Manuscript Awesomeness

In this, the second to last semester of Grad School, I am taking a Medieval Manuscripts Class.  I know, it's totally awesome.  We basically study the construction, design, history, and context of manuscripts from the 6th century through the late middle ages.  It's like I've died and gone to heaven and someone is giving me school credit for it.

When Max and I were in New York I insisted that we go to the New York Public Library- twice actually.  I didn't know if they had any exhibits going on, but I thought it was worth a shot.  When we got pas security I looked up to find a sign that read

"Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam.  Scriptorium This Way"

What?  A scriptorium?  (The scriptorium is the room where monk scribes copied manuscripts and did the illumination and decoration)  Turns out we had stumbled into an exhibit on the "founding religious manuscripts of the three Abrahamic faiths" complete with scriptorium.  I spent most of my time in the scriptorium watching videos about making ink and parchment and doing medieval calligraphy.  This little backlit table below was set up so people could trace calligraphy from the various languages involved in the exhibit.

These other pictures help illustrate the book making process.  The first pictures are bottles of pigment that were traditionally mixed with egg white (called tempera) or gum arabic to produce flowing inks and paints.  It looks awesome, but somehow I doubt that 6th century monks had hot pink ink.  They did have a surprising amount of colors at their disposal, but I don't think hot pink was one of them.  The color pigments come from things that occur in nature - trees, rocks, dirt, plants, rust, special kinds of fungus, etc.  There is a long soaking and grinding and sifting process that takes place before you get to this stage.   

This is a piece of parchment as it stretches on a frame.  But let's back up.  In preparation for my final on Wednesday, I'll just give you some of the juicy bookmaking details.  Parchment was used for "books" after things like clay, wax, or stone tablets.  You make parchment, which comes from the skin of an animal, by soaking the skin in a solution of lye, sometimes alum, sometimes oakgall (little knots on trees left over from insects) - there are a variety of things.  This helps the hair fall off.  Then you scrape the skin with a sharp knife, soak it again, scrape it again and then stretch it out to dry on a frame.  While on the frame you scrape it again, making sure to remove all of the hair.  Lastly, there is a kind of polishing done on the parchment by rubbing pumice or the flat side of knife over the skin.  It was also common to treat the parchment with something that would help ink stay put on the skin later in the bookmaking process.  By the end the very thin skin is folded, cut, marked and text is copied onto it.  

They also had a display about paper.  Paper is made by separating the fibers of an existing thing, a plant or a tree, or natural fibers like the ones below, by soaking it in water, beating the pulp to break fibers apart, running the sludge through a screen and then leaving the newly formed fibers to dry and bind into a new sheet of paper.  There was a little egg shaped burnisher made out of a rock that we could try and burnish the paper with to give it a better look.  Very hard stuff.  

Wow.  I've really nerded up the place.  I'll leave the other mysteries of bookbinding for another day.  But if you want to learn more about the exhibit and watch the awesome videos, you can follow the library's link.  NewYork Public Library: Three Faiths

But Where Do They Belong?

I was searching today for news about Saad Eskander, the Director of the Iraqi National Library and Archive, and to me, library hero of the century.  After the 2003 U.S invasion of Iraq the national library was heavily looted.  "About 60 percent of the records and documents of modern Iraq were lost, along with virtually all historical maps and photos, and perhaps 95 percent of rare books" Eskander reported.  And we're not just talking about telephone company records from Basra, we're talking the treasures of one of the worlds oldest and most influential civilizations.  Things of immense worldwide significance as well as being at the core of the Iraqi Identity.  In response to not taking the appropriate and previously utilized precautions when facing the possible destruction of cultural artifacts during times of war then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield said "Stuff Happens". 


If you can't tell, it makes my blood boil and I can't think about it for very long.


But what's so important about a bunch of old books?  If that's what a library is to you, then I can't convince you that it matters.  But to me, a library like this represents the heart, soul, and historic identity of a people.  It's utter destruction mirrors that of the Iraqi people, but it's resurrection could bring about great progress in the reunification of Iraq - from a symbolic perspective as well as a practical one.  Eskander has worked tirelessly to make this happen.  He has spoken not only of the rebuilding of the collection, but also of what a functioning national library could mean as a model for other institutions. "I want to make the library a democratic model of how Iraq should be. From the start I hired Sunnis, Kurds, Shias, women, men. The national library must be a place - perhaps even the most important place - where Iraqis from many different groups come together."


But anyway, I found this article today in the Los Angeles Times regarding the final resting place for a trove of rare Jewish books found in the Iraq library at the time of the invasion and sent to DC temporarily.  The Jewish community in Iraq is very ancient and almost non-existent today.  Eskander wants the books to be returned to Iraq because they represent a crucial part of Iraq's heritage (and that's where they came from) but Jewish groups in American and Israel say that they are the property of the Jewish people first and foremost and should be returned to Israel, partly out of concern for their safety.


So where should they go?  They came from Iraq and it make sense that they should go back.  But to these Jewish groups, that nature of the books as Jewish far out ways any claim on their Iraqi-ness.  It's a really telling example of how Israel sees itself, I think.   In fact, the mission of the Jewish National and University Library (Israel's National Library) is to collect all things Jewish and/or related to Hebrew.  It's a goal that supersedes country sovereignty and borders - but that becomes problematic when we are talking about a once shared history now greatly fractured. 


