weekend class at mcba: the intentional page

I had forgotten the peace of that smooth rhythm, sewing the signatures together. I need to return to the full-length course on introductory bookbinding and then maintain that practice. My friend Meryl has amassed quite the collection in her mentorship experience.

The book we bound was one on intentional design--making font decisions, placement choices, the terminology of the book designers world. This class called to me when faced with the great privilege of designing my own book cover. I did not love what I did with the photographs I had, though I knew what I loved from my own bookshelves. But I couldn't translate that to the page.

Fortunately, my little sister could and came up with the front and back that is at the printer now.

I feel comfortable taking a photograph, but its transformation is beyond me. I do love the quiet peace of needles and paper, of linen thread and blocks of beeswax. It brings a certain calm.

film night: helvetica

From the film: "It's like being asked how you feel about off-white paint."

I have an immense preference for the serifed font. I love black and white photographs of authors working at their desks. I am fascinated by scientific diagrams, taxonomy, marginalia, cartography.

I also love wood blocks.

From the film: "... all in favor of a certain atmosphere..."

When designing my book cover, my sister told me the sans-serif was easier to read; indeed, the awards announcement at the bottom of the image was originally in Helvetica. I asked her to serif it up, and instead of choosing the font I sent to her, she chose something easier to recognize.

Overheard in the MFA graduate assistant offices: "I'm in the market for a new font. Anyone have a good font to recommend?" We hover at the computers, using drop-down menus to show our preferences: High Tower, Cochin, Goudy.

From the film: "You will do what the typeface wants it to do."

I do see the quiet beauty of Helvetica when used in branding--a simple name, a small phrase. It's crisp, clean, lacking that clutter. Like binder clips.

From the film: "It's air. You have no choice; you have to breathe."

My friend Eireann's handwriting is so pretty, they turned it into a font for her first book.

I once wrote a letter to our exchange student from France entirely in WingDings with a decoder attached. I doubt she took the time.

From the film: "If it tells you do or don't, it's written in Helvetica."

- Official Film Site

Letterpress Demos

After the Twin Cities Book Festival, Meryl and I headed to the Open Book where MCBA was hosting free demonstrations on letterpress techniques. We saw Monica and Meryl was introduced to Regula, who is one of the mentors in MCBA's mentorship program, a competitive series of one-on-one meetings and workshops designed for an artist in another medium to explore the book arts. Meryl is the winning poet this year, and I truly cannot wait to see what comes out of this experience for her.

Tattoo Lit

My tattoo-in-trade has been published in a book, out by Harper Collins, and originally titled The Word Made Flesh, which is now used as the book's blog name. I love the matte feel of the book and enjoyed paging through, seeing how others might preserve the work that they love in unique ways.

Missing from my page is my entire last name (Molly Sutton Kiefer), my geographic location (hello, Minnesota!), the story of the tattoo, and credit to the amazingly talented Shawn Hebrank, whose work I hugely admire. But it is a truly impressive little book with so many wonderful tattoos celebrating the love of literature.


My mother took this photograph last Christmas; it's fully healed and receives much admiration when sported at places such as the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Twin Cities Book Festival.

And the little Kelsey is wedged into the Hebrank / DePasquale basement, preparing itself for a beautiful journey.

Platen Press Workshop

My dear friend Meryl (that's her, up above) and I took a class through the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts this month with Monica Edwards-Larson, who runs Sister Black Press and previously gave me a quick-and-dirty tutorial on the MCBA's dusty and roller-addled Kelsey press.

I'm in the first trimester of my pregnancy, fully in the throes of morning sickness, tumbling up and down the wooden stairs, which meant I kept my fingers out of the lead and mineral spirits, and Meryl did most of the muscle work, finding those sweet spots, the hiccup and catch bringing handle down and running the new rollers down the chase bed.

shopping cart

After much back-and-forth (my fault entirely), I now have an appointment to meet with Monica at MCBA, where she will give me a lesson on the Kelsey 5 x 8 platen-press. She's also kindly emailed me a pdf of an original Kelsey manual, so I can piece together my crated mess upstairs.

And I've begun the slow process of ordering supplies. Monica will email me a price list of her available materials, but I've begun to stock up on a few things:


:: two new rollers, one with trucks on etsy
:: form string, galley magnets, 12" and 9" quoins and quoin key, rawhide mallet, half pint dispenser can, soap, etc. on NA Graphics as well as the insects ornaments and ink scrapers and knives

I've also emailed Don Black about composing sticks and will order font through M & H Graphics.

It's a great investment, this.

trade

I now have motivation to bring the press to working order: this weekend, in trade for time on the press, Shawn Hebrank (husband of one of my friends in the MFA program) gave me one of the most striking tattoos.


That's it just after, so it looks awfully red and painful, but several days later, and it's healing nicely, feeling a bit like a sunburn.

I've been doing some research and found this is a good site to start a checklist from, and my husband has claimed the right to be the first to order a set of type for me and found this as an excellent resource.

Halloween weekend, there is a platen press class at the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, but my husband is standing up in a good friend's wedding in Wisconsin, so I will miss out, but I did email the instructor and she said she'd give me a private lesson; I just need to email her back and set up a time.

Perhaps the press will be up and rolling in time to make a few holiday gifts, though the priority just now is to get Shawn on the press. Of course, the priority really is to let me fumble through some things before I show him the ropes; I'd prefer not to be so wobbly, particularly since he is an artist who already does a great deal of screen-printing work.