Horn Books

We are home now, and working on a final blog post. But, before we do that there are few things we want to post about. One is the Horn Book collection at the Philadelphia Free Library.Hornbooks were the first form of children's books. The first known mention of the hornbook was in 1442 and they remained in use in the classroom through the nineteenth century. The simplest and most common hornbook was made of wood and shaped like a paddle. Often rope was threaded through a hole at the end of the handle so it could be worn around the neck or attached to the belt. A lesson, like the alphabet, a syllabary, or a a religious verse was written out on a piece of parchment (and later on paper). That was laid on the wood and covered with a transparent flattened cow's horn that was fastened to the wood paddle. The horn protected the lesson sheet and gives the hornbook its name. The PFL has over 100 examples of vintage horn books in manyshapes and sizes. You can also see the first image in our earlier post: http://wanderingbookartists.blogspot.com/2017/10/from-swarthmore-to-vassar.html

Hamilton Wayzgoose: Type Lovers Unite!

If you love wood type and letterpress printing... especially the bold and exciting work being done these days in the showcard poster/broadside world, you need to go to Two Rivers, Wisconsin for the Hamilton Wood Type Museum Wayzgoose. 

We arrived Thursday for the three-plus day affair and took a selfie at their wood type wall:

On Thursday we printed a folder to hold the broadsides the students printed on Friday in our workshop titled letterpress printing with wood type. By the way Hamilton IS the "coolest place in town..." at least in Two Rivers, WI anyways.

The participants in our workshops were challenged to make images of bugs or beasts using wood type. The wood type museum is a paradise for wood type lovers. We taught 2 classes, each for 3 hours, with 15 people in each, working in teams of 3 on 5 different presses. We had them make 40 copies, so that each participant would get one of each print that was made. Most of the folks got at least 30 "perfect" copies and most had time to do 3 different color runs.

Here are the classes and the work: You are really going to have to zoom in to see what they made!

Next year... Can't wait!

On Tour: We Feel a Little like Rock Stars

Forty years of making books is a real milestone. Since we left home in August we have visited over 30 universities. And yes, at times we think we know what it must feel like to be touring rock stars: We drive a good part of every day to get from somewhere to somewhere, arrive in town just in time to set up for what ever we have going on, and then pack up and find a place to park and sleep in the caravan. Lucky we usually are parked in a kind person's driveway, or in a pretty campground, but also usually we get there too late to enjoy any natural beauty!

But Oh! is it ever exhilarating and rewarding to see our 40 year shows. This last week were in Milwaukee, where Max Yela and his staff in Special Collections Library at University of Wisconsin have hosted a show of our work in the Golda Meir Library.

We were also this year's featured Ettinger Family Book Artists Series Lecturers. Thanks goes out to Suzy Ettinger who funds this endeavor. Everyone benefits: the artists, the library, the students, as well as the general public. Everyone is invited to attend and they do. Even on Halloween, a crowd showed up for artists' books! Peter ends the talk with a song:

The show presents about 100 of our editioned books in 10 in the cases, showing the books in chronological order. Below is a case with our very first books, made in 1977. Line drawings, etchings and very white handmade paper:

And here are two cases with work from the last few years:

It was a special treat to see the 2002 Wildflowers of the John Muir Trail and Landscapes of the John Muir Trail accordion books opened out full length to display the illustrations. They feature digital reproductions of Donna's original watercolor paintings and handwritten text, printed on Peter's handmade paper. If you want to see more about our current books for sale you can look on our website. Click here to see it.

And, if you want to see a short video showing the whole show at UWM here is a link to it on YouTube: Just click here!

Life as a touring rock and roll star, or even a wandering book artist, can be a hectic lifestyle but there are rewards: we can't say enough about  the wonderful people we have met at our talks and workshops around the country, and all the librarians who have supported us and are dedicated to the kind of art we are all so passionate about.

And last but not least: The catalog for the shows is available on Amazon. You can just search for "Peter and Donna Thomas The Work of 40 Years" or here is the link: