Jordan Makes a Book

I'm a senior English and Book Arts major at the University of Maine at Machias. I'm making a book, and this is my blog about it.

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Reflections

As it is my graduation day, I think this is a good time to reflect on my project.

If I could change a few things (or do them differently), I perhaps would have.  These changes are personal, and I'm surely the only person that would find these necessary, but I think it's good that I can look at my work and think of ways to improve it.  I would have made the red cover paper a bit longer than 28" unfolded.  While I did take into account the accordion fold taking up paper space, I didn't take into account that the inside cover paper took more room away from the cover size.  When these two pieces were glued together, the spots for the signatures were about an eighth of an inch too small (on average).  I had to trim the signatures so that they would fit into their respective folds.

Continuing on the idea of the inside cover paper, I think I should have pre-folded it.  In addition to pre-folding, I could have pre-sewn the signatures onto the inside cover paper.  While I do like exposed stitching, I think stitching the signatures to the inside paper, then gluing the inside paper to the cover, would have looked really sleek.  It would appear as though the signatures were attached of their own accord.

My last big change would have been triple checking my math before spending a lot of money on ribbon.  If anyone would like rolls and rolls of my ribbon (in the color called "Dancer's Ivory," which is similar to the "Champagne" color of the Canford Paper inside cover), let me know!  Either that, or I will start decorating my very own May Pole.

I am really glad I did this project.  I feel more than accomplished.  I think I am actually happy with it; it is hard to be completely happy with something you have spent so much time working on, however.  I am a little sick of my book right now.  But in a few weeks or months, I will probably pick up a copy of my book, smile, and feel as though I applied my skills from college nicely.

Thanks for reading, everyone.  It's been a good semester.  Writing this blog has made me want to create a blog for all of my little "projects."  Maybe someday. 

Best wishes and many thanks,

Jordan

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Finishing Steps

I can say it now: I have finished my senior project!  I'm honestly not sure if I can express how happy I am.  I definitely worked for a combined 48 hours over four days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), and I'm so glad I didn't stop!

There were two slight changes to my original plan.  One is that I only made boxes for five of the books.  Honestly, the box-making process was really time consuming.  The books also looked so pretty on their own that I wasn't sure if making boxes for them was necessary.  I should also note that, from working on this project, my hands are pretty beat up with paper cuts and the like.  While working on box number five, I cut the tips of my fingers with my ruler (!) and my fingers still sting as a type, so that injury may have been a deciding factor.  I also know I can make more boxes at home (I still have extra paper) and if I want to make a box before gifting one of my books for someone, I can do that.

Now, I guess I'll just post the montage of the finished book!

Four of the boxes.

Top of the box.

Finished book inside of the box.

Finished book outside of the box.

Inside: the first page!

The expanded book.  The idea is that this book can be viewed all at once or individually by section.  The ribbon threaded through the cover (not visible here, but visible on the other side) is to represent that, although these stories are presented in three separate signatures for their points of view, they are still connected and part of the same collection.

The "compressed" book.  The "spine" side of the book is tied together so that the book can act similarly to a codex, or the most common book form, instead of as an accordion-folded book.

I hit a few minor hurdles while finishing up this book.  For one, I had to trim my signatures (sometimes...) by a few sixteenths of an inch.  It is not noticeable in the book, and the margins still look fine.  Another thing is that, well, I need to be careful of how I used my scissors.  I nicked one of the tying ribbons on one copy of the book, so I had to figure out how to discreetly sew it back together so that the ribbon wouldn't completely tear.

Finally, as I was printing the book a few weeks ago, I realized that I had a mistake in my colophon!  I knew there was a way to acknowledge this because I'd seen it before: a little piece of paper inserted into the book, acknowledging the mistake.  I asked Bernie and Gerard what that was called, and I was told it was an erratum.  I incorrectly spelled this as "erradum," but luckily I'm smart enough to check my spelling before finalizing anything.  So, yesterday morning, I finished the final step for my book: I printed my erratum.  

