Pen nib dress

Here's a detail shot from an exquisite dress made by John Nussey and Steven Tai. They used nearly 800 pen nibs attached to tiny motors which make the nibs flick around like little fish - it's just astounding. Check out their page for a video of the dress in action or go here for more pics.

Just dying

I have a new arch nemesis and it is Yellow Leather Dye.  That stuff is potent! We've been dying leather for some of Gavin's boxes and the bindery is a glorious mess of pigment and gory spills, and I totally enjoy days like these because I feel all useful, scrubbing away. I mean, I'm still absolutely anxious when it comes to doing work that a client may see, and casing in gives me hypothetical hives, but I can clean up like nobody's business. I'm a trillion times more confident with a sponge than a bone folder, which is why I dive right in on the messy days and end up feeling efficient and necessary. Except for that yellow leather dye, because that stuff stains ones hands to the point of apparent leprocy, which is also called Hansen's disease, which I did not know. And now that wikipedia is involved, I realize that the allusion to leprocy is not only incorrect, but terribly glib, because leprocy is awful. But also, armadillos? And, fact - 95% of people are naturally immune, so phew.

Yes, gloves would be a terrific idea, but we're way past that. I'm offended at the mere existence of this evil stuff, that manages to stay on hands days, whole days! afterwards. And also, I always forget gloves until it is too late. Neon yellow hands look good on no one but big bird.

I'm definitely into pencils

When I was growing up, we lived in a lovely old yellow farmhouse with green shutters and a wide porch, and a big red barn leaned into the woods at the edge of the back yard. While the house hosted a rowdy family, the barn was my dad's domain where he puttered (and occasionally hid, I assume) and my sisters and I would either spy on him while he was in there, or we'd snoop around when he wasn't. One of the rooms hosted a rusted-out car, ladders, cans of paint, jars of chemical-smelling liquids, and various domestic debris, and the other was ringed with shelves and tools and work benches, and I remember so clearly the pencils hanging about that weren't school pencils, conically sharpened and fuzzy at the wood, but whittled to sharp shiny points. And this wasn't something I've thought about for years and years, until recently when I was gathering up all the pencils in the bindery, and noticed how they're sharpened in the same exact way, thoughtfully, with knives, instead of sharpeners.

And I've gotten used to this myself, quickly chopping pencils into wedge-shaped points with a utility knife, but it still makes me happy to come across them, to slice them up myself. I suppose this isn't even noteworthy, but I honestly haven't seen hand-sharpened pencils since my childhood, and this fact alone - the fact that its something I went years and years without noticing, and that suddenly I see them again - it's just so nice to be pleasantly surprised by an old memory. Ah pencils. They are so great!

Binder crushing, plus confusion

Blizzard book attempts

I've participated in a few obsolete slash nerdy pursuits before, the kind that, when introduced into casual conversation, almost always produces a "people still DO that?" reaction. Fountain pen afficionados and knitting societies, horribly embarrassing role playing games, along with the now-defunct Pencil of the Month group (the death of which I am frankly, bewildered), but none has seemed more insular than bookbinding. Aside from cocktail party conversation reactions (I mean cocktail parties metaphorically, because- do these things actually exist?  I'd love to go to one, but have never been invited) it seems like basic, easily-accessible information is hard to come by.

This suspicion blossomed when I tried to find a link to some of Hedi Kyle's work to pass along to a friend of mine. I wasn't surprised that she didn't have a website of her own, as she's an older binder, and one obviously firmly rooted in non-digital arts. But I was surprised to see that finding even a wikipedia page on her is difficult, if not impossible (I could have sworn that I've seen a page on her before, but can't seem to find one, at this instant). Aside from being a book genius and innovator of humongous proportions, she's also chief conservator at The American Philosophical Society and adjunct professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. So where's the wikipedia page?! Is this a conscious decision, coming from a place of humility? Apathy? Insularity? Or do the people that care avoid electronic information, preferring instead the comforts of libraries?

I've just purchased a Festchrift about her, and can't wait to dig in, but in the meantime, is it totally presumptuous to begin writing a wiki page? Well, obviously, yes, but I hate the idea that a casual googler would be out of luck - lazy people should know about her too! Right? And, point being, it doesn't make sense that there isn't easily accessible information for the casual student, and I'm not sure why that is...

Beachy book

I think I made something decent! The endpapers are an unfortunate shade of primary blue (wouldn't a sandy tone have been much better?) but I had a bit of help in casing it in, so the corners are remarkably square. I have basically been singing this song since I took it out of the press.