Book Structures class final day

Yesterday was the final day of the Book Structures class I teach at Otis. The students set up a display of their collection of up to 30 books that they learned to make over the course of the semester. It was a great group of students and they all did an amazing job. Many of them have also taken my Intro to Letterpress class for double the fun down in the basement.

The photos were taken by the best binding TA in the whole wide world, Jennifer Graves.

Finally, I have a type cabinet!

A casualty of the Otis Lab Press remodel, this old type cabinet finds a home in my studio. I can finally get the cases of type that were stashed here and there put in a proper place and even buy more type!

It just needs a little TLC and some more cases and it will be perfect.

The big book press (also from Otis) which had been inconveniently located in the upstairs office finds just the right spot on top.

Cowboy Pride 1880

I joined a project called Book Art Object, an informal group of book artists scattered around the globe. Under the BAO banner they make small editions of handmade artists' books in response to texts, sharing them with each other and the world.

Edition Four comes from Sarah Bodman's book An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen, in which 100 short story titles are the kicking-off point to make a book. The story title that I chose is "Now I'm a Cowboy."

The accordion was printed on Stonehenge and Bhutan paper using handset Centaur, Arrighi, Onyx and wood type with a couple old cowboy zinc cuts. This is an excerpt from The Young Manhood of Dave Chamlee, written by my dad about the pride that a cowboy has for his boots.

The final book

The Young Manhood of Dave Chamlee coming-of-age story of David Samuel Chamlee, born in 1857, told by his grandson (my father) in a Humanities term paper written while attending Claremont Men’s College in the 1950s.

The story begins with Dave Chamlee’s boyhood on a homestead in Tennessee, his travels as a young man to work on the docks of the Mississippi River and on to his years as a working cowboy in Texas. It concludes with his arrival in California where he spent the remainder of his days.

The text is accompanied by research notes supported by public records and census data, a map and photographs from the family archive.

The Young Manhood of Dave Chamlee is letterpress printed with hand set Centaur and Arrighi, Massey Initials and ornaments on handmade Khadi paper. The map background is a suicide linoleum block; the map details and photographs are printed from polymer plates. The signatures are sewn into a bison leather cover with a wrap band, ties, tackets and deer horn buttons.

Printing the map

The map I'm including with the new book is printed using a "suicide" linoleum block in the background with the detail printed using photo polymer plates.

After doing an overall print of light tan, all the states were cut and printed in a darker color

Then all the states except Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas were cut away and the final layer was printed. The route and type was printed with polymer plates.

The title block

Inside the front cover is the pocket for the folded map.

The final map unfolded.

Binding Prototype

The binding of the new book is long-stitch sewn into a limp bison leather cover with sheep leather head and tail ties and deer horn buttons. There is a strip of leather on the spine that helps it to hold its shape. There is a pocket inside the front cover to hold a map. The binding takes parts of the ancient Nag Hammadi Codices where the cover is bound with a wrap band as well as ties on top and bottom and tackets in the corners for reinforcement. Very little, if any, adhesive will be used in this binding.

Various colors of bison and dark brown sheep leather for the ties and tackets.

This shows the wrap band and the ties at the head and tail.

The inside pocket that holds the map.

Here you can see the long stitch sewing and the spine reinforcement with deer horn buttons.

New Type!

My new Centaur and Arrighi type finally arrived from M & H Type Foundry in San Francisco. This type is for my new project The Young Manhood of Dave Chamlee, a coming-of-age story about my great grandfather told by my father, William Zane Chamlee, in a Humanities term paper he wrote while attending Claremont Men's College in the 1950s. The main text is 12pt Centaur with 10pt Arrighi footnotes.

It took an entire day to put it all away.

Here's all the set type for the first signature.