Fine Bindings for Codex & Events in Seattle

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Book Bindings, CODEX, Future Projects, Heart of Darkness, PR and Media releases, The Intruder, The Mad Angler Poems, The Path

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Books, Chad Pastotnik, Deep Wood Press, Gerard Wozek, John Voelker, Michael Delp, Robert Traver, Sigrid Christiansen, travel

In less than a week I will be in Berkeley California for the Codex International Book Fair & Symposium. Preparations have been going full force here at Deep Wood Press creating new presentation bindings of some of the most recent books and I now have the final draft of my new Kafka translation for The Hunter Gracchus that will preview at the Fair.

A couple of updates from the last post: Exquisite Editions – An International Exhibition of Finely Printed Books now has a web page, so if you happen to be in Dublin, Ireland March 4th – April 18th stop into the National Print Museum for what looks to be a beautiful show of contemporary letterpress book editions.

The lectures and workshop I’m giving for the Seattle Book Arts Guild now has web pages up for the events here. Lectures are Feb. 12th at 7pm at the University of Washington Library, Feb. 13th at Pacific Lutheran University at 4pm and the workshop is Feb 14th & 15th at Pacific Lutheran from 9am-5pm.

With luck I may be able to get one last post up before I leave this week of some pics of the Gracchus prototype but time is running short. I’ll leave you for now with some pictures of some of the presentation bindings I’ll be bringing with me to Codex. Hopefully I will see some of you there!

Heading east to Oak Knoll Fest XVII

29 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Future Projects, The Intruder

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commissioned work, fine press books, John Voelker, Robert Traver, The Intruder, travel

Ok, so I’m not putting up a lot of posts here, that’ll change once things settle into a routine again.

Right now I’m gearing up to leave on Tuesday for the Oak Knoll Fest in New Castle Delaware. I’ll have a table set up along with 40 other fine presses from around the world so if you happen to be in the neighborhood please stop by. There will be symposiums happening during Saturday and Sunday free to the public as is the exhibit hall where we will be showing (and selling) our books.

Before I go I’ve got to finish up a small commission from the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles and also get together materials for an exhibit at the State of Michigan Library and State Archives in Lansing. I’ll be giving a talk there on Oct. 27th in conjunction with the show.

New books are underway as well as getting the Deluxe editions of The Intruder finally out the door. The new apprentice, Daniel Davis, started a couple weeks ago and things are looking good for the season ahead. Please stay tuned.

Working on the deluxe edition

22 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Book Bindings, Books, Letterpress, The Intruder

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deluxe edition, fine press books, Jim Westergard, John Voelker, Robert Traver, The Intruder, wood engravings

Had a lovely talk with Jim Westergard this morning. My emails have been bouncing back a lot lately so sometimes you just can’t beat paying prime phone rates to Canada to get things ironed out. Aside from an all around great exchange of information, ideas and enthusiasm we hammered out what the bonuses of the special edition will include. I’ll be printing an additional folio of each of the five big wood engraving in the next couple days and then send them off to Jim along with the 20 already sewn books (but not cased into covers yet) copies designated for the deluxe edition for Jim to sign. I should point out that Jim has his own small edition of the prints from this book available for purchase as well. You can find them here.

Needless to say this will delay availability of these copies by at least a couple weeks. Hopefully they’ll make it through Homeland Security ok. When Jim sent me the engraved blocks (end grain maple) last December it must have looked scary to someone as the box had been slashed open and examined and in the process of doing so cut the surface of one of the blocks. The increased humidity of a Michigan summer and some heavy handed ink application made this cut negligible in the book edition.

My postmaster informed me that they didn’t know if there was any sort of recourse in dealing with packages searched at the border and I (or Jim) didn’t pursue it. Maybe the culprit will just be relegated to that special place in hell where there are no books or art.

So the deluxe edition will contain the five loose prints enclosed in a paper folio along with the book – all of which will be signed by Jim. And this will all be housed in a nice drop spine box covered in a matching cloth to the covers. Below is a picture of one of the first binding prototypes, it has evolved now to a less severe bevel on the cover boards and there will be surface decoration on them beyond what is shown. The vellum spine will be less revealed and different type used for the title but from here you’ll get a general idea of where I’m going with this.