Another post, another new month. It's amazing how fast the time goes!
Since my last post, we've done quite a lot on the Books program. We went on another visit right after I last posted, to an open-air museum called Amberley after half an hour from West Dean. It's on the site of a former chalk pit facility that was last used in the forties, I think, and the whole place is done up like it would have been in the forties, with an antique telephone exchange, a woodworker's hut, and various other profession's workshops. There are also some neat displays on early electronics and on local transportation that were a lot of fun.
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| Me getting a tutorial from the linotype guy. |
One of the coolest exhibitions we saw was on early printing. We saved it for last, as that was mainly what we'd gone to Amberley to see, and we were treated to a demonstration and short lecture on the history of the printing press, mostly dealing with presses that used individual pieces of movable metal type placed in a frame. The really cool demonstrations, though, were on the monotype and linotype machines. These worked quite differently from the movable type style in that hot metal was pushed through a small gap to fill a mold of a line of text--thus custom lines of print were created, and when a printing run was finished, they could be recycled back into the pot of molten metal. The type was laid out in the mold by pressing keys on what looks like a massive typewriter keyboard, and the letters fall into place from a case above the typewriter. We got to have a go and made lines of type with our names in them!
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This is my flexible binding in progress--we sewed the
textblock on cords, which will eventually be laced into
the boards of the case. |
On the program we've been finishing our first treatments--reattaching covers to leather-bound books with purpose-dyed Japanese paper. It's pretty satisfying to have a complete book on my hands instead of an object in three pieces that had to be held shut with ribbons to prevent further damage. One of things we do to help us know how to treat books is to construct models of historical bookbindings, and we've worked on two so far. The first is a case binding, where the textblock and case are constructed separately and then put together, and a flexible binding, in which the boards (covers) are attached to the textblock before the boards are covered with leather. It's quite a lot of fun to do and less stressful than treatment--mostly because if we mess up on a model we can start over, whereas a treatment might not be quite so reversible.
We've also had to do a tensile testing project, looking at the strength of various materials we have in our workshop. My project involved testing tinted Japanese paper, using different dilutions of acrylic paints for coloring, to see whether a certain ratio of acrylic to water would provide additional strength without embrittling the paper. It turned out to be quite a time-consuming project as much of the data had to be adjusted. Hopefully soon I will have some usable results!
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| Love my jack-o'lantern. |
On the social side of life, it's a busy time of year in England for holidays! Two weekends ago was Halloween and the students held a party in one of the residences. I went as Harry Potter at the instigation of a friend, so that I'd match another girl who went as Hermione. One of my friends on the furniture program made me a wand from some spare wooden doweling and it was good fun. I didn't stay too late as I had to leave early the next morning to go visit friends in London.
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Jen enjoying raclette and potatoes at
Borough Market! |
Hooray for Jen Miller! She is getting her master's at the London School of Economics and we got to know each other during the last year when I was in DC. We had a lovely day sampling food at Borough Market, checking out some very interesting exhibits at the Tate Modern--including a silent film on filmmaking, and a photographic documentary of families from across the globe--and stopped over at the British Library. It was really great to see her! After that I went to visit some more friends, Richard and Hannah Holt, who live in Wandsworth. I knew Richard in the MTC and got to know Hannah over the summer when I visited. We did dinner and carved pumpkins, and enjoyed the cuteness of their daughter, Charlotte. SO cute in her Halloween costume.
And then, of course, Bonfire Night! For all my American readers, Bonfire Night commemorates the foiling of a plot to blow up Parliament in the early 1600s. It's celebrated with a huge bonfire (surprise surprise) and then fireworks. For a teeny village, West Dean sure puts on a good fireworks display. It was the closest I've ever been to where they were being set off, so the fireworks were going off literally right above us, and a few bits of unexploded firework actually hit me on the shoulder a couple of times. I must also say (without sounding traitorous, I hope) that fireworks are quite a bit more pleasant in the cold. That could be the bonfire talking, but I don't know. It was a lot of fun.
