Catch up times! Woo!

Hey so it turns out I haven't blogged in several days!  Gasp!  Sorry to leave you hanging on the edge of your seats there. Let's see, when last we spoke I had just gotten back from my fun mountain drive.  Gosh, that was fun. The whole break was a lot of fun, really.  I spent a lot of time reading and generally lolling about, and also a lot of time at the studio, and a lot of time having fun with Emilie.  We went to the local movie theater, which is one screen in a building on main street and just dingy enough to be a lot of fun.  We hung around the book store, and went on walks up in Mountain Village with her dog Henry. I got over my aversion to dog hair (of necessity).  We raided the Free Box CONSTANTLY, which is why I have a shelf in my room now full of weird ridiculous clothing, lots of which doesn't even fit me it was just too great to not take since it was for FREE.  Also Emilie hit upon the brilliant idea of taking random clothes just for their fabric and then backing it with Japanese paper to make it book cloth, so actually just tonight I tried that out with some RED PLEATHER PANTS I found.  IT TOTALLY WORKED.  So, anyway, thus passed away the lovely break, and now new class is upon us.  First day was today; the class is Cloth and Leather Binding Conservation.  Basically it is about when you have an old book wherethe corners are all raggedy or there is a split down the front hinge where the cover meets the spine or in any other way the cover is messed up, broken, or falling off.  Pretty much after one day I now know how to fix ALL of those problems.  ...Which is pretty great.  The funny thing about this class is the way the teacher set it up--it's a new teacher by the way, her name is Brenda and she works at a commercial conservation lab in North Carolina.  Anyway, the thing is we spent all day today (LITERALLY all day, well, CLASS day, but still) sitting around her table in the front while she went through the whole process of cover repair from beginning to end.  The WHOLE PROCESS.  So, it's good in that I now have seen every step of the way and know the end from the beginning.  But it's also sort of bad in that I haven't actually DONE hardly any of it so far, and it was a LOT of information to take in so we're all sort of overwhelmed and dazed.  I had to take a walk after class (and call and vent to Mom and Becca) after class to start processing all the information and calm down about it--I can't really describe the emotional state that happens when you're in a small town alone for weeks and weeks doing intensive study into things you don't really know all that much about.  It's really great and fun and amazing and wonderful, but it's also just kind of a lot to take in sometimes, and I wish I could freeze time, teleport to Provo or California, and sit on a nice couch and just veg with people I know for a while.  BUT, plenty of time for that after May 27, right?  Right.  Okay so now on to the pictures and then sleepytimes.

this is the sweet setup I had going over the weekend when I was still full of free time and doing whatever I wanted.  I went online and learned this new binding technique called "Secret Belgian Binding" so I spent one of my afternoons in bed practicing it on a bunch of books.

 

This is the first Secret Belgian I did---I'm not sure if there's much point in explaining how it all works, suffice it to say, it is cool because it is a non-adhesive binding (meaning you just sew the text block and cover boards together, without slathering glue all over things and whatnot) but unlike the other non adhesive bindings I know which leave you with the spine exposed, with this one you actually sew the pages into the spine, more or less....anyway, it doesn't really matter, the point is it was new and fun to try out and play with. 

This is a new entry in the Equipment I Love category--the ever loving Board Shear.  Basically it is like a paper cutter on steroids.  It cuts paper and board and probably anything in the whole world and it is so straight and clean and wonderful....I LOVE IT.  It's one of those things you learn to do without when you've just working from home, cutting binders board with an Xacto knife and a ruler, but it is SO glorious to use when available.

a perk--this board shear is from wonderful wonderful Copenhagen!  I sort of liked that when I noticed.

remember when I talked about guarding a while back?  Well, I have a MOTHER of a guarding project going on the side, which I haven't even started yet because it is so freaking much guarding, but I thought I'd show you the box of guarding strips I have started to prepare in advance of the big push.  I'll explain about the project once I've actually started, STAY TUNED.

Here's the first book I am practicing rebacking on--that is what they call what I'm doing in the class right now, because you are basically taking off the original cover, filling in all the missing and broken bits, and then replacing the original parts again.  I know that makes not much sense; I'll take pictures once I'm actually stuck in and explain the process in all the gory detail I can muster.  Anyway, the book is The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott, and I found it at Pioneer Book, so I don't have to worry about ancestral hauntings if I screw this one up.  What a RELIEF!