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Now Available: Guild of Book Workers Journal

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The long-awaited Guild of Book Workers Journal has been published and mailed to members of the Guild. Not a member?  Click here to order a copy - - or, better yet, HERE to join, and see what you're missing.

Table of Contents

Pamela Smith: The Making of An Edition Paper Marbler

“Taken by surprise, smitten by the magic of  this centuries-old process,” is how Pamela  Smith describes her entry into paper marbling, but editioning, she has learned, takes more than magic. “The work of a production marbler is a painstaking process of matching color and pattern and then repeating it all over and over again…. A quest for perfection, perhaps, always one step away…. Marbling is a study in movement, one in which technical know-how becomes as important as artistic sense. And even then there are few guarantees.”
 
*Aimee Lee: Hanji in the Hands: Korean Papermaking Methods and Creative Uses

Handmade Korean paper, or hanji, has slowly been gaining attention in the wider art, craft, and conservation worlds. Lee’s studies have led her to an understanding of the methods, history, and uses of this luminous and resilient paper, and a deep appreciation of the contemporary artists who use hanji with innovative, impressive, and always beautiful results. Here she introduces us to the world of hanji and offers a gallery of hanji artists’ work.

Nancy Jacobi: Chiyogami and Katazome-shi: The Hand-printed Papers of Japan

The current worldwide popularity of the decorative papers of Japan—chiyogami and katazome-shi—would suggest that they are designs hot off the contemporary press. Stripes, dots, checkerboards, multiple lines of geometric shapes, and flowers—these patterns fit perfectly into the current mode for simplicity, repetition, and graphic order. In fact, the origins of the patterns printed today on paper by both silkscreen and stencil often go back 1300 years, following the religious, political, and social history of Japan through its motifs and symbols, and even further back to their roots in China.

Tim Barrett: Recommendations for Establishing a Paper Mill, Tomaso of Pinerolo, 1407 (A fictionalized proposal)

Tomaso, a skilled, if fictional, Italian papermaker learned the craft of papermaking as a young person and eventually became well established a paper mill foreman, renowned for his knowledge of the intricacies of the craft. Through his eyes, Barrett gives us a glimpse into what the process of papermaking very likely was in the fifteenth century, and along the way draws attention to those ingredients and processes that result in a truly fine sheet of paper that will stand the test of time.

*Katie Smith: An In-boards Paper Binding: P. Cornelii Taciti

In the special collections department of the David O. McKay library at Brigham Young University–Idaho, Smith found an apparently unique in-boards paper binding structure on the book P. Cornelii Taciti. Here she discusses the scant history of this binding—determined by structural components and uncovered manuscript writing—as well as some of the more noteworthy structural elements of the binding itself. She also provides a step-by-step guide, based on her conservation of the book, to making a model or artistic rendering of the binding.
 
*Barbara Rhodes: Reading Between the Lines: The Colorful History of Invisible Ink

Not just for spies and schoolchildren, sympathetic inks—invisible inks—have been around since at least the fifteenth century. Chemically, many sympathetic inks are related to the materials of early photography, document copying, and dyeing, and also to the so-called security or safety inks and papers used to prevent forgery and counterfeiting. In this essay, Rhodes traces the history of invisible inks and discusses the practicalities of using them (such as choice of papers and writing utensils), and the detection of invisible writing.

Mindell Dubansky: Blooks: Things that Look Like Books, But Aren’t

Book-shaped objects act very much like true books, in that they are portable objects designed to protect their contentsand also are concerned with the use of beautiful materials and ornaments, as well as the need to educate and amuse the reader for their resemblance to true books and their inventive designs. Dubansky explores the history and structures of these objects, which date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

*All articles in the issue were reviewed and accepted by the editorial board as meeting our standards of excellence.  Those marked with an asterisk also meet academic peer-review standards.