It's sticky.  

Awesome Books I Saw

A few weeks ago, back when I had free time, I toured the National Museum of the American Indian.  It is a great museum and I had a fabulous guide.   But my favorite part was an exhibit about the effect of Christianity on the American Indians.  While controversial to say the least, the clash of these two groups produced some really fabulous hand beaded bibles.

...hhhhmmmm, beaded bookcovers.  What a great idea...

Moroccan Leather Anyone?

Paper, Paper Everywhere and Everything Is Lovely

A few weeks ago my bookbinding teacher, who is an amazing artist of many stripes and shapes, did a paper marbling demonstration at his synagogue.  Saying it was very cool is a gigantic understatement.  I'm pretty much obsessed with paper marbling now and already have plans to add a paper marbling bath to my home studio (which only exists in my mind at this point).  In case you were wondering about paper marbling, enjoy the following:


A Little Bit of History: 
The beginnings of paper marbling come from Turkish/Islamic origins.  The Turks were really the masters and developed the process and some of the tools used today.  Marbling was developing in parts of India and Persia during the 17th-19th centuries as well, though Europe has perhaps the most commonly known association with paper marbling as they have been doing it since the 17th century.

Evidently, the first American money had marbling on it!  Thank you Benjamin Franklin. I haven't independently confirmed this, so if anyone knows anything about it I would love to learn. 

The Wikipedia page has some good info and some great examples. 


A Little Bit of Process:
You take a large bath of a mixture of things - water &special chemicals - and then you drip special paint mixed with oxgall (just what it sounds like - gall of an ox) into the mixture.

The paint stays on the surface and depending on a few factors (how much oxgall, the thickness of the paint, the consistency of the water/chemical solution) it will spread out.

Once the paint is applied, you take either a single needle looking tool, or a large rake tool that extends the width/length of the bath and rake patterns into the wet paint.  This was my favorite part and each time my teacher would rake the paint a new direction there were oooohhhs and aaahhhhs at the result.

Then you lay the paper carefully down on top of the paint, making sure there are no air bubbles, and after a few seconds you pull it away from the bath.  The paper has been treated with alum so the paint bonds to the paper immediately.  You rinse off any residue on the paper and let the awesomeness dry.
I am so obsessed I made a cheesecake this week and tried to marble the top of it with chocolate batter. The marbling turned out fantastic...the cheesecake, on the other hand, was not so fantastic.  

I bought a few marbled papers from a local artist at the demonstration and couldn't wait to make a wee little book with it.  I am making a sister book to send to Rick Steves in thanks for spreading his travel gospel.  Is that too stalker-ish? 

A Book, a book...and a book

As often happens, I get started on one project that kind of spirals into several. I do a lot of work in a flurry and then don't make anything for a while. But whatever. It's my art and that's the way I want to do it :) So, I finished the book I mentioned previously...and a few others.

This book will be a photo album from our time in Jerusalem.  Max is going to write Israel/Palestine in Hebrew and Arabic (respectively) and I'll put it in that indented space on the front.  It opens left to right, like Arabic and Hebrew books do.  I made this paste paper (not the paper itself, but the design on it) a few weeks ago and it was the only one to turn out decent from the whole batch.  I chucked the rest.  BUT I am going to try and make some more paste paper this weekend.  I'll blog about my results if things turn out well.

This book deserves a little note and a thanks to my Mom.  Someone came to visit us when we first got here and she offered to bring something for us.  I wanted paper.  My Mom probably thought I was a little loony, but paper she sent - this orange mosaic piece among them.  I don't know if my Mom always understands me, but she supports me and that means a lot.  She's the best.

This book is made of one signature (folded pieces of paper).  It's a good way to make a sturdy little book.

What I've Been Making

I'm really excited about this series of journals I'm working on.  The second one has a picture of the Western Wall and if I do a third it will have an illustration of The Holy Sepulcher.  For you nerds out there, I sewed them on linen tapes and bound them with a traditional flat back case binding.  I used hand marbled paper I got in Siena, Italy last year for the fly pages and hand sewed head bands on top and bottom with the bead on the spine (not pictured).  I'm taking an Adobe Illustrater classes online again (lynda.com - you are the best thing since my Max) and the illustrations are original.    I'm thinking about making some sort of clamshell box or slip case to house them when I decide how many volumes I want.   

The second is a leather binding with a diamond shape spine pattern.  I'm not sure what I'll use it for...but I have visions of myself camping out in the old city and drawing so maybe I'll use it as a sketch book or a place to put finished paintings of the old city.  You know, when I actually get back to painting... 

Don't Worry, Be Sneaky

I have, indeed, been creating the aforementioned wiki about book travel throughout the world.  I have just gotten a little bit paranoid and so I'm not publishing it on my blog.  Isn't that silly?  Well, I'm doing it all the same.  So if you are going somewhere and want to know its book history, drop me a line and I will hopefully have some information about that region's book history by then. 

I just wanted to tell you, internet persons, that I have not faulted in my attempts to get motivated. 

My latest discovery is the Rock Drawings in Valcamonica, northern Italy.  In this most norther region of the Lombardy you can find one of the largest and best collections of prehistoric petroglyphs.  I'm trying to steer our summer stopover in Italy to the north so that we can see these caves.