Bookbinding time in the East

Peter and Don Rash on the Handpress:

Part way through our broadside collaboration with fellow printer and fine binder Don Rash he said, “How does this compare with other collaborations?” I had to think a bit. For one thing, I was completely at home in his print shop even though we were printing on a 1900s Morgan and Wilcox Washington hand press instead of a Vandercook press like ours at home. Another thing: Don is very relaxed about what he likes and voices his pleasure when he is happy with the printing results and that is fun. Still another thing: I felt like I was in the sauna for 12 hours yesterday as we printed the broadside on damp Moravia hand made paper in his shop!!!

 

The paper came from another Pennsylvanian who joined into the collaboration, Pavel Repiski of Atlantic Papers. The fact that the paper was made in Moravia was double perfect since Peter first met Pavel in Moravia at the Velke Losiny paper mill and also many Moravian Brethren are settled here in northern PA.

Hot and humid, humid and hot! But you know what is really standing out in my memory right now? I like thinking about how many friendships we have made and how much we have learned about printing because we have worked in so many studios with so many artists in the prime time of their craft-lives. Don has been bookbinding for over 30 years and his artistry and craftsmanship are outstanding. He designs, repairs and teaches fine bookbinding (this includes leather, boxes, tooling and more!) in his studio in Plains, Pennsylvania. Next door to his studio he owns a house that is available for students to stay in for a very reasonable cost. I highly recommend Don for any binding student.

The class in Don Rash's studio:

Off to another community: Treadwell, New York, in the Catskill Mountains. Peter is teaching a bookbinding class here today and I am catching up with office work. We are staying and teaching at the Bright Hill Literary Center, a center where art and literature are combined in a lovely setting in a small country town in the green woods. You can take classes, attend readings (which include open mikes, the best!!) read in their library or see the current art show in the gallery. Residencies are available for artists and writers too. Bertha Rogers is the powerhouse behind all this and she reminds me how much one person can do if they love what they are doing and care about their community.

Wagon Paloma in front of the center:

Peter teaching the class today in Treadwell:

I started this posting when the weather was in the 90s and humid, but today I am happy wearing my sweatshirt and also socks! We knew that if we paid 3X what we should have for new fan blades (we broke both our fans by leaving them plugged in while driving - no, not on – and they jumped onto the floor and turned themselves on and burned out….) to be mailed to us by second day air that the weather would cool down….

And now, after the workshop, we get to have dinner from the garden in this wonderful house on the hill: Bertha and Earnie's porch, fresh corn, Whitlock Red wine, cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden....

 

Do you want us to send an email to you when we have made a new post? The easiest way we have thought to do it is for you to email us. We will then make a group email to send out announcements to. We can't figure out any other way to contact you as my followers....

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Peter and Donna Thomas

From Pennsic Wars to Penn State

We’ve had a magical week

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We arrived last Friday at the Pennsic Wars, which is a production of the Society for Creative Anachronism. We really hadn’t planned this visit, but Peter had been in contact with several gypsy wagon owners and they said they would be here. Now this was a good chance to see some wagons all in the same place! The Pennsic Wars are like the Renaissance Faire (Peter and I participated for 20 years or so back in the 70s – 90s), they re-create a time period in England (mostly), but the SCA concerns itself with the medieval time. A big part of their activities have to do with fighting, i.e.: swords, foils, shields, bows and arrows.

So here we are. In the middle of the 11^th century with 10,000 people wearing linen sheets and armor, carrying weapons and PARTYING non-stop! We had fun. I painted and Peter photographed all the gypsy wagons we could find. We camped with a group that welcomed us in and fed us and took us touring around the site. Something we have noticed on this trip: We feel like every person we meet is the most interesting and friendly person in the world and we are dear old friends. So nice.

We spent the next night at friend Marty from Santa Cruz parent’s house in the country near Pennsic, where he just happened to be there because of a wedding. We ate dinner from their garden then visited in the firefly and cicada evening. I picked enough green beans, squash and tomatoes for the next few days. Yum.

The next day as we drove east on the Interstate 80, Peter saw a sign for Penn State University. He thought, we’ve sold a book to them before! I was napping and the next thing I knew, we were on the way to an impromptu meeting (actually, this is not usually a concept in a librarian’s world) with special collections librarian Sandra Stelts. The library is under construction this summer (this is happening ALL OVER), so she wanted to come down to the gypsy wagon at the loading dock and see our books there. We were happy to oblige because it would save us hauling all the books inside. What a nice meeting it was! We sold books (quite a few!), people dropped by and smiled and inquired about the wagon (as per usual) so our detour off the highway was a highlight of our day. And in an email she said, “Your visit was the highlight of my week! So glad that you followed your impulse and called from the highway. I felt when I got back to my office that I'd BEEN somewhere, even if we never left the library's parking lot! The caravan is a charming little world of its own.”

Indiana Homestead to Cleveland Art Center

Our friends John Hook and Andrea Peterson and their boys Ry and Lu are living the good artistic life in northeastern Indiana. Their garden, goats and chickens feed them and keep them busy with their upkeep. They work in their papermaking and ceramics studios to produce prints and pots under the name “Hook Pottery Paper” and offer classes in both. A sign hangs by the driveway inviting customers and another sign is added for “fresh eggs” when the chickens are particularly productive.

