Friday, August 26, 2011

spine's end

Most books get to rest on their ends.  Not like the good old days when the little (and big) monks and nuns knew that lay a book on its side and stacking them up that way was what was best for them.  In the 'modern' era when books were printed and made by machine (you'll note I did not say manufactured because as we found in an earlier post it means made by hand), we had so many of the darn things that stacking them on their sides was not space efficient.   Soooo, the ends get worn.

It is not always needed to removed and replace the entire spine.  In this case cut away the torn bits, find a closely colour matching stiff piece of paper and cut it to slide down inside the spine.  If the end papers are separating from the covers it is good to have the paper run over the joints between the spine and the cover boards.  This was not the case with this book so I just made it the width of the spine.  Do have it go down a ways into the spine for strength.  Apply the glue, made sure the glue is facing out when you slip (push it gently) down into the spine and adjust it to match where the end of the spine should be.

After this you can make a tracing of the rough end of the spine and put in an extra thicker piece to finish it off, or you can take a piece of colour matching book tape and wrap it over the edge.  Just to tidy things off.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Today's count

Nine small people taking advantage of the sprinklers on the museum lawn.  Five adults not quite taking advantage of, and not quite avoiding, the sprinklers in the crabapple grove.  Several smiles, a grin, and laughing.  Humidity 34%.  I was bone dry before I got back to my desk.

Monday, August 22, 2011

books for health

Long has it been suspected, and my eyes agree, that staring at the screen is wearing: tired eyes, more expensive glasses.  Today I checked out the new Dentistry Library guide and find that not only are they encouraging people to save their peepers with books by having a tab "Finding Books", they have an educational photo (scroll down) to demonstrate books are also excellent physical exercise.  Look at that lifting power. You can't get that with an ipad. 

Also I direct you to Stephen's Lighthouse where he points to studies (of a few people) who find they remember better when they read from print.  My guess is its because they are not straining their eyes so much, so they can focus on what they are reading.  The researchers have other theories. But in an aging population (and who isn't aging, I ask you) can better memory be a bad thing?

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Holy Book Repair part lll

So, I suspect your glue is dry enough now, we can put in the endpapers.  Cut them out carefully.  They are a practice art to get right, and get in place right.  Remember lining up the text block with the green tape?  Yup, well this was why.  Sometimes, often times, it is nice to use a glue stick for this, but we very sure you have acid free. Don't trust the packaging, trust the words on the glue stick itself. We ran out of glue while making Jennie's Nighty and the Christmas Concert last year and I got glue sticks which claimed to be acid free, but they didn't actually print that on the stick itself.  They made the paper turn green.  Not good.  For this project I took my acid free glue stick and coated the inside cover and then half an in onto the first sheet of the text block.  Ever notice the first sheets are stuck together at the inside edge in a hard cover book?  This is why.  It helds to hold the text block in place, give extra support to the work of the mull.  Use your bone folder to smooth the endpaper into place.  Best to start it off from the outside edge of the cover.  If you have miss cut it you can always trim it to match the pages.  You never get another chance to make it line up and look good on the cover.  Run the bone folder gently down along the crease and close the book.  Repeat on the back cover.

And done.  It is good to put wax paper inside the endpapers and press the book a while.  Perhaps not as long as the two weeks I was away, but you can if you want to.  I took the finished bible to the adorable little old priest and he was so pleased.  He asked me what he owed me.  Well, I really didn't want to charge him full price, he is such an adorable little old priest, so I said, "Well, Dad, you can have it for Father's Day."  Saved me having to get him a card.*

* Roman Catholics and the like in the crowd do not panic.  My dad is a catholic priest, he just isn't a Roman Catholic priest.  Anglicans, and others, can marry.  (Fifty-five years this month. And yes, they are both adorable.)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Watched crabapples never rippen: today's count

Millions of half rippened crabapples.  Just a wee bit tart.  That is just a wee bit tarter than normally tart crabapples.  But I have hope.  Two white butterflies cavorting, two red gold dragon flies taking a break and sunning themselves on a stick.  They are very sensitive to movement.  I was sorry to disturb their break, they have been working so hard, there are almost now mosquitos left.  Blue sky, huge fluffy clouds, warm air.  Quiet.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Can you paint petroglyphs?

No.

Petrogylphs are carved into rock.  I can do a painting of a petroglyph, but if I painted on a rock it would be a rock painting, underground it would be a cave painting.  What did I learn checking to make sure my own understanding was correct?  What a morpheme is.  It is the smallest part of a word that has meaning.  Like 'un' as in unlikely, meaning not likely, or 'im' as in imperfect.  But not 'very' as in very unique, because there is no such thing.  Unique means one of a kind and you either is or you isn't.  There ain't no 'very' about it.

Now, of course, well not now as in now, but later, I will have to see if I can paint a painting of a petroglyph.  On canvas paper or the like.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Holiday 3: expected and unexpected

I'm baaaacccck.  And what a time I had.  Expected. I promised you a painting, but what I didn't take into account was that after nearly five months working on two large art projects I wouldn't want to paint.  Lucky for my word of honour it took me four days to figure that out.  This is a slightly out of focus picture of a postcard I painted for my godmother in North Carolina.  It is my favourite of the ones I did.  The storm is not quite that threatening in the background, the blue actually goes up, up, up and over you from there.


Expected.  My friend and I went to the Great Sand Hills.  Bet ya didn't know the prairies could look like this.   At least any time other than the Great Depression.  Next day we drove further south and headed east to the petroglyphs at St. Victor's.  Bonus points if you can find the face in this shot.  The view beyond the small rock outcropping was .... I felt like I was at the top of the world. Neither the photos nor the pan video I took of it did justice to the sensation.
Unexpected.  I did not expect geese at the bed and breakfast we stayed at in Swift Current, nor the many roosters, the duck, the turkey chicks, and morning fresh eggs, green ones.  I did not expect to help my friend start building her new deck while at her place.  I certainly did not expect to get a ride on my brother's motor bike.  Didn't stop grinning the whole time.