Winter 2014

The Publication of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers

Pressing Matter

MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT

News from Near and FarHello DVC Members,

January is sometimes a busy month for our chapter. During November and December, I am always thinking “let’s wait until after the holidays to

do that…” Then we have a pile of things to do in January! We had our bowling party, we kicked off our collaborative book project, and we put together this news-letter. Not bad at all.

In getting ready to send out this newsletter, I noticed that we have a whopping 77 members! This is an all-time high and I am so pleased to see our chapter con-tinue to grow. I think this is partly because we have lots of interesting projects (like our collaborative books) and some great opportunities to exhibit (like the upcoming miniature book exhibit at Oberlin) and we just plain like hanging out together (the bowling party!) We have more of that in the works for this coming year.

You will see an invitation to our Annual Meeting in this newsletter. I hope you will come! To inspire those who are participating in our next collaborative book project, we will look at some maps from the Library Company’s collection. We will have some food and wine and, of course, we will have a (short) meeting.

Jennifer RosnerChapter Chair

In this issue Annual meeting

Page 26 questions

Page 4Review

Page 3 Gold Tooling

Page 5

NEW MEMBERS:Austin Plann-Curley Wilmington, DEGraham Patten Somerville, MAJames E. Welker Janesville, WIKyra Devine Philadelphia, PAMary P. Wootton Gettysburg, PARuth Scott Blackson Philadelphia, PASusannah Horrom Towson, MD

DELAWARE VALLEY CHAPTER OFFICERSJennifer RosnerChapter ChairAlice AustinSecretary, Treasurer, ExhibitionsDenise CarbonePrograms Co-chairJon Snyder Newsletter DesignerValeria KremserWebmaster

The Guild of Book Bowling Workers at the PEP Bowl - more on Page 7.

www.dvc-gbw.org

Page 2 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers • PRESSING MATTERS Winter 2014

2014 Annual MeetingDelaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers - March 13, 2014

5:00 - 7:00 p.m.Library Company of Philadelphia1314 Locust StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19107

Schedule of Events5:00 - 5:45 Wine and snacks5:45 - 6:15 Meeting (please bring your ideas!)6:15 - 7:00 See some map books from the Library Company’s col-lection

Please Come!RSVP: dvcgbw@verizon.netorcall Jennifer Rosner 215-546-3181

Winter 2014 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers • PRESSING MATTERS Page 3

Ritual — A single-sheet book exhibit

After spending a cold afternoon visiting galler-ies in Old City, I was happy to be welcomed in and offered a cup of tea and a comfortable

chair at 110 Church Gal-lery. I was saving the best for last and I was not dis-appointed. What a great idea! Thank you Stella and Margaret. You have created a sense of community that is a priceless feature in the gallery scene.  The exhibit is "Ritual" and there are over 200 books by 100 artists on view and available for handling, reading, looking, enjoying and buying.

The open call for books required that artists use one piece of paper, no larger than 11" x 17" and pro-vided instructions on how to fold this paper into a book. Entry fee was $15 for one to three books, prices were set by artists and no com-missions were taken. Only two of our guild members, Valeria Kremser and Lesley Mitchell took advantage of this event, each making beautiful books.

I spent two hours happily exploring the books and still didn't finish. Luckily, there is an online catalog. I bought a wonderful book by Barbara Henry, My Win-ter Coat, which is letterpress printed, illustrated with linoleum prints, and includes a clever insert. Thank you Barbara for pricing this at a very affordable $20! Books were made by a wide range of individuals. Some of the books were made by poets, some by children, some by Oasis, a program for individuals with mental illness. I found the books by this last group striking. Overall, I really enjoyed the diversity of the books and their ar-rangement on shallow shelves allowed for easy viewing and provided an exciting wall of artwork to be digested in manageable bits. 

For those who missed the event, here is the online catalog is viewable at http://heavybubble.com/ritual/ritual-catalog

— Alice Austin

The exhibit at 110 Church Gallery in Old City

Lesley Mitchell’s book.

Page 4 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers • PRESSING MATTERS Winter 2014

1 How long have you been a member of the GBW?Since 2011 – three years.

2 Where are you from originally?I grew up in the woods of Ashby, Massachu-

setts.

3When did you realize you wanted to learn bookbind-ing?2003. I believe it was… the 4th of September. I got

a job at my college library doing minor book repairs, and saw the insides of a book for the first time. First: It suddenly dawned on me that books are made, and people make them, and I could make them! Second: I realized that books were the medium that the hubbub of ideas, stories, images, materials, and mechanisms in my head was clamoring for. Someday I’ll be able to make them all happen. The compulsion to copy any interesting thing that captures my attention is also just in my nature – that day it was a book.

4 What is your favorite book structure these days?Really overbuilt German wooden-boarded gothic

bindings, with ship rigging for sewing thread. Chunky beyond reason. And to balance that, I also love any-

thing ridiculously small, with the caveat that it must open and function beautifully.

