedule guild events in connection with the exhibition.

Upcoming Workshop: Elizabeth Uhlig has some excellent ideas about a GBW-sponsored workshop she has volunteered to organize in Eugene. Please stay tuned for more details! Recent workshops organized by Shu-Ju Wang and Marilyn Mohr have all been successful financially, and also well-received by participants.

Upcoming Juried Chapter Show: Laura Russell expressed interest in hosting a GBW NW chapter show at 23 Sandy Gallery in 2013. Unlike last year's show which traveled to Salt Lake City and Pocatello, this would be juried by an established book arts professional based outside the region. Ideally, the show would be tied to another event to help generate interest and publicity.

Student Memberships: Paula reminded us that student memberships to the Guild of Book Workers are available at a discount.

Jarmila Sobota Visit: See the following invitation for a special event in Portland October 16, hosted by chapter members Kim and Rosie Batcheller.  

Jarmila Sobota Visit in Portland

Kim and Rosie Batcheller, chapter members and longtime friends of Jan and Jarmila Sobota, have invited local GBW members to a special event.

 As you all probably know, Jan Sobota was awarded the annual lifetime achievement award from the GBW this year. Most unfortunately, he died just before the award was announced. His wife Jarmila will be traveling to the Standards Conference in Salt Lake City to accept the award on his behalf. Afterwards, she will be staying with Kim and Rosie for a week in Portland. As part of that visit, they are planning a PowerPoint presentation of Sobota books with Jarmila from 4:00 to 5:00 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 16. The Batchellers are amateur bookbinders with a dozen or so bindings by the Sobotas in their collection. We appreciate the chance to share in Jarmila's visit and celebrate the Sobotas' marvelous work. You can view a selection of their books at the J. & J. Sobota website.

 The presentation will be held at the Mirabella apartments (3550 SW Bond Ave, in South Waterfront near the base of the tram). It will be open to Mirabella residents, with room for several GBW members also. If you are interested in attending, please contact Susan Collard at smcollard@gmail.com,  who will keep a list. If you go, you will receive a guest pass at the concierge desk in the lobby and be directed to the Willamette Room, where the event will be held.

Chapter Meeting July 20

It's time for us to get together and make plans for our chapter. After some consultation, we have set the date for a summer meeting. We will meet at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland on Friday, July 20 at 6:30 pm. Many thanks to Laura Russell for hosting. We'll have a potluck social and time to discuss the chapter's future. Some items on the agenda are: a juried exhibit in 2013, possible workshops, collaborations with other groups, and possible support of the Horizons travelling exhibit in our area.
Please bring anything you want to show us, and ideas for possible activities to share. 

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

See you in a few weeks!

Best,
Paula Jull
Chair
Northwest Chapter

Upcoming OCAC Worshop: Book as Architecture

Barb Tetenbaum, book arts department head of the Oregon College of Art and Craft, has asked us to help spread the word about a special workshop this March.

British pop-up star Paul Johnson is coming from London to spend nearly a week in Portland, and to teach a weekend workshop March 25 and 26. A lecture is planned the Friday before that will be open to the public. Barb adds, "But first we need the workshop to fly and are hoping some of your members will be interested and tell their comrades...It will be such an honor to bring Paul to town and we want to share his talents with as many as we can."

A full description of the class and on-line registration is available on the OCAC website. 

Important: There's an early bird registration option, making the price for the workshop $275 + $15 studio fee before January 15. The price goes up $30 after January 15.

Pictured is Paul Johnson's unique book, Enchanted Garden, which you may well remember from the 2010 Pop Up Now! show at 23 Sandy Gallery.

Shawn Sheehy's Mechanics of Movables workshop, sponsored by the GBW in October, was a great success, and we hope to help bring other book arts luminaries to the region in the future.

GBW NW Chapter Members' Show

The exhibit of artists' books by members of the Northwest Chapter is on display at the Marriott Library of the University of Utah through February 12, so if you or someone you know will be in Salt Lake City, please don't miss it. Visiting information is available on the library website. 

The exhibition's first stop was Idaho Sate University, where it was on display in October and November, 2011.  Two works in the show were selected for purchase awards by Karen Kearns, Special Collections curator at the Eli Oboler Library at Idaho State. Pictured below is "Be the Change" by Bonnie Thompson Norman, a vertical concertina with a dynamic interpretation of the quote by Gandhi printed on letterpress.

The second purchase award went to Andrew Huot for "Directions," a set of five letterpress guidebooks using ephemeral and shifting landmarks, such as "Turn right at the poodle on a walk," and "Stop at a cold breeze and wait for the green light." Congratulations to the award winners!

Special thanks to our chapter president, Paula Jull, for arranging the exhibition.

The Mechanics of Movables

Instructor: Shawn Sheehy
Time: Oct 22, 23, 2011, 10am-5pm
Location: Oregon College of Art & Craft, NW Barnes Road, Portland, Oregon

Pull a tab. Turn a wheel. Bring new life to your page by animating it with movables! In this 2-day workshop participants will learn the fundamental principles that guide the movables seen in many interactive books published today. Beginning with basic tools and techniques, the workshop will quickly move on to building a series of increasingly complex movable structures based on wheels, pull tabs and other ingenious mechanisms. Participants will leave with a bound collection of 10-15 models. Throughout the workshop, participants will view and discuss the work of commercial paper engineers and discuss conceptual possibilities for movables in their own work.

No experience necessary, though patience is a must!

