by Tara Bryan | Jun 30, 2017 | Artist book, BookArtObject, bookbinding, books, creative process, letterpress, process, progress, Uncategorized |
When I started the book, everything went smoothly and it seemed like it would be a straightforward project. The plan was to open the paper, stack it flat to relax, and cut it to size on a guillotine. Easy, right? I had cut Japanese paper this way, so it should work and I could get to printing. Then, out of the blue, Robbie Burns’ ‘Gang aft a-gley’ kicked in. Chinese paper is shipped ‘gently folded’ in packages of 50 sheets, rather than being rolled around a core. When the box arrived, I opened the packages and lay the paper out flat so it could relax before being cut to size. It didn’t relax. I waited. I tried putting weight on top. I rolled it up and let it sit over night. In the process of trying to flatten it, I realized that, because of its soft texture, it also wasn’t going to jog well enough to be cut on a guillotine. Time for plan B. Water. The 27″ x 54″ sheets were too big to dampen and stack, so I folded and knife-cut each sheet into eighths by hand. As I started folding it in half, I realized the paper wasn’t square. The concertina structure, with pages tipped back-to-back, requires that the pages be the same size and square. Time for plan C. Sigh. I would have to fold each sheet in half and trim it to square by hand before printing, then trim the head and tail of the book block after it was glued so they would all be the same size. The paper is Double Xuan, 2-ply paper we chose because it...
by Tara Bryan | Apr 27, 2017 | Artist book, bookbinding, books, creative process, design, lead type, letterpress, update |
1. In the beginning… I have been working on an artist book of Kafka’s short story ‘The Great Wall of China’ for over a year. 2016 was the 30th anniversary of my return from a year teaching English in Chongqing, Sichuan; 2017 is the 100th anniversary of the creation of Kafka’s story, although it wasn’t published until 1931, after his death. The project has been a somewhat surreal endeavour at a time when the news was full of Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall along the southern border of the US, to make the Mexican government pay for it, to deport undocumented workers, and to ban Muslims. Kafka’s story seems eerily contemporary. In the story, a half-century before the wall is started word is spread through the country that people should train as architects and masons for the future. When the work is started, it is built in sections that aren’t connected – when one section is completed the group of workers is moved to a distant place to start another section. The populace is made afraid of invaders and distracted with preventing their arrival, keeping the nation unified by focussing on a defensive project. I was delighted to get permission from Ian Johnston to use his translation, and from Vihanga Perera to use an essay he had written about the story. The text was sent to Michael and Winifred Bixler to cast new type. Duncan Major agreed to create linocut illustrations, and the wheels were rolling! I wanted to use Chinese paper and a Chinese structure for the story. After testing several sheets, Duncan and I decided the double xuan paper seemed best. It had a bit...
by Tara Bryan | Jul 24, 2016 | Artist book, lead type, letterpress |
A lazy Sunday, just back (2 a.m.) from a wonderful week at the Wells Book Arts Summer Institute in Aurora, NY. I spent 5 days at the Skaneateles foundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler, learning to use the monotype casting equipment. Participants included Tina Arsenault (the other Canadian – NS), Okara Harvey (Australia), Selena Matranga (California), Matt Rieck (NY), Peter Sutherland (NY), David Wilson (VA but really MA), and Al Zavar (FL). We stayed in the dorm at Wells College and ate our meals with the other workshops’ participants, so I met a lot of interesting people. Michael and Winifred are wonderful, generous hosts, and it was a busy week as everyone worked on casting all the ornaments, borders and fonts their hearts desired. (Notice the pot of molten lead, swung out from the caster while Michael makes adjustments.) Wells College was founded in 1868 by the same person who started The American Express Company and Wells Fargo. The Book Arts Summer Institute offers 10 workshops over two weeks, but you can only take one workshop a week. I had a great time and met lots of interesting folks, and I have 43 pounds of type coming my way via...