And now my project is done.  Finished.  Complete.  In a few days, I will graduate from college, knowing how much work and time I put into this project.  It's definitely something I can be proud of.

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More Printing and Pressing

Also known as: I finally got to print my linoleum cut!

A picture from the first inking!  It's incredible how a print can come to life just as the ink starts to hit the linoleum.

The first print!  It didn't come out quite as I wanted it to.  I used the same paper I printed on for my book, so I wondered if the print quality had something to do with the laid lines.  (Laid lines are watermarked lines in the paper created by the mold in which the paper was formed.)

Experimentation!  I tried to print my cut on a piece of Thai Banana paper from the book arts studio.  It didn't come out so well.  I tried a few more, but the print the reacted strangely to the paper.

You're not doing it right unless you get ink on your face!  (That's my motto anyways. But please excuse my messy hair; it was a long weekend.)

My best print!  I'm pretty proud of how nicely this one came out.  It took a lot of tweaking... but I got it!

Proof that if you're not ready to get dirty, you're not ready to print anything.  I'm pretty sure I scrubbed my hands clean about six times during the printing process.

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The Book Begins to Take Shape

After threading the ribbon through, I used spray adhesive (acid-free, generally used for photo mounting) to attach the inside cover paper to the cover.  With the paper attached, the books really started to take shape.

Once this paper was attached, I started to fold the covers.  I first folded them in half, then used my cardboard template to figure out the rest of the folding. I used a folding bone to flatten the cover, but placed another piece of paper between the folding bone and the cover so I wouldn't burnish the cover in places.

Once folded, the book almost "looked" finished, except that it was missing its pages.

I first prepared all my signatures (by folding them in the correct page order).  Then I began measuring for holes in the book and sewing the pages in using a pamphlet stitch.

Before adding each book to the "finished" pile, I numbered it in the colophon.  (The colophon is at the end of the book, telling the reader information about it.)  I am now working with 27 books because a few of the covers didn't turn out nicely.

I don't have all the books done, but I have a few.  I still have more work to do, though!

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Ribbon Threading: Pretty, but Time-Consuming

I thought it would be so pretty to thread ribbon through the cover of my book.  The ribbon also is there to act as a way to tie-off the book and keep it closed.  (The accordion-fold of the cover means that there will always be a little bit of bounce to the book.)

Using the example of my dummy, I knew that the length of the tying ribbons should be 14" each.  The center threaded ribbon was just about 22" long.  I spent a lot of time cutting ribbon for this task.

However, as I cut my ribbon, I realized that I had bought WAY TOO MUCH of it.  I think my mistake wasn't exactly mathematical; I knew how much ribbon I needed for each book.  However, I think that I read the ribbon label thinking it said "3 feet or 1 yard."  When in actuality it said "3 yards."  Well, that makes a big difference.  It's better to have extra than to not have enough.

The covers look pretty with the ribbon in them.  Later in the process of making my book, you will be unable to see the ribbon on the inside of the book because it'll be covered in paper.

I also had to glue the ribbon down into the cover so it wouldn't pull out.  Regular glue or PVA will not work because the ribbon is porous; the glue just goes through the ribbon and doesn't stick.  However, a hot glue gun worked nicely if I only used a little bit of glue. 

The project continues!

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An Edition Means Additional Work

After I finished printing, Bernie told me that he wished I had printed "thirty more!" copies.  Since I've spent this week (and about 11 hours of just today) working on this project, I am so glad I didn't print thirty more copies of my text.  Besides the fact that I would have to order more cover stock, I think I would just go bonkers.  I am already going a little crazy.

I suppose this is all part of the "process."  One minute, I'm working on the project and thinking that this is all totally doable under the time limit I've given myself.  (I'd really like to finish this by Sunday night.)  The next minute, I'm nearly panicking, wondering what the heck I've done to myself.  The thing is, I can't not finish this.  I have put so much time and thought into this.

