Workshop: March 15-17, 2012, 9:30-5:30 pm; The New York Academy of Medicine Gladys Brooks Book and Paper Conservation Lab

Description:

The spring-back binding is a structure originally patented in Britain in 1799 and used widely in trade binderies of the 19^th century.  Utilizing a molded, rigid spine and a cloth “lever,” the spring-back book, when opened, throws the spine up and causes the text block to lie flat.   This structure is very suitable for ledger, account and record books because it’s possible to write all the way into the gutter of the book.  It is also an extremely robust and durable structure and very much a “trade” technique.

In this three-day workshop, participants will be able to make a small spring-back binding from start to finish.  We will be following the German style of construction of the structure. Special attention will be paid to proper endsheet construction, robust forwarding, spring-back shaping and molding and covering with traditional, starch-filled cloth.  Time permitting, we will also explore alternate cover constructions that allow for a more contemporary finish.

Anyone with basic bookbinding bench skills should be able to complete this structure successfully, but it’s not a workshop for beginning binders.

Workshop Fee: $325 (GBW members)/$375 (non-members)

Materials Fee: $30

Speaker/Instructor Bio:

John DeMerritt owns a bookbinding studio in Emeryville, CA that focuses on edition binding and boxmaking for fine press printers and publishers, galleries and artists.  He began his bookbinding career in 1986, working for Klaus Roetzscher in San Francisco and later worked at Taurus Bookbindery in Berkeley.  He formed his own bookbindery in 1995.

He is the past President of the Hand Bookbinders of California and board member of the Pacific Center for the Book Arts.

John has taught many workshops over the years for the SF Center for the Book, The Kala Institute, The Guild of Book Workers and Mills College.

For the last eleven years, he has taught in the Photography Department of the San Francisco Art Institute, combining the use of digital imaging and book structure with his co-teacher, Michael Creedon.

John and his wife, Nora Pauwels, were Artists in Residence at the SF Center for the Book in 2006.

Lecture: Thursday, March 15, 2012, 6:30-7:30p.m.; The New York Academy of Medicine Room 21

Description:

One of the most compelling and engaging components of edition binding is the “ensemble” aspect of its practice.  The edition binder collaborates out of necessity; combining technical, aesthetic and practical skills and considerations to conceive a piece that is larger than the sum of its parts.

This talk will focus on John’s “hybrid” approach to edition binding.  This approach to work is one that utilizes many outside services and vendors.  Silk screen printers, engravers, letterpress printers, cabinetmakers, machinists and designers are regularly engaged to help with his projects.  This allows John’s studio to be very simple, efficient and completely set up for hand work.  John will also discuss his recent forays into the use of laser cutters, digital mat cutting and digital printing on fabric and leather.  The gene of the discussion is the idea of developing a craft that focuses on hand work but does not shun new tools and technology.

Lecture Fee: $5 (GBW members)/$10 (non-members)

(This event was cancelled and will be rescheduled sometime in 2012)

Description: Come one, come all!  Bring your wares to sell or barter . . . or simply spend the afternoon perusing a cornucopia of book-related loot.  Holiday treats and beverages will be served.

When: Saturday, November 19^th, 2011, noon – 5PM

Where: The Gladys Brooks Book & Paper Conservation Lab

at The New York Academy of Medicine

http://www.nyam.org/about-us/directions.html

How to become a vendor:

GBW and BCNYC members interested in selling or bartering goods should contact newyork@guildofbookworkers.org by November 11^th to reserve a vending space.  Things to bring:  Bookbinding materials (leather, paper, cloth, etc.), book-related tools and books on books.  Things not to bring:  Hand-bound books, arts/crafts, sweaters, old typewriters . . . (sadly, we just don’t have the space.  Save those things for a different flea!).  In exchange for the venue, vendors are asked to contribute a tasty treat or drink.

The New York Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers presents:
THE GLAZIER CODEX – PML MS. 67
A Workshop with Julia Miller
At The New York Academy of Medicine

For more information or to register, please email newyork@guildofbookworkers.org

Workshop: September 22-24, 2011, 9:30-5:30 pm
The Gladys Brooks Book & Paper Conservation Lab

Please find directions to The New York Academy of Medicine here: http://www.nyam.org/about-us/directions.html

Description:
The Glazier Codex (named for the donor, William S. Glazier) contains a parchment manuscript of the first half of the Acts of the Apostles, written in Coptic and illuminated.  The manuscript and its binding are thought to date from the 5^th century.  The place of discovery has not been revealed if known; the manuscript appeared in the antiquarian market in 1961.