by Tara Bryan | Jan 20, 2016 | Artist book, books, creative process |
Here are photos of the book I made for the CBBAG SK Light Book Swap. The structure is from Paul Johnson’s Literacy Through the Book Arts, but I learned it from the brilliant Ed Hutchins. Linocuts of lilies and jasmine (mentioned in the poem) were printed on damp St. Armand handmade paper, and the text printed in black. The LED lights and copper tape are self adhesive, and I used ATG tape to adhere the battery to the paper and hold the covers together. A thin piece of foam with a hole in it holds the copper away from a 3V battery so when the circle is squeezed the lights come on. Light! The poem is by Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali, the collection of poems in which “Light” was...
by Tara Bryan | Nov 5, 2013 | Amelia & Reginald. artist book, Artist book, Uncategorized |
It’s hard to believe, but these are the collated signatures for 105 copies of Amelia and...
by Tara Bryan | Nov 5, 2013 | Artist book, books, letterpress, Uncategorized |
I have been overwhelmed (in a delighted way) by all the positive response to the news that the City of St. John’s selected one of my images for the facade of the Civic Centre downtown. I am truly amazed and grateful to everyone who has liked and commented on the announcement! (Press release here: http://www.stjohns.ca/media-release/convention-centre-facade-artwork-selected#.UnaKRpXRksU.facebook) Sewing copies of Amelia and Reginald, gluing copies of Making Bread (not bombs) and printing, I’m getting ready for the next thing, the Book Arts Association NL’s Printers’ Fair on November 17th. The news is here: Printers’ Fair Artists and Craftspeople selling their wares: Books! Broadsides! Prints! Cards! Linocuts! Etchings! Lithographs! Letterpress! Sunday, November 17th, 2013 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Rocket Room (upstairs at Rocket Bakery, 272 Water Street) Admission Free Exhibitors: John Andrews Graham Blair Caroline Clarke Janet Davis Lori Doody Jud Haynes Sonia Ho/ Alan Ho Philippa Jones Christine Koch Duncan Major Jennifer Morgan Janet Peter Krissie Worthman Running the Goat Books and Broadsides St. Michael’s Printshop Urchin Green Walking Bird Press Hosted by The Book Arts Association of Newfoundland and...
by Tara Bryan | Jan 13, 2013 | Artist book, bread, Uncategorized |
This is the painting for the bomb side of Making Bread (not bombs). The brilliant Ray Fennely photographed it in sections (the original is almost 7 feet long) and spliced the sections back together.Now I am dropping out text and cutting it apart again to fit the template for laser cutting the sections, and I am beginning to see a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel! The other explosion paintings may become book covers or pages for other books. Later. I have almost completed a spreadsheet of countries of the world (234 of them) with names of their traditional breads and time zones so they can be sorted. Maps of Mesopotamia and Iraq, and snippets of text from various sources will tie up the package. The logistics of printing and laser cutting, determined by the idiosyncrasies of the machines, have been, um, fascinating to work out. The patient and jovial Ken Holden has helped me produce Corel Draw files that the laser cutter will be happy with. And so the project progresses at a slow burn. (I’m hoping this week I’ll finally be IN the tunnel!)...
by Tara Bryan | Dec 4, 2009 | Artist book, design, http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OxpT0o5MdBM/Sxj17g1rHTI/AAAAAAAAACw/2JhE-1oT0aE/s320/Notes2.jpg binding |
My studio has been filled with paper- Duncan printing my annual calendar page and the two of us madly assembling copies of Notes (toward a poem about play) by Don Austin, published by Running the Goat. The launch was last night, so today I can move on to painting. I’ll be trying to finish a few more icebergs before I leave to visit my dad for the holidays. The text is a prose poem about play, so I designed it to be read as a codex that unfolds into a game board. It has been four and a half years in the making, due to technical difficulties you don’t want to know about. The text was set and letterpress printed at Running the Goat, the game board was screen printed at Living Planet in St. John’s. The boards are hinged in pairs, then the text pages are glued on. Then those boards are hinged in pairs, and the first sections of the game board are glued on. Last, the two four-board sections are hinged, and the last game board section glued on. Now that we have completed 20+ (the edition is 90), we have a system, and there’s a little less paranoia about gluing something backwards or upside down. I still won’t push it- better to stop when the focus wanes and not screw anything up! If you want to know more about this project, see...
FLATROCK, NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA
Painter and Book Artist