Rope of Words 18 - Tearing the paper.

My blog will soon be moving to a different address - www.limetreesstudio.com - I'll keep you posted.

I've now got my order of the first 25 sheets of paper. Each book will use 13 half sheets plus there'll be a set of prints on their own, plus with mistakes it can easily mean double the amount. One little spill or splodge in screen-printing and it's damaged goods!
I'm hoping to do a limited edition of 6 books, so might eventually use 100 sheets. Gulp!

Time to start tearing the pages. Just look at those beautiful deckled edges.
This is a proper paper tearing knife, also known as a "shoe knife" as it is (was?) used by cobblers and it's quite hardy with a rosewood handle. The blade tapers to fit the handle without any angles or curves which could wreck the paper if it got caught. My bone folder is an extra fine one to score the paper before folding and tearing, then to score it again to fold the folio in half.

I photographed the boned folder pointing at the watermark, which needless to say, you can't detect at all in a photo.

The torn edge is quite finely torn and shouldn't mess up the precision at the top and bottom like a deckled or roughly torn edge would. When you buy the sheets the top and bottom edges are torn in much the same sort of "neat tear".

P.S. Butternut soup tonight - a nod to Halloween - perhaps we should go to movies and skip all the poor little frightened kids running around in sheets dressed as spooks, scaring one another.

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Rope of Words 18 - Paper, Layout and update

I have chosen the Velin Arches (76cm x 56cm) because the deckled edges down the foredge are spectacular. I'll cut or tear each sheet in half to fold it for a page size 38cm x 28cm. The other fantastic thing about the Velin Arches is that the watermark is not very noticeable. If I find it worries me, I can always to an extra little embossed image in the bottom corner.

Here you can see how I have progressed with the layout from the top plan to the one below. The text will now be in a single column on the left page with a large decorative capital, and a square cut-out near the middle.

Progress on The Rope of Words so far: 

• Font lower case is designed - I still need to draw the Upper case and have the letters made into a font that I can type.
• Style of decorative capitals is planned - it will be a coloured screen-printed capital combined with blind embossing.
• Layout design of folios is designed.
• I have visited a professional book artist to make sure I'm on the right track and she will oversee my making a dummy book.
• Illustration ideas are falling into place, although I still need to do some life drawing and then stylise and design each page. 
• I have some ideas about the style of binding and cover design.

Now I'll start experimenting with one of the illustrations using screen printing and embossing and the rest of the Elva font design is becoming a matter of urgency. This is expensive to do because I'm not technically minded and will only design the letters, vectorise them and plan the spacing.

As soon as I have a number of pages on which I've experimented I'll bind them into the first dummy book.

Time to start tearing the paper. (A little shiver runs down my spine) 

I know, I know, it sounds nerdy and when it comes to paper I'm a total nerd.

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Rope of Words 17 - Choosing paper

For newcomers to the blog, I am following through on an artist's book, "Rope of Words",  from beginning to end: the trials, tribulations and hopefully the sucesses.

I went to *Falkiners Fine Papers to get started on some paper trials.
One of my problems was the watermark. I asked about it and some printmakers leave it on to show what good paper it is and that's a personal preference as it would be on the border anyway. However, in a book as big as Rope of Words, there would be a watermark on every second page. Nooooo.

I looked at various printmakers papers in a heavy 300gsm and experimented with blind embossing on damp paper and dry paper.
The blind embossing was only marginally better on the damp paper, (see top right sample) but not worth damping huge sheets. What a relief! (excuse the pun). I'll try dry embossing with a bit more pressure. Bear in mind that each sheet to be embossed is a half sheet 38cm X 56cm, so to screenprint then dampen might be asking for trouble.

Printing paper is 100% cotton and may be textured or smooth, but is more lightly sized than other artist's paper - great for printing on, but not even good for drawing on as it's a little like blotting paper.
Somerset Satin or Somerset Cold Pressed papers were both good, but the sheets have two watermarks on opposite sides diagonally.
BFK Rives was good but only had one really nice deckled edge and the other edge was a torn edge.
Hahnemuhle Etching paper was too soft and stuck in the stencil when put through the press.
Velin Arches is the sample above and the deckled edges (top left) are lovely. The paper is ivory and is exquisite to handle. The deckled edges ran parallel to the grain down both sides. The top and bottom edges were torn.

*Falkiner's Fine Papers was taken over by Shepherd's, a bookbinding company. Now they are moving: "After 25 happy years in Southampton Row, we are moving all the goodies to our bright & shiny new home in Gillingham St, Victoria" This is near Tate Britain but sadly not near the LX lectures anymore. :(

Online Bookbinding & Paper Store	Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe

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