Winners: DB International Bookbinding Competition

Take a look at the winners of the DB International Bookbinding Competition. Here's a little more information about the competition. The book being bound in each case was a specially commissioned fine press, limited-edition (500) publication from Incline Press, entitled Water. It contains poems and illustrations about water.

I love to see all the different approaches to the same subject. I'm probably denigrating this exhibit to compare it to a challenge quilt exhibit, but I love both in the just the same way. They're both testaments to the individual creativity of us humans. The image shown here is of the 2nd prize book, made by Jenny Grey.

Exchange envelopes: catching up

With all the chaos here, I had gotten behind in my exchange envelope commitments. Not anymore. I'm all caught up ... until July 1. In keeping with these hard economic times, the theme for these is Frugality. Recycled envelopes, a dried-up Zig calligraphy marker, and a re-purposed Zig Millennium mark cut to a chisel edge with an X-acto blade.

The envelopes frame a bit of doodling. I don't know what to do with it, so it just sits on the table reproaching me for my indecisiveness.

As usual, click on the image to get a closer look.

Shop Class As Soulcraft

This wonderful article, Shop Class as Soulcraft, has been expanded into a book of the same name that is on my short list of books to read.

In this article at The New Atlantis, Matthew B. Crawford compares today's trend toward design that hides how it was made (automobiles which have "another hood under the hood") with the full-disclosure philosophy of bygone Sears catalogues which used to include blown-up parts diagrams and schematics.

He suggests that we resurrect the ideal of manual competence, and describes the goodness of concrete work which is integrated, diagnostic, individualistic and fulfilling. There's a lot more; read the article. I'm going to read the book.

This discussion has some parallels with what I've been thinking about the past couple of weeks: the fate of specialized manual tools in today's world. I've been cleaning out my studio in preparation for a move. Over the past 24 years that we've been in this house, I've amassed duplicates of many of my tools. I've got a box started for Goodwill, but what is the use of sending a lettering guide (I have 2 extra) to Goodwill? How many customers will recognize this little piece of plastic as a valuable tool for calligraphers?

Thanks to Dave Allen for mentioning this on the Book Arts-L.

Constructing a pentagon / decagon

One of my summer my art history classes is French Gothic Cathedrals: Chartres, Reims, and Amiens. Tomorrow we'll be out on the green, laying out the apse end of a Gothic cathedral, using a rod (okay, 1/2 rod, out of PVC), hemp string (okay, nylon), and stakes. Bonus homework for tomorrow is to draw a decagon on graph paper using only a compass and straight edge. I'm not a good instructions reader, I guess: I drew mine on plain paper with a compass and square. I had a blast. I've made a PDF of the above diagram with step-by-step instructions that you can download from this link or from my experimentation website.

Inkscape Series, Number 2

This is one of several pieces I did last month for the show "Made" at Railroad Square. Now it's headed to the summer showcase, a juried invitational event at the Thomasville Cultural Center 25 miles up the road from my house.

Extraordinary Paper Art

This piece of paper-cut lusciousness, by Bovey Lee, is one of the 100 shown in a recent blog post at Web Designer Depot. I've mentioned some of these artists before (Peter Callesen and Su Blackwell in particular), but the image list is impressive. I've listed links to other paper-cut artists in this earlier post.

Whew!

The spring 2009 semester at Florida State University is officially over. What a sprint. It's all over but the cleaning up (except for there is this one lingering project ...). I believe that this week I used nearly everything in my studio at least once.

• I had the acrylic inks, sumi ink, colored pencils and gel pens out for the pieces I made for the Senior Design Seminar show, Made (link requires Facebook login). I also used cheesecloth, Saran wrap, tapes, bubble wrap, squirt bottles, spray bottles, drop cloths, hake brushes, sponges, and so on.
  
• I had the framing supplies and tools out, for the next step in the same project. That included the mat cutter, the foam-core cutter, the frames themselves, glazing, framing and hanging hardware, rulers, and so on.
  
• I had the collage supplies and tools out for the final Color Theory assignment. And the roll of kozo paper, and the wax paper for flattening/drying, and the glue and glue brush and the glue palette.
  
• And before I settled on collage for the final assignment, I had the gouache and brushes out for a my first attempts. And the palettes and masking tape and so on.
  
• I had my paste-painted and otherwise-decorated papers out for both Color Theory, Print Design, and Animation. Those papers were in and out of storage all week long.
  
• I had my balsa-wood lettering out to scan for Print Design. And I went through a whole bunch of portfolios of my work for scanning as well.
  
• I kept cutting long pieces of paper from the roll of paper that makes me think of the paper tableclothes from potluck suppers of my childhood. That was for lettering trials in preparation for lettering Hebrew on long strips of muslin to be sewn into a quilt. And then there were the various pens I tried on the muslin, the water-eraseable pen for guidelines, the measuring tools, and so on. I ended up using a Zig calligraphy marker because it bleeds very little, and is lightfast, waterproof, and fun to write with.
  

Whew! It's good to be finished with the semester ... almost. It will be nice to see the surface of my drafting table again.

An April Fool's post

... that is right up my alley (or is that abbey)!

First Day of Spring in Tallahassee

This is the view from my studio window. Nice, huh? I will miss this hedge very much. The front yard is even more spectacular this year.

Edited to add a couple of photos of the front yard. It's fairy-tale beautiful right now:

Too addictive

This font shooting range game, Deep Font Challenge, is wa-a-a-y too addictive.