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By Richard, March 10, 2010 8:33 pm

The Ottawa Chapter of the CBBAG has a great line-up of three new workshops this coming April for both members and general public.  If any of the workshops catch your fancy, I would highly recommend attending as these are an excellent hands-on way of learning various facets of the book binding and books arts trade.

The Nag Hammadi Codex
Instructor: Christine McNair

Saturday, April 3, 2010
9:00 AM – 4 PM

The Nag Hammadi codices take their name from the Egyptian village where in 1945 a clay pot containing thirteen ancient books was discovered. These books are the earliest extant codex bindings ever found – 1800 years old – and were uncovered in remarkably good condition. Students will construct a sympathetic facsimile of the Nag Hammadi codex, and experience the structure and form of ancient bookbinding. The textblock will be bound together with knotted leather tackets on a leather spine piece and covered in boards stiffened by laminates. The book is held closed with leather ties and wrapping bands which are integrated to the cover using a delicate slotting and lacing technique.

Workshop fee: CBBAG members $85, non-members $100 Materials fee: $30

An introduction to inlay/onlay work
Instructor: Christine McNair

Sunday, April 4, 2010
12:00pm – 4:30pm

An introduction to techniques in onlay/inlay work for binding. Students will create sample boards using a variety of different techniques from traditional and design binding. The discussion for the day will include the importance of good technique and sharp tools.

Pre-req: preferably some experience with leather paring, please indicate.

Workshop fee: CBBAG members $40; non-members $50 Materials fee: $5

A Storybook in Mixed Media
Instructor: Holly Dean

April 30, May 1 & 2, 2010
Friday: 6:30 – 10 pm, Saturday: 9 am to 4 pm, Sunday: 12 pm to 4 pm

Mixed media artist Holly Dean will lead you on a journey to the land of “Once Upon a Time” where you will explore the enjoyable process of layering paint, imagery and text to create an enchanting, if short, storybook.

Friday evening we will play with words and images to come up with our story theme. There will be ideas and images on hand, although participants are encouraged to come up with their own.

Saturday we will learn how, when and why to use particular acrylic paints and mediums. The magic of collage, how to put text on the page and how to put it all together will be revealed with lots of demonstrations! We will prepare our book structures and decorate each page, artfully and imaginatively telling our stories. 

Sunday afternoon we will make final embellishments to our storybooks and take time to see what each of us has created.

Materials to bring include images from magazines, laser or inkjet prints of photos, story ideas and scissors. Book structures will be available or you can bring your own – no more than 8 pages plus cover is about right and heavy paper or board is best for the page weight.  If you have any art supplies or tools that you would like to use, feel free to bring them along, but it is not a requirement. The materials fee will cover other essentials.
 
Workshop Fee: CBBAG members $160; non-members $200 Materials Fee: $35 ($25 if participant provides own book structure)

Registrations for these courses can be mailed to:

Larry Thompson
Box 574, Merrickville, Ontario
K0G 1N0

Email: studio@greyweathers.com
Phone: (613) 269-3714

Please make cheques payable to “CBBAG-Ottawa Valley”
Materials fees to be paid to workshop instructor on day of workshop

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By Richard, March 9, 2010 1:13 pm

Von Allan will be launching his graphic novel “the road to god knows…” at Perfect Books (258A Elgin Street) this Sunday, March 14th, starting around 4:00pm.

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By Richard, March 8, 2010 12:59 pm

Having recently upgrade my cell to an iPhone, I’ve been scouring the app store for biblio-related applications to load and keep me busy.   Bookride’s 12 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Book Lovers article does a great job summing up the essentials.   There are plenty of other goodies to be found in the app store as well from nicely illustrated collected works of authors (the Shakespeare one I have is great) to Comiczeal (the best comic reader available)  with plenty of fun little apps like Typo Junkies and The Coach House Press’ Coffee Room to add into the mix.  Unfortunately I’ve yet to come across any letterpress related apps so far, but will be certain to post any fun and interesting apps that I may come across in the future.