5 What are you working on right now?I am working on a tribute to R. Buckminster

Fuller that involves woodcut printing, bamboo pop-out structures, and braided Dacron lashing. I am also learning to write Carolingian Minuscule hand in miniature for a rather small (1x1.5cm) vellum manu-script I will be binding soon. I’m in my third and final year as a graduate student at the Buffalo State College art conservation program, specializing in rare book conservation. This year consists of an internship at the Weissman Preservation Center at Harvard University, working on special collections materials from the vari-ous Harvard libraries.

6 Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us. I enjoy unicycling and playing the violin, but not

at the same time.

6 Questions - Graham Patton

Graham Patton’s miniature book with his studio in the background.

Winter 2014 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers • PRESSING MATTERS Page 5

Jamie Kamph has the full attention of Denise Carbone, Ruth Scott Blackson and Alice Austin as she demonstrates glaire technique.

Scribing guides directly on the leather. Rolling a ruled line.

One of the examples of Jamie’s beautiful gold-tooling work she shared with the class.

Cutting gold foil.

Stamping a design using a very hot tool!

In early November of last year, the DVC hosted a gold tooling workshop

taught by long-time member Jamie Kamph. Jamie taught us traditional gold tooling with hand stamps using gold leaf and Fixor. The techniques in this final step of the book-binding process are consid-ered by many to be most dif-ficult to perfect. We learned that it will take a lot of prac-tice to become even proficient at gold tooling! The first day was hard on all of us. But by the second day, we had each had our own small triumphs. Practice makes perfect!

JWR

See a video of the class here»

Gold-tooling with Jamie Kamph

Page 6 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers • PRESSING MATTERS Winter 2014

Bookbinders, Beer & Bowling!Nineteen chapter members got together in South Philly this past January for a very fun bowling party. This

party had been scheduled for early December but had to be canceled because of a snow storm. But maybe it was a good thing since we had such a good turnout. We were especially happy to have our grad students there since classes hadn’t started yet. Most of us hadn’t bowled in years! This may become an annual event.

Our chapter paid all costs and it was money well spent. PEP Bowl is located at Broad and Federal and is a vintage bowling alley dating back to the 1950’s. The cost of renting the lanes goes to providing employment and services to people with developmental disabilities. Thanks go to Val for suggesting this event! Most of us have not bowled in many years, but that did not diminish the fun factor!

Scores: Sharon Hildebrand 70

Val Kremser 124

Jennifer Rosner 103

Karen Lightener 80

Alice Austin 64

Jon Snyder 91

Eriko Takahashi 66

Denise Carbone 88

Kyra Devine 98

James Engelbart 82

Erin Malkowski 129

Ruth Scott Blackson 55

See more photos here»

Winter 2014 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers • PRESSING MATTERS Page 7

WORKSHOPS IN NORTH CAROLINA THIS SUMMER

Alice Austin will be teaching a workshop called “Building Books and Imagery” this June 15-20, 2014 at the Cullowhee Mountain Arts Summer Program at Western Carolina University in Franklin, NC, 45 miles west of Asheville. Other classes in the book arts will be offered throughout the summer at this beautiful location. There will be workshops taught by both Carolyn Shattuck and Tim Ely in June, and Karen Hamner in July.

For more information, go to Cullowhee’s web site»

Secondary Colors Exhibit

Books from the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers were on exhibit in the Museum Library at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from October 1, 2013 - February 2, 2014. The exhibit looked fabulous and we owe many thanks to Evan Towle, Librarian, and Jude Robison and Sharon Hildebrand

for installation and for suggesting the library. The members of the DVC are grateful for all the work and enthu-siasm that went into making this exhibit so beautiful. We all love books and love to make books. But it is won-derful to have the opportunity to share with others, and what better place than a library!

Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers • PRESSING MATTERS Winter 2014

Elke Shihadeh DVC member, Elke M. Shihadeh, 78, of Ardmore died of pneumonia

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014 at home. The former Elke Nissen was married to bookbinder Fred H. Shihadeh, and worked with him until his death in 2004.

Elke Shihadeh had just recently renewed her membership to the DVC and had attended a workshop in April. It was nice to see her again after a long hiatus as a member and it was a pleasure to see her enjoying bookbind-ing more for fun than for work.

To read more about Elke click here:http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-27/news/46641351_1_rare-books-

niece-fred-h

John Fatula Former DVC member John Fatula, 76, died in Philadelphia on December

29, 2013 after a battle with Lewy Body Dementia. He and his wife Audrey Lee Fatula were members of the DVC until recently.

John was a former architect who enjoyed making books. It was a pleasure to have both John and Audrey at DVC events and he will be missed.

Click here to read more about John ...http://kirkandniceinc.tributes.com/our_obituaries/John-A.-Fatu-

la-97470960

In Memoriam: