It’s a striking, eco-luxe, wrapping paper. With whimsical names like Eon, Em and Poliwog, the attention to detail is carried throughout the entire design of the products. The creator, Elissa Brown Barbieri, is influenced by nature and architecture resulting in intricate, hand-drawn patterns and paintings with a subtle palette and lush sensibility. You can see true evidence of the hand in her abstract designs.

Her paper even inspired my recent line of handmade notebooks for my Book Meat shop on Etsy. Loop’s designs are clean, detailed and unique; a real find amongst decorative papers.

Linda Del Mar Beach

Yesterday, turned out to be a gorgeous day in Berkeley. I got really excited and decided the husband and I should make a trip out to the beach at Linda del Mar. It’s a great surfing spot just south of San Francisco, with a lovely cove and soft sand.

However, after driving through traffic in the city, we reached the beach and the fog at the same time. Instead of letting the imaginary sound of melancholy violons drown us in sorrow, we decided to continue our plans to picnic and spend the afternoon on the ocean anyway (with hoodies and scarves).

Redwood Hill Farm goat cheese & La Quercia prosciutto

We feasted on delicious prosciutto, cheese, and inevitably sand as it blew around our picnic blanket.

I took a walk along the beach to warm up after sitting in the fog, and was so intrigued by the haphazard patterns and designs that I encountered in the sand.

The palate was subtle and calming, and I was inspired by the combination of textures; the grit of the sand, the smooth grey of the stones and the ridged driftwood. If it had been a gloriously sunny day, I might not have noticed these details. I plan on going paper shopping this week to find some motifs that elicit this foggy afternoon, so I can attempt to capture it in book form.

I’m thrilled to announce that Book Meat now has a store open on Etsy! It’s the cumulation of many hours of hard work, sketching, musing, trial & error, models, making & unmaking, meandering, binding, printing, sewing and certainly some joy.

I loved designing the different products that are in the shop. I was able to tap in to my personal aesthetic, excavate my history, and create paper goods that I wanted to use, and that I’d be proud to share.

I’m attracted to the quirky in life, the little stories of objects, style that intrigues and holds attention. I’m obsessed with texture, bones, clean lines, sewing, new twists on historic binding and printing techniques, handmade paper, waxed linen thread, and quaint details. And I can’t wait to add even more Book Meat to Etsy in the future.

Susan Howe's "That This"

This week I was fortunate enough to be in New York City when the Center for Book Arts was holding a reading for Susan Howe and Douglas Crase. Part of the Center’s Broadside series, Susan read from “That This” and gave great insight into the origins of this collection. She uses different sections of the text to address the loss of her husband. I found the section entitled, ‘Frolic Architecture’ particularly moving. Fragments of photocopied text are layered on the page, words are cut off mid-line, and the resulting sounds appear to bear up the poet’s grief.

Everyone who attended the reading was given a broadside that was hand printed by the artists in residence, and signed by the poet. The Center for Book Arts in New York holds 12 Broadside readings throughout the course of the year, with a recommended admission price of $10.

Teflon Folders

I bought my first teflon folder at Talas in New York. Talas is a varied and unique source for Book Art supplies, specializing in hand bookbinding tools and resources for conservation. Even if you’re not conserving 17th century manuscripts, they’re still the best source in New York for tools of the trade. They sell two sizes of teflon folders, each with dual edges starting at $19.50.

Sample of 18th Century Cloth and Note from the Orphan's Mother

I’ve always been obsessed with British culture, tea, history, fashion, museums, you name it, but I only just became acquainted with the Foundling Museum in London. It’s a fantasticly unique institution that houses the story of the first home for abandoned children, in addition to holding an impressive collection of art and period rooms.

A friend of mine told me about an online exhibition that the Foundling Museum did called Threads of Feeling. It’s a gathering of 18th century cloth and textile fragments that mothers left as identifying markers for the young children they abandoned at the home. Threads of Feeling incorporates a beautiful slideshow of the handwritten notes and fabric scraps that were symbols of the last interactions between mother and child. These materials now make up one of the most comprehensive collections of fabric from this time period, because the cloths of lower class Londoners weren’t typically preserved through the ages.

