Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Delavacation.

This week, I've had the chance to spend some time in Delaware with my family. I've been going on walks, going to thrift stores, sleeping, and just acting like I'm on vacation. A Delavacation. It's been really nice.

nice ice

Yesterday afternoon, I went for a walk with my Dad in Alapocas Woods, by the Brandywine River, and looked at the ice. By the way, what do you call a bicycle with an infinite number of wheels? An icicle. That's my math joke. I made it up when I was twelve.

pretty pretty board shear

Last week, Mike and I put together the board shear, and it works like a dream! I will no longer be cutting book board by hand, and this is good news. Cutting book board by hand was by no means impossible, but it did feel like a chore. The board shear will make it far more pleasant and quick work.

This brings to mind a quote from Books, Boxes, and Portfolios by Franz Zeier, my philosophical and technical advisor.



Again and again in these pages I demand precision, but far be it for me to discourage those who are truly unable to work with a high degree of exactness. Creative freedom, however, should not be confused with sloppiness... An object made with love and care can be a thing of beauty, a whole, even when it is imperfect, by contrast another one, although flawless, can leave us untouched and strike no sympathetic chord.


Monday, December 13, 2010

What does this button do?




I don't know what any of these do, but I want to press all the buttons at once. It's like Jumping Jack Flash or the Millenium Falcon! I bet they make really neat 'beep' sounds.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

a new kind of book...

A new style of hardcover book I've started making with a mix of old and new papers, prints, and some prints too. What do you think?





Thursday, December 9, 2010

Via Penland

Mr. Shane Darwent, bookbinding by Kathy Steinsberger

If you're in North Carolina, there's a great show up in Raleigh at Rebus Works Gallery featuring photographer Shane Darwent. The show's name is Via Penland. Every year, the gallery features one artist connected to Penland School of Crafts. This year, they featured Shane and his collaborations with five book artists, including myself.

Via Penland

This show represents over a year of travels and residencies, which are beautifully documented on Shane's blog. Shane also put together a great slide show of the opening, which you can see here.

My collaboration with Shane, a portfolio of five collages/drawings on his photographs housed in a box.

Some of Shane's hand-colored photographs

It looks like it was a great opening, I wish I could have been there! I'd love to hear your thoughts if you were there. I'm so glad I got a chance to do this collaboration with my fellow former core student, Shane. Thank you Shane!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Thursday, December 2, 2010

1,000 More Greetings


Good news! I found out last night that some of my cards are going to be included in the book 1,000 More Greetings (page 17, Robocop). I submitted work for this book a year ago, forgot about it, remembered it, figured it must have fell through, forgot about it again, and then got an email which I almost deleted as spam saying I was in the included in the book. What a roller coaster ride.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Linen

A few weeks ago, I found out that my favorite bookcloth, a chocolate brown buckram, had been discontinued by its maker, which made me so sad because it had become my go-to color, the one that seemed to work with everything.

On the bright side, it was motivation to start making my own.


I'm using the instructions from Japanese Bookbinding: Instructions from a Master Craftsman, which are the traditional method of making bookcloth using kozo paper and wheat paste. This book is fantastic! My other favorite is Books, Boxes and Portfolios.

I'm excited to have a new palette of colors to work with, and to be able to use actual linen as a covering material for my books. It's such a wonderful material. So wonderful that Benoit Millot made a film about it.

BE LINEN MOVIE from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.






Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Scandinavia


Some of you may already know, I'm fascinated by Scandinavia. Here are my reasons. They may not all make sense...

- I like the way the languages look when they're written.
- A book I read when I first started binding books called Finnish Handicraft greatly influenced me.
- When I was in 6th grade, I did a report on the tundra.
- The Norwegian forest cat
- This picture

- Lichen, birch, mushrooms, little country homes...
- Intensely strange and wonderful mythology and folklore.

I'd really like to go there someday. I would go here.

And there's other things I like, these...




:: From Fine Little Day ::


:: From Anna Emilia ::

:: From Paperiaarre ::



Saturday, October 30, 2010

Wilson Jones!

Check out this bad boy. It's the Wilson Jones "Hummer" and it's my new three hole punch that I picked up at the thrift store on Wednesday. You can adjust the distance between holes, and it punches cleanly through book board. I love it.

I also love this children's encyclopedia which has the loveliest end pages. I think I'm going to use them for book covers.

I've been working on a whole bunch of new leather and hardcover books. I'm pretty excited about them, especially the hardcovers. I'm trying something new with those...

I'm making all these new books for the holidays, I'll be selling them at Crafty Balboa on December 4th. More info here, and I'll post about it again when the date is nearer.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

One Hundred!

Welcome to blog post one hundred, a milestone I had doubts of ever reaching when I started this project. It's not that I didn't want to, but I don't have a good track record when it comes to things like this. But I've really enjoyed working on this and I hope you all have too.

This is a book I recently made for myself. I made it with the cover of an old science book. I liked the cover for its sturdiness and classic design. The text block is densely sewn together so it has a nice weight to it.

I rebound the book with a mix of recycled paper from French Paper and old maps, graph paper and illustrations. I made sure to include a map of Scandinavia to daydream over.

This illustration is one of my favorites, the colors are out of this world. Green sky and purple clouds!

The whole book is sewn together and glued in, so you would never know it was a new book by looking at the outside. Pretty neat.

So thank you everyone for reading, and I look forward to the next one hundred.
Happy 100 blog posts!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Impossible Objects

Pair of prints I made at Penland last month. They were exercises, to make abstract images using only the wood and metal type and furniture I could find in the letterpress studio. They both will be available in my shop soon.

:: impossible objects 1 ::

:: impossible objects 2 ::

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Studios

I've been working on a presentation about the role of studios in artists' lives and collecting images. Each space is so different and reflects the personality of its user. Here are a few of my favorites.






:: unknown ::

:: unknown ::

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The Thrift Store Dream


I have a recurring dream about the thrift store. I go to a thrift store I've never been to before. I look around. I rummage. And I find the most incredible, beautiful things! Old photographs, wood type, old ledgers and journal, a small press maybe. And I take it home, and then I wake up and hope, hope, hope that they'll be there. Well, maybe someday I'll find that cache of wood type in the sky.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Color

:: from my collection of found slides ::