Deconstructing that artichoke and other bookmaking tales

Away from my post

Yikes, I've been a bad blogger. I think the summer vacation fog is hitting me. It's great; I've been printing out at Betsy's and reading all day. Aaah, summer.

Yesterday I want to the IndieMart at Thee Parkside with my friend, Cristina. It was a beautiful day out, and I think the open air makes those things so much better. It was great; and I had to keep from buying too many things. There wasn't a single doe or owl that I noticed! Thank god! I did buy a barrett though by Jim Dandy, I couldn't resist.

Summer Time!

Well, today is my first true day of summer vacation. I spent Monday and Tuesday grading third and sixth grade essays for the school district. I should clean the kitchen, but you know, I'm going to take Billie, my beautiful pit-boxer mix, up to Bernal Hill.

Tomorrow I'm going out to Betsy's to print the Tarot cards. I'm so excited!

School's out!

Today was the last day of school for the kids (for those of you who don't know, I'm a special ed teacher for a continuation school during the school year); tomorrow is my last day. Yes! Summer here I come.

I'm going to teach bookarts this summer at Redwoods Shores Library and at 826 Valencia. Then, I'm going to work on the tarot cards and start a new book, plus finish some other projects. I'm looking forward to it.

Visit to Donna Seager Gallery

Yesterday I went to the Donna Seager Gallery to see the Art of the Book show. It was a great show. There were some phenomenal books. Some of my favorites were The Topography of Home by Macy Chadwick, Beyond Questions: Why Go? by Casey Gardner, and a birdcage by Lisa Rappoport. My book, Collapse, was there too.

It turns out, Donna, the gallery owner, has sold two copies of my book, Collapse. One copy, she sold to Charles Hobson! He's a professor at San Francisco Art Institute and has a great collection of artist books. Actually, to my amazement, I was at the Legion of Honor, checking out the book room that's there, and all the books right now are from the collection of Charles Hobson.

Shipping and reconciling

It's been a week of unexciting book arts things, but very important. I've been packaging and shipping boxes to Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Vamp and Tramp. For Vamp and Tramp I also shipped a box to the UCLA Art Library. I think I probably have to get faster at shipping, but I not sure how. You have to put the box together, bubble wrap the books, put the peanuts (or whatever you use, I've been using scrap paper from book projects and some cool green confetti I got at a packing store) in the box, and then label the box (which takes me a while with my stroke, I'm writing with my right hand now, but slowly). I could probably computerize some of it, but not much. I'm open to suggestions!

Then today I had to reconcile my inventory with what Vicky at Vamp and Tramp had. Oh, my gosh, it's like balancing your checkbook, but worse, because you can't say, oh well, it's only off by a dollar or two.  You have to figure out the inventory exactly.

Printer's Fair

Well, the Printer's Fair was this weekend. It was fun. I didn't get to go around and say hi to everyone like I wanted to. I should have gone around to say hi to everyone in the morning, but I waited until the afternoon, and by then I was too tired. I'm actually still tired today, and it's Wed.

But it was lots of fun. A bunch of friends came by, bookarts friends and non-bookarts friends alike. Kate stood by me and offered support (you know, if I passed out or anything). She sewed a huge number of chapbooks together (thanks, Kate!), while I attempted to sew some chapbooks, but soon gave up. I learned that my email list works; one person said that was how he had heard about me. Anyway, all in all, it was a good day.

Printer's Fair

Preparations are going well. I've got 10 (of 50) of each of four chapbooks done (I'm planning on sewing them at the Printer's Fair, because it's easy to do). I've got 11 Alvar Aalto books done (of course, I'll make more before Saturday), so all I have left is to add to the 10 copies of Book Artist Blues.

Procrastinating again

Ah, yes! I'm supposed to be getting ready for the Printer's Fair (which is May 9, and all of you who live or are visitng San Francisco should come! It'll be a blast!), next weekend. And I am getting ready, really I am. I'm just taking a quick break from cutting down paper for my chapbooks. It's a great way to use up the paper that's sitting around my apartment, but of course I did have to go to the art store yesterday and buy more paper. My boyfriend said he didn't believe I was getting rid of the paper. He thought I was just using it at as an excuse to buy more paper! Sheesh!

Teaching the little 'uns

I haven't been writing about teaching book arts to kids, because I haven't been. After my stroke, it was just too much to teach at South San Francisco (my special ed teaching job, which doesn't involve any book arts) and to teach at San Francisco Center for the Book with Cathy Miranker. And being a public school teacher, you get great insurance, so I had to let my job with Cathy go.

But now I'm teaching with Cathy again over the summer. So I'm getting the best of both worlds! Public school during the school year, and book arts over the summer. I'm teaching three classes over the summer at Redwood Shores Library: Pop-ups; Japanese Books; and Maps, Maps, Maps. These classes will be for grown-ups who work with kids. Then I'm going to teach at 826 Valencia, which will be with the kids. I've taught for two years (with the exception of last summer) at 826 Valencia, and I love teaching there. The kids are great; they love bookmaking. And the staff and volunteers are great. It's going to be a fun summer!

Making chapbooks

So I've been making chapbooks for the Printer's Fair. It's fun, but I forgot how difficult it is to get the imposition right. I'm working with InDesign 2.0. I know, I know, it's old, but it works, so I use it. The imposition itself isn't hard, but on the computer I have so much to think about. For example, I used automatic page numbers, which I shouldn't have, because now I have to redo the page numbers. And then I used autoflow for the text, so now I have to redo that too. Aargh!

But anyway, I'm hoping to have four chapbooks done by the Printer's Fair: chapbooks for Judith Serin, Colby Phillips, Opal Palmer Adisa, and myself. I'm going to sell them on my Etsy page after the Fair.