I’m Robbin. I’m a former audio engineer who dabbled in physical computing. I’m now interested in a more analog craft: bookmaking! I took a workshop this summer with book artist Eliot Dudik at Maine Media Workshops. It was great! Upon return, I’ve discovered a lack of a space to spread out and repeat the process. There at Maine Media, they had a giant edge trimmer and guillotine cutter for thick davey board. (And weights and presses and bears, oh my!) I would love to see a dedicated area to book arts at Booth. I’d also like to see the book arts have a higher-end inkjet photo printer as that’s my concentration. And letterpress if we could manage!
I’m looking to start the book arts committee which needs a minimum of 5 people to be brought to the board of directors for approval. Please raise your hand here and give any feedback. THANK YOU.
@Robbin_Gheesling if you could add a photo to the post it will make it more attractive for Facebook. I’ll share it there, I know several past member who were into book making, not sure if they are still active. We have some of the supplies you mentioned in the print shop. I’m sure @Mlujan or @devin can fill you in. The high quality Cannon could also potentially print fabric and I know there’s some interest in that as well.
I’ve played with this and working on getting deeper with it. I see it as an apex making. With leatherwork, metalworking (more jewelry like)n textiles and printing. I even have plans to add cast resin objects and someday … lapadary. I guess I never considered it to be it’s own thing. Like jigs for sewing signatures and headbands? Glues and vices and presses?
Perhaps that’s what the committee will figure out.
I’m in, as well. I’ve owned and used a variety of letterpress equipment, including hand-fed and auto-fed
platen and cylinder letterpresses, Linotype, Ludlow, and Elrod machines, bindery equipment, and hand-set type on a composing stick. Our CNC capabilities can be used to substitute milled plates for locked-up type.
Ok Robin. It looks like you have 5 people for your committee. Lets figure out a good time to meet and get the ball rolling. If you can organized the when, I can make sure someone gets it on the calendar… if someone doesn’t jump in and just do it for us
I would propose a wider general arts committee and incorporate this as well as a further focus on on general arts and fine art printing if you or anyone else is interested in that. And I would undoubtedly join that committee.
Fine art… photo printing? What kind of printing? But yes, I just wanted to (to be selfish) and get the book presses and cutters in. I’m sure it will expand! If anyone wants to make handmade papers for me to buy and use in my books, for example.
We don’t currently have a general art committee or area at makeict. So it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Fine art printing is typically done on a higher resolution printer with at least 8 color printing and “archival ink and media” meaning that it is designed for prints that last hundreds of years without discoloration, fading, or generally falling apart.
There’s also the need for canvas stretching and possibly matting art that could be added into the fold. This requires space and equipment that i think could be shared with book making. There’s a lot I could bring to that committee. And would love to learn these other arts as well as others I haven’t even considered.
I think I have the same printer. Pixma 90 I think. Love it. The one I linked to is way better in every way! Paired later with a laminater and we could print outdoor durable materials. It also had several blacks, including matte which doesn’t produce the sheen on canvas prints. The difference between 1 black, and black+light black+light light black is huge.
Hey Robbin! I’ve been bookbinding for several years and would love to join this committee. My membership at MakeICT has lapsed, but I’d rejoin just to get involved with this and create with other binders. Especially sharing skillsets.
I’ve found a few workarounds for having minimal equipment. Using the laser cutters to cut boards is a massive timesaver! I’ve also played around with the CNCs a bit to make metal clasps, and I’m just getting into doing more brass work for fixtures. I’ve also taught a few bookbinding workshops.
Whether this committee meets soon or not, do you want to meet up sometime soon and talk books? I don’t know any other people around here who are into bookbinding and I’m so excited there are others out there.