The first part of the week, I spent most of my time cutting paper, measuring for folds, and cutting and gluing the folds for the cover down.  Since then, I've measured for the ribbon.  (I've done more as well, but I'll get to that.)  To measure for the ribbon, I had to find the direct center of the cover, the intended folds, and the measure accordingly so the ribbon would be threaded at the right length the right number of times.  After I finished those measurements, I began punching holes with my Japanese Screw Punch.

The worst part about working with the screw punch is that I ended up covered in little red paper circles.

Initially, in my dummy, I had slits cut into the cover for the ribbon.  Not only would cutting slits have been more time consuming than using the screw punch, Bernie also told me that those cuts would have weakened the paper.  Over time, the cover stock would have been likely to rip due to the nature of a slit in the paper.  By using the screw punch, and creating a round hole, the paper is "burnished" in a way, keeping the cover strong and the ribbon still elegant.

This post was a lot longer than I had intended, so I'll post about the ribbon later.

But here's a teaser:

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Carving and Cutting (The Project Continues)

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Quick video update from the studio. Sometimes, everything doesn't work out the way you had planned. Or maybe I should have double-checked my plans before proceeding.

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Planning a Print

Throughout the course of this project, I've had several ideas for incorporating linoleum prints into the book.  My first idea was to have a print for every prose poem; needless to say, I rejected that idea quickly, because the work and planning for that many prints would have taken way too long.  My second idea was to print the inside paper of the book.  I realized that that would be difficult.  When the accordion cover is flat, the book is over 26 inches long.  To make a 26-inch print in any medium would be quite the challenge.  I could have made several different cuts and connected them, but I felt that would have looked sloppier than one cohesive print.  I still thought of some other ways to make this idea work, but then I decided the "champagne" paper of the inside cover was nice enough to stand alone.  

Then I had a third idea.

I have a bit of extra text paper leftover since I've finished printing.  I've also always loved ampersands.  I thought making a unique linoleum cut of an ampersand would work nicely with my book.  After all, my book is called "Painting Prose," and words and punctuation are art in their own way.  Taking punctuation and symbols used textually and displaying them aesthetically seems like a really neat idea to me.

So tonight, I started sketching for my ampersand.  (I apologize for the quality of my images; I took the photographs with my iPod.)

My first sketch.  I started making the whole figure thicker.  It was difficult to draw evenly because of the stroke of an ampersand is continuous and intersecting.

I decided on the exact shaping of the ampersand, then outlined it in pen.  I like clean pen lines over the smudging graphite of pencil, so I always do a lot of erasing!

After using tracing paper to copy the ampersand (and the letters inside of it), I rubbed a thick graphite pencil over the exiting lines so that I could transfer my image to the sheet of linoleum.

I then stuck the tracing paper onto the linoleum and traced over every letter and curve.  This is the first impression of the details of the ampersand.

After the tracing, I went over each detail in pen.  My print will be a negative of this image: the ampersand will be black, and the letters and the rest of the piece will be cut away.

I've been thinking about this for about a month, and I'm glad I finally got the time to plan this.  Soon, I will begin carving the linoleum, which will bring me one step closer to printing!

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Just a quick update on what's going on with my project!

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Box Practice, Take 1

I need to practice making boxes.  That sounds silly, I know, but my original plan was to create a box to put my book in when it's finished.

About two weeks ago, I actually got to practice making a box.  It's not the same size, or the exact same design as my plan, but it works.

I bought a Japanese screw punch (a book making tool) and when it came in the mail, I needed something to put it in.  I realized this was the perfect opportunity to practice my box-making skills.  So here's my first attempt!  (Technically, it's my second attempt, but I threw out the first box.)

I learned something very quickly: the bottom piece of the box only needs to be a sixteenth of an inch to an eighth of an inch smaller than the top piece in order for the boxes to fit together snugly.  Otherwise, the boxes will just separate when they are pulled apart!

