I bought a John Jacques & Sons industrial era paper cutter.
John Jacques & Sons Paper Cutter
Blog
Cloth Book Repair
Here are pictures from my last cloth book repair project which posed interesting color matching challenges.
Noble Attempts: NaNoWriMo 2017
It's the middle of NaNoWriMo and the third year I have attempted to get the same sci-fi story out of my head and into Scrivener. The last time I spent a significant amount of time researching for this novel, I was sitting in Widener Library at Harvard University...
Book Club of California
I joined the Book Club of California last week and received an envelope filled with back issues of their newsletter, journal (letterpress printed and edited by Peter Koch, no less), and other information from past publications, talks, and exhibits.
Rare Book School Course: History of Women Printers
Two weeks ago I took my annual California Rare Book School course up at UC Berkeley. I’m slowly working towards a Professional Certificate in Rare Books and Manuscripts. This year’s course was entitled "Printing at the Margins: The History of Women Printers" and taught by Kathleen Walkup, a Master Printer and Professor at the Mills College Book Art Program.
Dimensions of Library Design
We are in the long and complex process of building a new house. The house will have space for a library, a rare book room, and a studio for my book repair work. I've been dreaming about having enough room for my books since I was a little girls. When we started the planning process, I thought it would be easy to explain what I wanted to the architect and interior designer. The library was so clear in my head. Of course it wasn't that simple.
Early Lessons Learned in the Book Trade
A few lessons acquired thus far: Antique stores are not places to find quality books unless you are looking for books merely to decorate a wall or table and care more about the color of the binding than the actual book itself (I could totally go off on a tangent here about how this practice … Continue reading Early Lessons Learned in the Book Trade
The Curious Art of Book Scouting
Book hunting is a past-time I've enjoyed since I was old enough to be trusted to browse through antique shops with my parents. As I'm learning more about the book world, I've discovered that my methods of book hunting, while loads of fun for me, were not skilled in the eyes of a professional book hunter, also called a "book scout."
Memoir from a Bibliophile
This weekend I finished Books: A Memoir, by Larry McMurtry. The book was recommended to me last year by a rare book librarian in my California Rare Book School class at Berkeley. To have lived a long life surrounded by books and to have the thrill of getting in new stock and the pleasure of browsing through it - I can't imagine a more rewarding day of work.
First Trip to the Huntington Library
Last week while on a trip to Los Angeles, I went to San Marino to visit the Huntington Library. The library is part of a larger estate with art museums and gardens, but because I only had half a day to visit, I spent every minute in the library that I had been reading about for several years.
