Roz Wound Up

Determining Paper Grain Direction

The other day I was asked how to tell grain direction in a paper you aren’t familiar with. Why the need to know paper grain direction? Well if you are a book binder you want to fold the paper you use for your text pages WITH THE GRAIN. They will fold better this way and you won't be cracking and re-cracking the fibers every time you turn over a page. Additionally, when you make a casebound book you are gluing several materials together and you want the grain of all those materials (the binder's board, the decorative paper for the cover, the decorative paper for the endsheets, the text paper, and the bookcloth) to ALL run parallel with the spine direction. Otherwise you end up getting some interesting warping issues which can pull the book structure apart.

Note: I have dealt with the practicalities of tearing down paper with the grain in a number of posts. I mention one below. Another post you might want to read is Adventures in Bookbinding: Matching Surfaces across Spreads. In that post I show a tear diagram. Along with the other notes I suggest below that you keep, I recommend that you make a tear diagram for every sheet of paper in the way you use it for your favorite sizes of books. You might have 3 tear diagrams for one sheet of paper because you love to use that paper so much in different ways. Having these diagrams will save you time when you are thinking about the size book you want to make and the possibilities of making that book with a given paper.

Now that you know it's important for a bookbinder to know the grain direction of a sheet of paper, it's good to know there are a number of ways to determine grain direction. The easiest is to read the manufacturer’s specs on the paper. Most paper stores will have brochures from the companies. These brochures will list these specs and the store staff can help you with these questions. (Another reason to go to an independent art store that keeps this material handy.) Sometimes catalogs will mention grain direction because some customer has convinced them it's useful.

But if you have done what you can for research and still don’t know there are a couple tests you can do to determine grain direction. Here are some suggestions:

Urban Journaling Class Wrap Up

Above: The students with their gorgeous books, left to right—Casey Trittipo, Marsha Micek, Lilla Duigan (from England), Angie Butler (also from England), Jane Pfeiffer (from Tucson, AZ), and Karen Karsten, hold their completed journals. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

This offering of the Urban Journaling class attracted an interesting mix of students: three students who had worked with me before and three students who had all come from outside the Twin Cities who bravely jumped right in. (Lilla and Angie came to Minneapolis to meet with various folks from MCBA and meet people in the book arts community. It takes a hearty and dedicated soul to make books when jet-lagged. You can meet Lilla and Angie on Tuesday night's Roundtable at MCBA. Jane came to visit family. I'm glad their trips aligned with my class, as it was a pleasure to work with all of these women.)

I'm always tweaking things and in November when I decided to propose this class be offered again I thought it important to do a square book and acquaint students with various ways to tear down paper. Students always learn about tearing paper in my classes, but it is often a straight, no-waste, tear because of time constraints. When we discuss other options at the end of class I often get the impression it is just a little bit more information than they can absorb at that point. Making a square structure allowed me to focus on paper tearing.

Urban Journaling Class: Book Binding, Sketching, Train Rides, and Geese

I said I would post about Saturday's class, but the sketches I wanted to put up seemed better suited to Urban Sketchers—Twin Cities, so you can see a post from me there today. As the title of this post suggests, the day had everything that I love and enjoy. So check it out.

Tomorrow I'll post a little more about the class, and show you the gorgeous books the students made. They were a great group and each one made a beautiful book, and of course we sketched in them!

Reminder: Book Arts Roundtable Tuesday Night

I had the great good fun to meet Angie Butler and Lilla Duignan on Saturday in my "Urban Journaling" class. (I'll post more about the class in the next few days.) You too can meet these two book artists at their Roundtable discussion on Tuesday. The details are below. The event is at MCBA in Open Book and is free and open to the public.

Tuesday, March 30; 7pm
Book Arts Collaborations from Across The Pond:
Angie Butler and Lilla Duignan of CoCoLlab

Angie Butler & Lilla Duignan of CoCoLlab are artists interested in contributions to alternative models of dissemination beyond the current network of book arts fairs and exhibitions in the UK. They will be spending ten days or so among the MCBA community networking, collaborating and developing some participatory projects to extend their collaborative practice within a wider contextual setting. At the March 30 Roundtable, join Lllla and Angie for an entertaining evening "salon"—with traditional tea served in proper china, and homemade Fairy Cakes to add a little English flavour! After a casual presentation about their book arts experiences on both sides of the pond, they hope to get to know and learn from the MCBA community. So please feel comfortable to chat, share advice, make friends and collaborate!

To preview just one of Angie and Lilla's unique collaborations with other book and multidisciplinary artists, check out this project from the UWE (Bristol, U.K.) Artists Book Club. (And explore the UWE book arts website for many more!) 

Redefining Journaling when Time Is Scarce

Above: Clare Farrell's flag book. Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens on paper scraps. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Artwork ©2010 Clare Farrell.

Being a full-time teacher and care-giver can leave little time for journaling or art. Clare Farrell (who is a member of the MCBA Visual Journal Collective) came up with a creative way to get her daily dose of color into her life. For February her visual journal was carried out on scraps of paper—she doodled with her favorite pens (Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens). At the end of the month Clare compiled the scraps into this flag book.

Clare told me that during February she couldn't draw—she couldn't focus on drawing. But she wanted to keep up her journaling.

I showed my flag book (February visual journal) to someone the other day and they commented on how joyful it looked. I had to smile because I really hadn't thought of it in those terms. Designing the strips of paper each day brought a sense of relaxation and peace to me without any real thought or effort. I was just resting on the page and playing with the color. Everything about the project was small and unplanned until it came time to put the structure together. I liked the simplicity and ease of it. I am making another flag book-journal for March with some variations.

If you feel that the commitments of your life and the constraints of your schedule don't allow you to keep your journal practice constant, then apply some creativity to the situation. Come up with something that will satisfy your creative needs. We can all learn from Clare's solution.

Step away from your journal for a moment and look at all the deadlines and tasks that face you and decide what simple thing can you do to bring your journaling or art into your life each day.

I first met Clare through the Collective and everything I have seen her make is brightly, wildly, and riotously colorful. It came as no surprise to me that Clare could hone down her need for color in this creative way.

Consider Clare's approach next time you find yourself pulled away from your journal for an extended time. What can you get done? Do you love line? A line from a particular tool? Color? Words? Create a small space (a portion of your journal page or strips of paper like the ones Clare used) and do something. Just moving your favorite brush or pen, over a small area of paper, will give you a creative breather that will recharge your battery.

Left: Detail from Clare's Flag Book, February Visual Journal. ©2010 Clare Farrell. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

If you decide to create a flag book, many recent bookbinding books have instructions on how to make them, or you can search for instructions on line.

You might elect to simply keep cards and create a box for the unbound journal at the end of your month or non-drawing time period. (I use journal cards for my trips to the State Fair most years, and I also use this approach if I am going away on a short weekend trip—unexpectedly).

You can see some of my unbound journals here. You don't have to make or decorate a box to hold such journal cards. You can make journal packets, or you can simply put your finished cards in an envelope! It can be as simple or complex as you feel the need to make it. The point is, remember to keep journaling! It makes a difference. Clare's February visual journal reminds us of that.

Choosing a Journal Size

Above: I have posted this photo on my blog before, but it is a handy example of today's topic. The 4 journals with an X on them are made from the same sheet size of paper. Of these four books the three taller books are the same size (despite photographic distortion). The smaller book in that group, at the right is actually 1/2 the size of the others, made with the same tear diagram (see discussion below) but taken additional steps to the half size, still with the grain in the same orientation: parallel to the spine. The other journals all use a different sheet, and represent five separate ways of tearing down such a sheet to get different square and portrait format journals. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I’m frequently asked how I arrive at the size (format and thickness) of journals that I bind for use as my visual journals. The simple answer is experimentation. Years of experimentation have led me to certain preferences. I make a book of a certain size and format and carry it about with me for the month or so it takes me to fill it and then think about what problems that size journal caused me (shoulder pain because it was large and heavy), inconvenience (because it was too large to fit in my backpack or shoulder bag or journal bag; or because it was too small and didn’t allow me to capture the larger images I wanted to create).

When you start binding your own books you’re going to have to do your own experimentation of this kind. You’ll have to work in books of different sizes and formats to determine which page size and orientation suits you the best—and perhaps, as in my case, you’ll find it’s more than one.

Melanie Testa wrote to me last week asking just this question:

“I wonder if you might talk about the manner in which you decide on the size of a book. I know this is a personal choice sort of an answer, but hearing your thoughts may give some perspective.…I figure the size of my back pack will play a part in my own decisions in final size. My backpack is a smaller size. Knowing my personality, I work on journals for extended periods of time. I work and rework pages to my liking and want my books to be works of art in themselves. For a very long time I have been working in Moleskines. The 5x8" size is nice, though perhaps I would like something a tad larger. I am about to finish a Watercolor style Moleskine Journal and have hated the landscape format from the start, so that is out. I don't yet have a favored paper. In school, I worked extensively with cold press paper. Now I need to shop with grain in mind, something I hadn't thought about in terms of paper before.”

An Afternoon at the "Foot in the Door" Exhibit

Left: the tree and cityscape I wanted to draw when I came out of the MIA after viewing the “Foot in the Door” show—but my eyes were exhausted! Click on the image to view an enlargement.