From a book artist’s perspective, I’m fascinated by the combination of text and textile as image. The lists of mundane items left by the mothers is haunting, as are the handmade touches evident in the stitching and collaging of fabrics in these little works of art. Each of these artifacts tells a remarkable story of the past owner, and her personality as well as giving us clues about her life in 18th century London. Kathryn Hughes wrote a compelling article for The Guardian that further examines the history of Threads of Feeling.

Lark Crafts' New Publication

I’m always on the prowl for new books to add to my collection with inspired approaches to book design, craft and innovation. Actually, let’s face it, I’m a complete bibliophile so I’ll find any excuse to add a new book to my poor, sagging bookshelves. So I was doubly excited to discover that Lark Crafts had published Masters: Book Arts, which chronicles 42 book artists that are paving the way in this unique field.

The artists are interviewed about their craft, conceptual approaches, careers and overall work philosophies. These profiles are paired with beautiful full color pagespreads of the artists’ work making it an excellent source for inspiration. I like to sit with a cup of coffee, and a notebook and go through each page, writing down what really draws me in to the artists’ pieces.

The book comes from one of my favorite little publishing companies, Lark Crafts, based in Asheville, NC. They have a great blog with tons of tips, DIYs, and are a fantastic aggregator of craft culture.

Curser, an oldish looking typewriter font

Have you ever wondered how your favorite typeface was created? What’s the social history behind Futura or Spectrum? I recently stumbled upon a great site called new.myfonts.com, a giant aggregator of fonts for web and print. You can search a vast database of type and read detailed entries on its evolution and even its cultural association. The site acts as a general library, with the option to purchase the fonts for  your personal use.

One of the coolest features of the site is called WhatTheFont! where you can upload a file of a mysterious font and they’ll give you their best match in their catalogue. If that doesn’t work, you can submit the unknown font to the forum and have other type geeks debate its origins.

I haven’t been blogging for the past year because there have been some major alterations happening in my life. I started a graduate program at Mills College to obtain my MFA in Creative Writing & Book Art. In July 2010 I moved out west, from the Big Apple, in what I like to call “The Great Schlep”, with my husband and two cats. We found a cute 100 year old bungalow in Berkeley and settled in. Class started in August and just got out a few weeks ago. It was an intense yet illuminating year, where I grew as a poet, a book artist and a teacher. Going forward, I hope to expand Book Meat to incorporate my Press and Bindery, using this space to curate, muse, and explore what I’m learning and getting inspired by in the quaint, quirky field of Book Art. Happy Reading!

cheers,
Kat

The Antiques Roadshow's Irregular Find

Typically chock full of folk art, Tiffany pieces, and Jeffersonian chairs, I was really surprised when a text from 1492 appeared on the American version of the Antiques Roadshow. The book is the second volume of the works of St. Ambrose, one of the original ‘doctors of the Church’ from the 4th century, who largely defined what role monarchs should play in early Catholicism (according to him, they should stay out of it). Ancient texts often pop up on the British Antiques Roadshow, where Roman rings and medieval earthenware are commonly brought on the show, so it was refreshing to see an intriguing early manuscript on the American version. Books like this are known as incunables, taken from the latin word for ‘swaddling clothes’, because printing was still in its infancy when it was created. In fact, it was only about four decades prior that Johanne Gutenberg invented the printing press.

St. Ambrose’s teachings became popular again around the time of King Henry VIII, during the reformation, when Henry sought to sever the Church of England from the Vatican in order to further his own goals (namely divorcing, and beheading multiple wives until he was able to procure a male heir). The King himself owned several copies of this early religious text, which he studied meticulously as he created a new and opposing church doctrine.

Was Henry VIII here?

Coincidentally, adding to this manuscript’s intrigue is the inscription that reads Henry VIII, King of England, France and Ireland inside its cover. Was this text one of the infamous copies that belonged to Henry VIII? Books expert Stephen Massey said the only definitive way to tell if the book was indeed inscribed then, would be to consult a paleographer, an authority on older forms of handwriting.

The Antiques Roadshow further chronicles the mystery surrounding this rare find.