The workshop goal is to make a full size model of the original binding.  The original text consists of 15 gatherings of vellum sheets, 4 sheets (a quaternion) of vellum per gathering; we will be substituting paper.  The sewing is a link style variation, and we will be adding simple link style endbands.  The original boards are thought to be acacia and measure 4 ¾ H x 4 W x 5/16 TH; we will be substituting cedar wood.  The Glazier Codex has a decorated leather spine piece that extends beyond the head edge of the spine, nearly covering (and thus protecting) the head edge of the text block.  One theory is that the tail edge of the spine piece extended in a similar fashion to protect the tail edge of the text block.  The Codex has two wrapping bands, one extending from the top edge of the upper cover, and one from the fore edge of the upper cover.  Each wrapping band is finished with a decorated bone slip used to anchor the wrapped bands.  There is evidence that the codex had a bookmark attached to the outer corner of the lower board.

Workshop lecture and discussion will compare early codex book formats found in Egypt using images and models of early structures to illustrate physical changes in the codex.  The workshop organizers are planning a visit the Morgan Library and Museum on one of the workshop days to see the original Glazier Codex.

Basic bookbinding skills are required; we will not be paring the leather we use for the binding but we will be sanding wood and bone so please bring a face mask if you would like protection from fine particles.  All materials will be provided by the instructor.  Bring paper or vellum from your own collection to add into your text block if you wish.

Workshop Fee: $300 (GBW members)/$350 (non-members)
Materials Fee: $35

Instructor Bio:
Julia Miller is a bench-trained book conservator and was a senior conservator in the University of Michigan Conservation and Book Repair lab for many years.  She has been in private practice since 1994 and for the last decade has concentrated on the study of historical bindings, building a private research and teaching collection to further that interest.  In 2008, she received a Samuel H. Kress conservation publication fellowship administered by FAIC that enabled her to write a book on historical bindings:  Books Will Speak Plain:  A handbook for identifying and describing historical bindings, which was published by The Legacy Press in December  2010.   During the fall of 2010 she received a Mellon Fellowship at The Library Company in Philadelphia to study American scaleboard bindings and is preparing an article on that topic.  She is currently editing a collection of essays by different scholars on various aspects of the history of bookbinding that will be published in 2012.  She has been guest curator for three exhibits on the history of the codex:  Suave Mechanicals:  Early to Modern Binding Styles in 2003; Elegant to Eccentric:  Bindings from the Main Room of the William L. Clements Library in 2007; and Historical Bookbindings: A Thousand Years of Structure and Style in 2011.

The New York Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers presents:

EXPLORING ALBUM STRUCTURES & HOW THEY WORK

A Lecture with Olivia Primanis

At The New York Academy of Medicine

To register please email newyork@guildofbookworkers.org

Lecture: Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 3:30-5:30 pm (with reception to follow); NYAM Room 21

Description: Binding structures used for photo albums display ingenious and numerous ways that bookbinders have modified traditional book structures to accommodate the addition of photographs. This lecture will illustrate how the format of the photograph influenced album structures.  The audience will have an opportunity to study the qualities of various album styles by examining historical examples.  Olivia will also discuss typical kinds of deterioration found in album structures and some repair techniques practiced at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin.  Attendees are invited to bring problem albums to discuss with Olivia after the talk.

Lecture Fee: $10 (GBW members)/$15 (non-members).

AND

Models of Historical and Conservation Albums

A Workshop with Olivia Primanis

At The New York Academy of Medicine, Gladys Brooks Book & Paper Conservation Lab

To register please email newyork@guildofbookworkers.org

Workshop: Thursday, July 21, 2011, 9:30-5:30 pm

Description: Participants will make mini-models/maquettes of two or three album structures, some historical (Carte-de-visite) and some conservation-inspired.  Historical models will be on view, and participants will also be invited to bring albums and share their experiments and issues with album structures as time permits.

Workshop Fee: $125 (GBW members)/ $150 (non-members)

Materials Fee: $30

Instructor Bio: Olivia Primanis is the Senior Book Conservator at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin, TX.  She began her training in hand bookbinding and book conservation with Jean Gunner in Pittsburgh, PA and founded “The Bookbinder” (1976-1984), which offered artists’ supplies and bookbinding services.  In 1984 she moved to Los Angeles, CA and continued teaching and conservation bookbinding in a private practice.  At the Ransom Center since 1990, she performs conservation treatments, teaches and studies medieval manuscripts and 19th century photo albums.

Please find directions to The New York Academy of Medicine here:http://www.nyam.org/about-us/directions.html

February 26^th-27^th, 2010 (9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.)

