Handmade Books

I took a bookmaking class at CIA this term, and here are some of my projects. All of the sort of tie-dyed looking papers are rice papers we dyed in class. We learned only techniques that could be done at home, without any fancy tools or supplies. I don't know how I ever lived without a bone folder.

Brooklyn Flea

Yesterday, Alison, Allison, and I went to the Brooklyn Flea in its current home at One Hanson Place. The building is beautiful inside, and I liked the market feel more than the summer set up on the school blacktop. I bargained down a little dried flower picture - not sure where it will go yet. Boy, do I love to make a deal. I also bought myself a hot cider which was pretty delicious. The downside was that the place was amazingly crowded (though it wasn't so bad to be crushed up against the many cute boys there...). Perhaps next time I'll try for 10am on the dot? Anyone?

work in progress

I recently purchased a silk screen used by Scalamandre to print their wallpapers (thanks for the tip, Noel!). This is the type of object that you really have to get close to to appreciate. And it's meaningful to me because it's like owning a piece of the company's history. Apparently they rarely sell them.

Right now I'm "storing" it on my mantel. I need a drill to make a hole in order to hang it properly on the wall. I'm also considering painting the bit of wall behind it white so the flowers stand out more. But for now, it's hanging out. Any other suggestions?

just like at Peale's. kind of.

So, you know I'm currently apartment shopping in Brooklyn with the tried and true Alison. I'm already planning our interiors (what a surprise). One plan I have is a pair of silhouettes to hang in a yet-to-be-determined place. You know, because we don't have an apartment yet.

Remember in Sense and Sensibility when Kate Winslet delicately traces hottie mcWilloughby's profile in front of the fire? I'm gonna get romantical and do this with Alison. And somehow do my own too. I'm thinking of approaching it with a little technology though, via photoshop. After I have some images to work with, I will finish it the old fashioned way. With romance.

Bowne & Co. Stationers

My dear friend Alison told me about Bowne & Co. shortly after her first visit there. These images are from her trip around Valentine's Day. To her description, I probably replied with something articulate (as I'm known to do) like, "sounds cool..."

Yesterday we visited, and the place put me in a tizzy. It is so lame how excited I was. I think I was so excited that I had no idea what I was saying - the words just spilled out, good ones, bad ones (not that kind of bad). Sometimes I think my midwestern "charm" comes across as lunacy.

Okay. So. This place is a recreation of a nineteenth-century stationer's shop. The staff was really friendly and they make all sorts of neat stuff - a variety of notecards, little journals, etc. There was also a ton of work by other artists. Robert Warner is head of awesomeness (I mean master printer) there, and during our visit he was working on some ideas as to how he might use old bank papers in his creations (sorry I can't be more specific, I was too excited). He obviously knows a lot about printing and ephemera, and the contemporary art inspired by or related to its history. Robert also tracks down vintage wallpaper - I bought a piece with little country house scenes floating amongst a foliate design. I also bought a notecard with a print of a printing press on it! And a charming piece made using elements from different antique (reproduced, not original, I think) prints! The stuff is affordable, and so cool. If you are into paper products, prints and ephemera, and anything remotely ye olde, go there.

"Research"

Last year my father and I found three reward of merit certificates for Thomas Morley at an antiques store in Cleveland. My favorite of the three is here, at the top. I used the certificates for an assignment: we had to purchase an item (in this case a related group) for under $75, and argue why a museum should accession it. This certificate was about $5, as were the other two. I didn't know who this little boy was, where or when he lived, or anything else about him. The names of his teachers didn't help either, and it was difficult to search for people when I had no location. I thought maybe they would have been given not too far from Ohio, since we got them there. While researching a Philadelphia topic, I was leafing through a book that contained the print at the bottom, of Beck's shot tower on the Schuylkill. Gee, I thought, this looks familiar! I had randomly found what might have been one of the print sources for my certificate. Looking more into the waterworks in this area, I also found this sketchbook showing a similar view, with those bridges matching pretty convincingly.

Moral of the story? Look at lots of stuff. You never know when research might happen by accident.

Glassware Wrapping Paper

Someone gave this wrapping paper to a classmate of mine, who is the glass queen and future glass curator. It was first given to the third party wrapped around something, then to my friend, and then documented by me, so I don't know where it comes from. Possibly a glass museum gift shop, or the V&A because they often have awesome stuff like this. When I try to google this paper, I come up with advice on how to wrap glassware... so, no luck finding it so far.

This paper is so nerdy but so cool: each type of glass is labeled with its name and date range. I'm partial to the jelly glass from the early 19th century, in the center of the paper, because I spent a semester studying these and their contents. I loved a recipe I found for "everlasting whip-syllabub," which would last over a week (and contained dairy!). Historic cooking can be kind of gross.

Samuel Gottscho

I bought this postcard of the Brooklyn Public Library's circulation hall and entrance because I thought the metalwork was cool, and it's a pretty unusual scene for a postcard. After I got it home, I did a little research on Samuel Gottscho (the photographer for this card). Turns out he was a pretty famous interior/architectural photographer during the first half of the 20th century. There is a huge database of his work with photographer William Schleisner at the Library of Congress, and I found out he (or they) shot this in 1941. Most of his work is of New York, and there's a book on it by Donald Albrecht: The Mythic City (2005). Even though it seems Gottscho's work is characterized by bold cityscapes, I like this simple, quiet image. There's something slightly funny about that little desk flanked by huge pillars in the middle of such a large space: the guy looks vulnerable. I'm pretty sure an image like this wouldn't make the cut for Albrecht's book, but I dig.