Old Ways Bookmaking and Tool Workshops by Jim Croft

If you’re interested in learning how to make a historical wooden-board model from start to finish, then you can’t go wrong with Jim Croft’s intensive Old Ways class being held this summer.  The tool intensive workshop runs from June 24 – June 25, and the bookmaking workshop goes from June 26-July 11.  Here’s a list, taken from his website, of some of the things he’ll teach in the bookmaking class:

Toolmaking and sharpening: Two Days Elk & deer bone folders Locally gathered & cured wood awls Tool sharpening & maintenance Fiber from stem to thread: Two Days Learn to process local, imported, sorted, sordid, and recycled hemp & flax Also work with material taken from seed to thread and from fiber to rag or at least stalk to thread Linen fire hose processing Making lye from ash Wood-fired lye cooking, retting, braking & scutching, Hackling, spinning, plying & natural bleaching Hand-cutting fiber

Papermaking: Three Days Using hemp, flax, and cotton pulps Comparisons and contrasts of the beater Meeting the water-powered stamp mill Gelatin tub sizing and wet gelatin pressing Loft drying in spurs Hand burnishing Bookmaking with Wooden Boards and Clasps: Five Days Find, harvest, and cure your local woods and learn quarter splitting from the block Sawing, hewing, and shaping by hand or take the easier route board shaping by machine Sawn and planed boards will be cut to length and shaped with rasp, file, plane, hand drill, knife, etc. Learn to tell if a piece of wood would or would not co-operate with your book Plus, learn to form and fit the formerly commonplace, but now often neglected or even negated need for brass clasps

 Third-year students, Elizabeth Bittner and Brenna Campbell, took the class last summer.  Jim Croft visited us here in Austin last January for an amazing tool-making workshop.  Nothing compares to a bonefolder you’ve made yourself, to fit YOUR hand!  

Today’s Book Lab 3 action report!

Here are some action shots from today’s Book Lab 3 class. Chela gave a demo on blind-tooling, Emily and Suzy did 3-on sewing, Danielle realized it really was “Frog Chicago” that was written on her mapstock case, Sarah was cleaning the spine on her UT Dallas book, Melissa made some awesome new endpapers utilizing the magic of Photoshop, and Meg sagely warned us all about the dangers of blind tooling through water puddles.

From In the lab…

Book of Origins

This summer, I was fortunate enough to see the “Book of Origins” fine-binding exhibit, curated by Karen Hanmer, when it was at the Cincinnati Public Library. From Syracuse University’s Library website:

The 2007 traveling exhibition features twenty contemporary fine bindings by ten American binders. The group includes established masters as well as gifted emerging artists. Two works are presented by each binder: their binding in response to the set Book of Origins text, and an additional example of their work.

My favorite binding was Karen Hanmer’s take on Jorge Luis Borge’s Ficciones.

Check out the exhibit here!