New Work in Progress: Mont Saint Michel

I rarely work outside the studio, but for various reasons I took home my latest plate last week to get a bit more work done. Unlike etching or aquatint, linocuts are relatively easy to do from home, particularly a small one. The piece I am working on is a 4" x 6" two-plate lino based on a photo I took in Mont Saint-Michel last summer. The photo offered a unique and challenging composition and I may have been subtly influenced by Frans Masereel after Mike Kimball's comment on my lino book post. Since I was able to take a few photos of the plate in progress, I thought  would share them now that I have an early proof of the first plate.

Mont Saint-Michel source photo

Plate in process

Plate in process detail

Early proof

Ruffled DIY Contest!

While this isn't a printmaking project, I wanted to share that the pinwheel boutonnieres I made for our wedding were accepted into Ruffled's DIY Contest. 

The judges will be voting soon on 50 different projects, so please help raise my projects' profile by commenting on the entry in ruffledblog.com and sharing with your friends! If you're planning a wedding or event and enjoy crafty projects, I highly recommend Amanda's blog as a resource for great DIY ideas.

New edition - "Handyman"

As promised, I have proofs of my new edition print. In fact, I've delayed posting so long that I've completed the entire edition - all that's left to do is sign them. The subject is a 1957 Chevy "Handyman" Wagon, which I snapped on a day trip to Bolinas:

Unlike the "Lobster Pot" print, I began this plate with the two-plate lino method in mind:

After some deliberation, I decided on a cyan blue for the base hue:

I haven't done an edition for some time - not since my multiple place aquatint, in fact. While printing an edition can be tiresome, having a sizable stack of prints in hand was very pleasing. Pending final review, the edition set will be up to 35 prints.

I haven't made any final decisions, but I'll have some available edition prints and proofs of the "Handyman" print for sale at the annual Fort Mason Holiday Print Sale, set for December 3-5!

Who's that creature?

So, it's been quiet around here, but I have my reasons! I took spring semester off printmaking to take that microeconomics class (as well as a couple book binding workshops - woohoo!), and then Anthony proposed in June! So, I've been applying lots of creative energy in that direction, which is not all printing-oriented. Of course, I HAD to create a small lino-cut as the "logo" for the wedding. The big question seems to be what that creature is between our names. Take a guess!

Meanwhile, the printmaking semester started up a couple weeks ago and I am already working on edition prints of a new two-plate lino. I look forward to sharing images of the proofs soon!

New Numbered Notepads and Another Etsy Treasury

I made another batch of numbered notepads last week and posted them to my etsy shop over the weekend. Sure enough, one of them has already found their way into an etsy treasury!

The treasury will expire, but the curator has included the set on her blog for posterity

Check it out!

Printsy Interview

 Some time ago I made contact with Printsy, a group on Etsy.com focused on printmakers selling their work on Etsy. The group maintains a blog that features a weekly structured interview with different Etsy printmakers, as well as new item listings. It's a great resource (you know I love an organized approach to learning about artists), both for artists looking for insight and inspiration, as well as print lovers and art buyers looking for new works.

Anyway, my interview is featured on the blog this week! Check it out here.
(http://printsy.blogspot.com/2010/07/printsy-interview-dormain-geyer.html)

Blogged!

My little number prints found their way into the blogosphere!! Well, beyond this here blog, that is...

A fellow Etsy seller created an awesome number-themed collection of various Etsy items. Check it out:

http://mags7575.blogspot.com/2010/05/etsy-poster-sketch-super-fun.html

Decorative Longstitch

I finally made it back to the San Francisco Center for the Book for another bookbinding workshop. This time, I took a one-day workshop on decorative longstitch with Jody Alexander.

I recreated the class project, using an old aquatint of mine on Rives BFK for a cover. I'm not 100% sure that Rives BFK is sturdy enough, but it's pretty thick. After cutting the cover paper and folding the spine, use a template to mark the holes for both the binding and any decorative stitching in the center.

It's important to do any decorative stitching before proceeding as the center of the binding will not be accessible after the signatures are bound.

Depending on how the spine template has been designed, one or more signature templates will need to be created. My design for 8 signatures was symmetrical, so I needed 4 signature templates. Align the templates to the interior of the signatures and use an awl to puncture at the fold.

As you can see, the signatures should line up to the original binding template when they've all been punctured.

Starting from the inside of the bottom signature, begin sewing it to the spine, leaving a placeholder in the as you double back into the first hole. Similarly, at the end of the first signature, leave a placeholder.

At each end of every signature, which should be outside the spine (above), loop under the stitch immediately below. The second signature will loop where the placeholders were at each end (above).

After looping the stitch (or placeholder) below, re-enter the spine, but without re-entering the signature (below). Then exit through the hole above, in preparation for the next signature.

Once again, loop back under the previous stitch.

Re-enter the puncture just exited, but this time stitch through the next signature again. Continue stitching each signature, repeating the double looping process at each end. At the end of the last signature, tie-off and trim!

After all signatures are attached, fold up the flap for a tight seal. Voila!

Bookbinding

This weekend, I went back to the San Francisco Center for the Book for a two-day workship on bookbinding. The Bookbinding series continues through VI or VII, but there are a number of non-sequential technique classes that I may look into.There are a lot of specific details that really require demonstration and supervised instruction, but I tried to take notes to help me remember for future attempts.

On the first day, we assembled the text block, using Mohawk paper, and stitched the "signatures" together. The stitching weaves over two fabric tapes and employs kettle stitches about 3/4" from the ends.

The stitched text blocks are locked in a press and the spine is glued. "Super" cloth is then glued between the kettle stitches:

Small headbands are then affixed to the ends, outside the kettle stitches:

The final step of spine preparation is in affixing a thin, strong paper along the entire spine. We used Unryu, but similar papers will suffice.

After measuring our book cloth, we centered and glued the spine

Leaving "gutters" along the spine, we glued down the book board and folded the bookcloth over.

In another variation, the book cloth only covered the spine and a thin margin of the bookboard. Decorative paper was then used to cover the remaining bookboard.

Voila. The finished cover.

The text block is then carefully glued to the cover.

After some final pressing, I am the proud producer of two notebooks!