At the Gladys Brooks Book and Paper Conservation Laboratory, The New York Academy of Medicine

For more information or to register, please contact Erin Albritton at ealbritton@nyam.org or call 212-822-7364

Workshop Fee:  $200 (GBW members)/ $250 (non-members)

Class Description:

There are many reasons why conservators wash paper:  to remove dirt and adhesives, relax and flatten, reduce stains, and wash away acids and other degradation products.  This two day, hands-on workshop will emphasize the practical aspects of washing and drying both single sheets and bound textblocks.  A variety of washing techniques will be covered, including blotter, float, slant-board, and full immersion of single sheets and bound items.  We will explore which techniques are best suited to accomplishing various treatment goals, discuss the pros and cons of different washing solutions and examine a number of drying methods.  Although sample objects will be provided, participants are encouraged to bring (expendable) items of their own for treatment as well as photographs of problem cases to discuss.

Instructor Bio:

Renate Mesmer is the Assistant Head Conservator at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and the former Head of the Book and Paper Program at Centro del bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland.  She has a Masters degree in bookbinding from the Chamber of Crafts of Palatinate and gained experience in conservation during ten years of work as head of the conservation department at the Speyer State Archives in Germany

For directions to The New York Academy please go to: http://www.nyam.org/about/directions.shtml

A TOUR OF THE ASIAN ART CONSERVATION LAB AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

February 3, Thursday, 2-3 p.m. Free

There are several conservation labs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that conserve paper and book objects.  Please join us for this special tour of the Asian Art Conservation lab, where conservators will discuss what they do, and show some examples of objects on which they are working.  As time permits, we may also be able to discuss various materials, tools, and other issues particular to their studio and work.  Space is limited to 10, so please register soon if you are interested.

For more information or to register, please email Jae Carey at jae.carey@metmuseum.org

Thanks to Jennifer, Christine & Yuan-li for an interesting & informative tour!

Japanese Mounting Materials (photo courtesy of Susan Martin)

A Mounted Chinese Work of Art on Paper (photo courtesy of Susan Martin)

ISLAMIC BOOKBINDING

A Workshop with Katherine Beaty

December 3^rd – 5^th, 2010 (9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.)

At the Gladys Brooks Book and Paper Conservation Laboratory, The New York Academy of Medicine

For more information or to register, please contact Erin Albritton at ealbritton@nyam.org or call 212-822-7364

Workshop Fee:  $250 (GBW members)/$300 (non-members)

Materials Fee:  $55

Class Description: During this three day workshop, we will construct an Islamic style binding.  Each student will sew their textblock utilizing an Islamic style chain stitch topped with showy chevron endbands.  Our models will be covered in full leather with the characteristic fore edge flap.  We will decorate our models with medallion and corner stamps embellished with shell gold painting.  Finally, our bindings will be attached with burnished paste papers.  Through these exercises, students should expect to gain an understanding of the mechanics of Islamic bookbinding structure, as well as potential conservation problems.  Intermediate level bookbinding experience recommended.

Instructor Bio: Katherine Beaty received a BFA in studio arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and an MA in art conservation from Buffalo State College.  She began her book and conservation training at Etherington Conservation Center in Greensboro, NC.  Since graduate school, Katherine has had special interest in Islamic materials and book structures, treating a wide number of Islamic materials at the Library of Congress, as well as for the libraries at Harvard University, where she is currently employed as a book conservator for special collections.

Please find directions to The New York Academy of Medicine here: http://www.nyam.org/about/directions.shtml

A Workshop with Tom Conroy

September 24^th & 25^th, 2010 (9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.)

At the Gladys Brooks Book and Paper Conservation Laboratory, The New York Academy of Medicine

For more information or to register, please contact Erin Albritton at ealbritton@nyam.org or call 212-822-7364

Workshop Fee: $250 (GBW members)/$300 (non-members)
Class Description

This workshop will explore two parts of traditional tooling and design.  Blind tooling indents and darkens a leather cover, giving an understated, elegant effect.  Traditional panel design can be built up from guidelines boned directly on the cover, without a paper pattern.
After examining, analyzing, and discussing examples of traditional panel design bindings in the collection of The New York Academy of Medicine, we will shift to tooling blind panel designs directly on plaquettes.  A steel or brass creaser (not a roll) will be used to line-in a double panel.  A creaser slides in the guideline like a bobsled in a run, running more by touch than by sight; this sets, darkens, and polishes the lines.  Then corner tools and ornaments are struck into the frames made with the creaser, designing directly on the leather while tooling.  Finally, smaller ornaments are added to fill the empty space and intensify the design.