Workshop Fees

GBW members: $180 (includes materials)
Non-GBW members: $210 (includes materials)

Register for This Class

Contact Shu-Ju Wang, shuju@fivebats.com, 503-245-8177.
GBW members have priority registration through September 10; after that, registration is open to all.

Friday Evening Lecture

Oct 21, Friday, at 23 Sandy Gallery, free and open to the public. More information to come.

About the Instructor

Shawn Sheehy combines paper engineering and paper making with an interest in biology and science to produce sculptural pop-up books. Shawn has taught workshops at PBI, Penland and the Centers for Book Arts in Chicago and New York. His commercial pop-up clients include American Greetings, Pee-Wee Herman and Vintage Magazine.

Some sample models from the Mechanics of Movables workshop:

For more information about Shawn, visit his website.

Workshop Review--Exploring Himalayan Papers and Books

Emily Marks
Sonoma, California
EMDandS@aol.com

A couple of years ago I discovered a wonderful paper for bookbinding and art projects called Lokta. I researched Lokta and found that the paper is made from the Daphne plant, found principally in Nepal, growing luxuriously in the foothills of the Himalayans, 6500 feet above sea level. I immediately fell in love with this wonderful stuff and planned to go to Nepal to learn to make the paper. I found a site on the Internet that offers classes for the novice. http://www.paperworldnepal.com/index.html (I have to admit that once I checked on airfare to that distant land, I was a bit daunted by the idea.)

Imagine my delight when I heard of a workshop in Portland, OR, taught by Jim Canary, who would lead his class in the making of the paper, dyeing it with natural dyes, and making a Tibetan prayer book using Lokta. I contacted Shu Ju Wang, the organizer of the Book Workers Guild workshop immediately.

Jim Canary, I found out, has a long-standing interest in Tibet and Nepal, stemming from his undergraduate days at Indiana University, where he concentrated on Inner Asian Studies. He also completed graduate studies at Indiana in Major Classical Tibetan and for three years received a Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship in Tibetan. Since 1994, he has been a project member of Paper Road/Tibet, an organization that provides research, technical expertise, and development of hand papermaking operations in Tibet. He is also a board member of the International Tibetan Archives Preservation Project, responsible for coordinating cooperative conservation work in Lhasa, Tibet.

Jim has been Head of the Conservation Department at Indiana University's Lilly Library in Bloomington since 1993. He has lectured widely on Tibetan themes, as well as on various aspects of conservation and the book arts.

The workshop with Jim took place October 23-24, 2010. The night before we were to meet as a class, Jim showed digital pictures of his travels in Tibet and Nepal researching the practice of book art in those countries and the making of the paper itself. This free lecture was an inspiring introduction to this handmade art.

Our workshop was held in the wonderful studio space of William Park, who graciously let us use this large and light warehouse for the two days. We met at 10 am, ready to work and to learn.

First, Jim talked about the plant, Daphne Paparacea. This plant is a relative of our Daphne but grows into a tree in Nepal. The root is the source of the paper. The papermaker strips the outer bark off and exposes the inside fiber. (Photos by Emily Marks except as noted.)

The inner bast fibers are then cooked in water with an alkali substance like soda ash. Jim cooked about one pound up for us to use.

Jim then went on to explain that the Tibetan prayer book usually has a soft cover, often made of silk on front and back. The interior pages have beautiful written chants, often applied as wood block prints. If the calligraphy is written, it is applied by an ink made of burned resinous pine ground with yak-skin glue.

The picture below shows the dried bast fibers, the silk-covered prayer book, an ink bottle, handmade pen, with its wooden container.

While the fiber was continuing to cook, we each built a frame for papermaking out of four heavy wooden pieces that Jim provided. These fit together and were made tighter at the joins with little pieces of wood that swell when wet. Then we cut simple cheesecloth and pinned this to our frames.

Once the fiber was cooked, it was sweet-smelling and slightly gelatinous, reminding me in feel of cooked okra. We divided up the fiber in small amounts and pounded it with wooden mallets. This was a long process because as we beat the fiber, we removed small specks of dark matter to keep our paper as pure as possible.

When all the fibers were beaten enough, we combined them together in a big basin with a lot of water. Jim showed us how to float our frames in the water and to add about 2 cups of the pulp to the screen. Then we were to swish the pulp around so that it lay evenly on the cheesecloth. Raising it straight up, the water drained out, leaving wet pulp to cling to the cheesecloth. (Group photo below by Elizabeth Uhlig.)

Once our papers were stacked up against the walls to dry, we worked on the inner and outer papers for our Tibetan style prayer book. Jim had brought some cream-colored paper-backed canvas for our covers which we could dye in natural dyes he provided. We were also encouraged us to dye our papers, and most of us chose to dip the edges into the brown, yellow or blue dyes.

The next day we arrived back to find our handmade paper was ready to pull from the screen. This was a satisfying process as the paper came off in one sheet, and made a good sound as it was pulled.

The book we were to assemble in the afternoon typically has writing and images in it. To give us the full experience of the Tibetan prayer book, Jim had brought wooden printing blocks of Tibetan images. The class had a great time inking up these blocks and printing them on our pages and covers for our books to come. (Photos below are all by Elizabeth Uhlig.)

Assembling the book was fun. Jim taught us the construction of the chain-link sewing, using three “stations.” Our books were each different and very pleasing.

Our two-day workshop had come to end and we had learned a lot! Hugs were exchanged; e-mails circulated; and we went back to our individual lives, newly enriched.