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By Richard, March 2, 2010 10:55 pm

Our friend Natasha Herman of the Redbone Bindery passed along this great e-catalogue from a former colleague of hers who has just started his own venture after 10 years employment in the trade.  Bob Gaba’s inaugural Canadiana catalogue has a great little selection of scarce (and many unique) early Canadian manuscripts, laws, acts and other bits of ephemera dating back to the 17th century.  Definitely worth looking at for collectors of Canadian history and I look forward to future catalogues.

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By Richard, February 28, 2010 8:57 am

Once again Margaret Lock will be running one of her excellent two-day courses on typesetting and letterpress printing the second weekend in April.  Two of the three spots have already been filled, so if you are interested, be sure to contact her quickly to nab the final spot.  Details of the course are below:

Introduction to Typesetting and Letterpress Printing
taught by Margaret Lock on 10-11 April, 2010 at 231 Johnson Street, Kingston,  ON.

Participants will learn basic typographic design concepts, and how to set lead type by hand and print on a Vandercook proof press. The two-day workshop will cover setting type, letter-spacing capitals, distributing type, imposition, proofing, registration, and printing on handmade paper. As an exercise, participants will design and print a broadside up to 11 x 14 inches in size. Participants should bring a short, favourite piece of poetry or prose (fewer than 20 lines of poetry, and fewer than 160 words for a piece of prose).

The cost for each participant is $185. The workshop hours are 9:30am-5:30pm, Saturday and Sunday.

If interested, please contact Margaret Lock by email lockfp@queensu.ca or telephone 613-544-3505.

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By Richard, February 26, 2010 7:52 pm

Well, the move into our new home went quite well with only a few minor hiccups here and there. Although, we can’t really complain as we got lucky with two beautiful days in which we did the majority of of our move (seriously, who moves in the middle of a Canadian February?)  A big thanks to all those who helped us move, paint, unpack and generally settle in, we couldn’t have done it without you.

While we have personally settled in for the most part and just await a few final pieces of furniture to finish everything off, the basement still remains a mass of shelving and boxes waiting to be assembled into some semblence of order.  Hence, we will not likely have our online stock up for another week or two, but have been able to restock our booth at the Ottawa Antique Market with some fresh finds and stuff tucked away before the move.

Will try to get some pictures of my new office set-up soon and will being posting regularly again shortly.

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By Richard, February 15, 2010 9:12 am

Well we’ve got ourselves nicely set up and running at the Ottawa Antique Market, which is working out marvelously I might add, and have been busily packing our personal possessions  for our big move into our new home this Thursday.   With plenty of work to be done over the next week or two to get settled in, the post here will few are far between.  So, I thought I would leave you with a few videos from Youtube to entertainment during the hiatus:

A very well produced Letterpress Video of a guy making custom coasters.

A nice collection of short clips of books with fore-edge paintings held by the Boston Public Library.

And of course one of my all time favourite video bios, Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man, of George Whitman, eccentric owner of Shakespeare & Co. in Paris.  Gotta tip your hat to a guy that still cuts his hair with a candle.

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By Richard, February 11, 2010 12:47 pm

It’s getting close to that time of year again when five books are defended by five panelists to determine which book should be the one Canadians read in 2010.  The book selections this year are great with some choice panelists to back them up.  The debates will run March 8-12 on CBC Radio One until only one book remains.  The books, panelists, podcasts and a host of information on Canada Reads 2010 can be found on the CBC Canada Reads website.

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By Richard, February 8, 2010 10:44 am

I found out about a month ago that Ottawa’s best stop for mysteries and crime fiction would we closing its doors Friday March 13th, but remained hopeful (hence no post at the time) that current owner Linda Wiken would be able to find a buyer.  Unfortunately it looks as though there have been no takers for Prime Crime and the little 300-square-foot will be closing its doors for good after being a mystery lovers haven for nearly 25 years.  Be sure to head down there to enjoy one of Ottawa’s finest independent bookstores before the aptly chosen last day on Friday 13th next month.

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By Richard, February 4, 2010 3:06 pm

Lawrence Hill will be reading from his The Book of Negroes at the Museum of Civilization this coming Wednesday (Feb 10th) as part of Black History Month at the museum.  Details below and on the Museum of Civilization website.