It’s rare that I give myself a pass on sketching something once that something has caught my eye. The other day, however, after visiting the “Foot in the Door” show with my friend Tom and looking at almost 5,000 pieces of art in about 3 hours, I just couldn’t bring myself to get my journal out of my pack and sketch this lovely tree. It didn’t matter that it was a gorgeous, too (too) early spring day: sunny and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It didn’t matter that I could stand in shade or sun with the same view. It didn't matter that in a couple weeks the view of the tree and the city would be obscured with leaves! The fact that I’ve been trying to draw more buildings didn’t sway me. My eyes just couldn’t focus on one more thing.

But it was a great afternoon and I urge you all to get over to the show and see the artwork. Some of the work was sublime, like Jonathan Allen’s portrait of a man drawn with BALL POINT PEN. (206-7; row followed by number in row counting from the top.) Measuring in at about 4 x 6 inches it was the most stunning thing I saw all day. It looked like an etching. Of course I also liked the Pewter (grey metal) Teddy Bear (on the first sculpture table, I never did work out the number system for the sculptures).  Erik Forseth had a small, two-color woodcut print of a rooster (132-11) that I also think is worth seeking out. (I can’t even begin to list all the works by friends, which were wonderful, because I’m sure to leave someone out.)

Other works were silly (to my mind). Some works engendered fierce, volatile emotions from the other visitors. Tom and I stood near a man who started denouncing a piece loudly as “cheating.” It was a carved piece he claimed was done with a laser. He kept insisting that was cheating and dragged us into the next room to see what work done with a scroll saw looked like. He wasn’t the only one quibbling about “cheating.” It seems that art brings up a lot of emotions in people, and standing there in the open exhibit, people were venting some of those emotions: I overhead discussions about art vs. craft; fine craft vs. crafty—you get the idea.

I'll rarely engage in those debates and certainly not in this public exhibition, open to all. That's not the point. I am just enjoying the fun of having a piece in the MIA and seeing what everyone else thought represented his or her creative efforts. What I will comment on is a thought expressed to me several weeks earlier by a woman I met at another gallery. After telling me she wasn’t “an artsy-fartsy type person,” she said, “I find the whole “Foot in the Door” thing so depressing! It’s just depressing. All that art that people make and no one ever gets to see it. Depressing.”

I have the exact opposite opinion. When I look at the art in the “Foot in the Door” exhibit I see examples of people so full of creative drive that they have to make art (however they define it) whether anyone ever sees it or not.

I find that a glorious statement on the creative impulse.

And to see all the work, stretching 12 or more feet up the wall, rows and rows of it, well it all made me very happy indeed. Don’t grumble, don’t be a grinch—enjoy the diversity of tastes. And ten years from now when they do it again, if you’re a Minnesota artist (however you define that) participate.

Links:
Photos and a history of the “Foot In the Door” exhibit.

Search the archives and view the artworks. (Look your friends up online before you go so you’ll be armed with a list when you arrive and won’t miss anyone.)

View the video works at "Foot in the Door" (accepted for the first time this year). 

Read my post about dropping off artworks at "Foot in the Door" and see my painting.

Behind the scenes images.

Note: Be sure to walk out of the exhibit into the new-wing hallway because there are several more (15 or so) rows of artwork out there that are easy to miss.

Additional Comments on Stonehenge

Left: Page spread from my last journal showing a cut out brush pen sketch of Gert done on a piece of Stonehenge from a pad, and a cream sample from, my first batch of Stonehenge. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Early in March I was able to talk to Michael Ginsburg at Legion Paper (they produce and distribute Stonehenge paper). He wanted me to look at current runs of Stonehenge paper. I’m the first to admit that paper varies from batch to batch; each paper is made with tolerances in mind. I was willing to take  an additional look at Stonehenge paper because it is such an affordable paper. I looked at a pad of white Stonehenge and some white sheets from a different lot than my cream samples.

Urban Journaling Class Reminder

Class registration for Urban Journaling closes this Wednesday, March 24 at 5 p.m. There is still some space available.

The class is Saturday, March 27, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Call MCBA at 612-215-2520 to sign up before Wednesday.

I hope you'll join us for a fun day of bookbinding and journaling.

Bird Paintings Roost at CorAzon

Left: Rooster, Day 16, 8 x 8 inches, acrylic. One of the bird paintings now on sale at the Washington Avenue CorAzon store.

"30 Birds in 30 Days" closed on March 5. I was thrilled with the response to the paintings. Thank you to everyone who came to the opening and made it such a fun and interesting evening for me.

I'm equally thrilled to announce that the remaining 15 bird paintings from this series are now on available at CorAzon (on Washington Avenue) until mid-April.  (Two of my birds are shown at the top of their website. Scroll down to see a map for directions to the store. It is right across the street from MCBA/Open Book.)

This store has a rich, diverse collection of art, books, cards, gift items, and jewelry. You'll find unique items from local artists. I am excited to have my bird paintings as part of the mix. Come and have another (or a first) look at these bird paintings. Take this opportunity to bring one home. While you're at CorAzon you're sure to find gifts for family and friends.

Call the store at 612-333-1662. Store hours are Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.