Before 1800, the sequential elaboration of designs based on these techniques was used to produce anything from mass-production single panels to the most elaborate overall gold tooling.  Frequent use of simple panel designs trained finishers’ eyes to good proportion; and elaboration on a familiar simple skeleton helped to keep complicated versions in proportion.  The combination of blind tooling with layout on the book still has much to offer modern binders.

Instructor Bio

Tom Conroy is a professional book restorer, toolmaker, and binding historian.  His main benchwork training came from Anne and Theodore Kahle at Capricornus between 1981 and 1988.  He holds an MLIS from the University of California at Berkeley, and worked there toward an MS in Wood Science and Technology.  He is the author of Bookbinders’ Finishing Tool Makers 1780-1965 and many articles, and he has taught workshops all over the country.  Currently he is affiliated with the American Bookbinders’ Museum in San Francisco, where he describes himself as “one of the exhibits.”

Please find directions to The New York Academy of Medicine here:
http://www.nyam.org/about/directions.shtml

A workshop with Julia Miller

June 18-19 (9:30am – 5:30pm)
At the Gladys Brooks Book and Paper Conservation Laboratory, The New
York Academy of Medicine
To register, please call Rachel Lapkin at 718-817-8754 or email
rlapkin@nybg.org
Workshop Fee: $215.00 (GBW members)/ $250 (non-members)
Materials Fee: $40.00
The materials fee covers: leather for the cover and attachments (ties
and wrapping band, tackets, spine lining, stays), leather for the
attachment sampler (offcuts from the larger skins purchased for cover
leather), papyrus, paper for the text block, handout packet,
miscellaneous (paste, creme wax, foam core for punching, cardstock for
templates and attachment samplers, etc.).

Class description

The class begins with an in-depth presentation on the history of the Nag
Hammadi codices, their importance to the history of the codex, and the
structural differences found among the eleven surviving covers.  We will
look at images and models of early book structures; the goal of this
segment of the workshop is to give participants a clear understanding of
the impact of Coptic binding on the subsequent history of the book.
Handouts on the NHC including a reading list will also support our
discussion.

The primary bench goal of the class is to produce a model of one of the
Nag Hammdi codices, Codex VI; the model will be less than full size.
Codex VI is one of the most intact of the surviving covers as well as
being one of the most complicated in terms of structure.  The cover and
attachments will be made with goatskin; the text block will be made with
a suitable paper but workshop participants will have a small supply of
papyrus to use for adding to the text block or using it for cover
linings.  Participants will also receive copies of some pages of the
Coptic text of Codex VI to alter and add to their text block.

A second goal of the workshop is the completion of an attachment sampler
that represents the different attachment styles used on all of the
surviving covers; the sampler will be useful in future teaching and also
will assist participants if they decide to make some of the other
covers.

Other optional goals include making a sampler representing the three
different cover-to-text attachment styles observed among the NHC as well
as sketching or photographing the elements of the other covers from
reference materials provided by the instructor for future projects.

Julia Miller – bio

Julia is a bench-trained conservator and was senior conservator at the
University of Michigan conservation lab until she left that position in
1994.  Since then she has been in private practice.  She has also
concentrated on research on the early codex and the long history of the
codex. Key points in her professional career include:

-Guest curator for two exhibits on the history of the codex:  Suave
Mechanicals: Early to Modern Binding Styles in 2003 and Elegant to
Eccentric: Bindings from the Main Room of the William L. Clements
Library in 2007.

-Receiving a Samuel H. Kress conservation publication fellowship in 2008
through FAIC that has enabled her to write a book on historical
bindings:  Books Will Speak Plain:  A handbook for identifying and
describing historical bindings.  The book is in the final stages of
preparation and will be published by The Legacy Press in the fall of
2010.

-Two visits to Cairo, one week in 2007 to study the leather covers of
the Nag Hammadi Codices, and a second visit for two months in 2009 as
part of a Getty Foundation team to train and supervise Egyptian
conservators from the Coptic Museum and other institutions making an
item condition survey of the manuscript collection of the Coptic Museum.

-Recently receiving a fellowship to visit the Library Company in
Philadelphia for a month to do research on an early American binding
style known as a scaleboard binding.

-Teaching, with a concentration on early Coptic codices, in Ann Arbor
and around the U. S.; my teaching draws on my historical binding
research and although I teach early structures, I try to give my
workshop participants as much information as I can about how the early
structures have influenced and continue to influence the history of hand
bookbinding.

Please find directions to The New York Academy of Medicine here:
http://www.nyam.org/about/directions.shtml