 

Peter and I spent 2 days with the family, making another broadside for the trip series. This time we made a handmade paper piece in the shape of the caravan, with a 2-color stenciled pulp painting applied to the surface featuring a bright red chicken! I am happy that this piece will add some whimsy and color to the series.

Andrea in the beater room with her hot pink and green press in front.

 

Andrea attaching the shaped stencil to the mold:

Pulling the 2 shaped papers: Peter, Andrea, Donna and Allan (assistant):

Donna holding finished papers on pellon:

A highlight for me was the party the family hosted for us the eve we arrived (after a crazy drive from Milwaukee via Chicago on a busy rush hour interstate with lots of road work happening….). Lu was masterful with the outdoor pizza oven, making probably over 25 pizzas to order! John made the nice real sourdough crust (I got some starter for the road!) The guests brought an item of old cotton clothing to add to the papermaking beater for our project. Ry helped us park in the yard and guided us back out again. He appeared the instant he heard me squeal when Peter started backing into traffic!

On Wednesday afternoon, we were hosted by the Morgan Conservatory for a bookmaking class. Peter taught 13 people how to make a scrolling book and a nested accordion structure. Even in the humid and hot weather of Cleveland in August, the creative process took control and many very nice books were produced. One participant, Ginny wrote about it on her blog. The Morgan C. hosts lots of cool classes throughout the year in a fantastic facility, check it out.

 

Two Gypsy wagons are better than one.

Remember how we made a pilgrimage to Muir’s boyhood home and then to all the Muir sites at the University of Wisconsin? Well, yesterday we made a pilgrimage to East Troy and spent the day visiting with Jim and Loi of www.gypsytrailersusa.com.

We first contacted Jim about 5 years ago when we saw his web site, and when we found his home was only 20 miles outside of Milwaukee we realized it would be possible to visit on this trip. Jim and Loi are artists and Jim is definitely an outsider artist. I think in this case pictures will speak louder than words so let us show you his wagon and his home. By the way Jims wagon is for sale for $8900 (he has $11,000 in receipts for materials and did all the labor himself). Check out his web site.

Wandering Wisconsin

      

We entered Wisconsin in the "Driftless Area", the part of the midwest that did not have glaciers move through, so the terrain has hills and hollows. The Driftless Bookshop 

was the first stop. This used book store is where our friend and fellow printer Mike Koppa works and they buy used books that others want to throw out and find readers for them. What an awesome collection of books in a cool old tobacco leaf warehouse! Here's Peter wandering the stacks, playing his uke. Mike works for Organic Valley, purveyors of organic dairy products and we spent last Sunday gorging on lovely yogurt, cream, chocolate milk, ice cream and more at their yearly festival. 

John Muir spent his youth in Wisconsin so we stopped at "Fountain Lake Farm" in the middle of the state. It was a super hot and humid day but we managed a walk around the lake in the beautiful prairie flowers to his old home site. The area has been preserved as a park and Muir would be happy to see the way folks have loved and nurtured the native prairie landscape. A jump in the lake refreshed after the sweaty hike. Afterwards we visited the nearest town, Montello, where the Montello Historical Preservation Society has a great show up highlighting Muir in Marquette County. Kathleen McGuin, from a long time Wisconsin family, showed us around the incredible artifacts they gathered for the show.

Hamilton Type Museum in Two Rivers was our next printing stop. Here is where wood type was made for years and we printed a broadside here using some great fonts of various sizes.

We camped just north of town on Lake Michigan with all the mosquitos. Oh and some other campers. One camper was "Fish Bah" who made a very nice cabin camper over 25 years ago and look how nice it still is. He lives in Idaho and drove all the way to his high school reunion in Two Rivers.... 

Swimming was fun in Lake Michigan: we body surfed the smallish waves! Then made dinner out at the dunes before we had to move back into the dark wet buggy forest for the night (that is where the campsites were). 

 

On to Madison, where we were hosted by a family who own and operate a glass shop: Studio Paran. The artist, Richard, makes such beautiful vases, tumblers and bowls. 

Richard cleared out his gallery and Peter taught a book making class there on Saturday.

But earlier in the week, we were treated to a "Muir-iana"tour of the University of Wisconsin. Muir went to school here in 1860s, and a Muir enthusiast, Dan Einstein, was kind to give us a tour of all the Muiriana on campus. We toured his dorm hall, saw his bronze bust in the biology dept, visited his famous "locust tree" site (where he supposedly had his first botany lesson) and more.  

Our friend Tracy Honn is the director and letterpress printer extraordinaire at the Silver Buckle Press, which is in the Memorial Library on the U of Wisconsin campus. I have always admired Tracy's fine aesthetic and while printing our next broadside, she showed us some cool techniques. One was "pressure prints", which I won't try to explain, but we used some grass from "Muir's Knoll" which is right up the hill from the library. In the end, we didn't used the technique for the edition, but the learning was great and I am happy with the broadside featuring Muir's grass and a tiny caravan paired with Muir's words about wandering in Wisconsin.

A little more Madison: farmer's market on Saturday: crazy crowded because you could get organic cheese, fruit, vegies, cheese, sausage, jerkie, bread and more cheese. Oh, and fresh corn. That's the best!