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The Printing Process: Part 3

I'm not sure if it's completely accurate for me to title this post "Part 3" of the printing process.  Really, I think this post is going to say a few things I couldn't fit into other posts.

First, one thing Bernie reminded me as I started printing is that, when printing on watermarked paper, the watermark must always be facing up.  (This means the watermark can never be upside-down; if printing on both sides of the pages, the watermark can be backwards for once side, and forwards for the other side, but the top must always be at the top, etc.)

For each printing, I held my paper up to the light to see where the watermark lay in my paper.

As you can see, my paper has laid lines.  Laid lines are the marks left by a certain type of paper mold in the paper making process.  The watermark for the paper I used is the  logo of the paper brand.

After checking the watermark, I could print.  

Each of my pages look something like this.  (Not all of the pages have a watermark, however.)

And once I finished printing each sheet, I placed them on the drying rack, knowing the watermark was facing the right way and that the text had printed wonderfully. 

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The Printing Process: Part 2

Once I cut my polymer plates, I could begin printing.  (I should note that I didn't finish cutting them all before I began printing; I only cut out the plates for the first part of my printing.)

The polymer plates are easier to set on the press than regular handset type.  Because the plates are adhesive-backed, it is so simple to paste them onto on a base (we have a Boxcar Base, ordered from the Boxcar Press, which is also where I ordered my plates).  The base is marked with grid lines, so once it is locked into the bed of the press, the plates can be set.  And if, for some reason, the plates aren't pasted in the right spot, it is really easy to pull them back up and move them to another spot on the Boxcar Base.  (The adhesive leaves no residue, so it always remains stuck to the back of the plates.)

Printing my first page filled me with satisfaction.  I was, however, pretty nervous, because Bernie brought the entire Book Arts I class into watch me print my first run.  Once my nerves wore off, I remembered how nice it felt to see my name printed on a page via letterpress.

I may have asked one of my classmates to take a few pictures of me printing.  Bernie is in the background of this picture, and I was trying to smile as the photo was taken, but I was still pretty nervous.  At this point, I am stepping on the peddle on the side of the Vandercook so that my paper can be grasped before it rolls through the press.

I tend to make pretty awkward faces when I'm printing, apparently, so this is definitely one of the better shots of me.

Placing a fresh print on the drying rack makes me feel so proud.  It's like I've actually accomplished something!  Even though I had a few printing mishaps (I may have printed one sheet directly on top of another... whoops!  But that's why it's important to always print extras!), I still feel really good about the progress I've made.

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The Printing Process: Part 1

I've begun printing!  (And, as of this posting, I have finished printing.)

Before I even started printing, I drew up a template.  The template noted the margins of my pages so that I could compare what I had set onto the press.

I also had to cut out the polymer plates.  The polymer plates came in one big sheet, so I needed to cut each individual page out.  Below the polymer plates is my page planning--that is, which plates go together for my printing.

I don't exactly work neatly... This is my work space, as I cut my polymer plates and planned the order of my printing.   Printing on the press takes a lot of planning, even if you aren't hand-setting type.  Cutting out the plates took a lot longer than I had expected. 

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I've started printing!  I have much more to say about that later--and a lot of pictures to sort through--so in the meantime, here's video of me printing on the Vandercook press!

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Ribbon and polymer plates.  I now have everything I need to start my project!  (Not shown: text-weight paper and thread.)  I'll update more soon once I start "constructing!"

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Making a "Dummy"

Today, I finished making my dummy.  The dummy is a crude version of my book--well, at least the textual part.  Because there are three signatures for me book, there are three signatures for my dummy.  The dummy will be helpful when it comes to printing my book.  I will be able to know where to print each plate.  Since the pages are folded as a single signature, pages 16 and 1 are on the same sheet, then 2 and 15, etc. etc.  Pretty soon I'll be ordering my polymer plates!  (I'll update once that has been settled.)