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designer bookbinders contemporary book arts NEWSLETTER OF DESIGNER BOOKBINDERS NO 171 AUTUMN 2015 2 db introduction Find out more at: www.designerbookbinders.org.uk NEWSLETTER OF DESIGNER BOOKBINDERS NO 171 AUTUMN 2015 Editorial The summer has been quiet from a book events attention and repeating yourself several hundred times in perspective. Everything has flown back from the states the space of a couple of hours. The inevitable down-time from the ‘Inside Out’ and Arion Inside exhibitions. Well, does, however, give you time to consider the notion of everything that was left unsold. Covered, a fabulous exhibiting and an opportunity to watch how other people success, has been and gone. For me it has been a time go about it. So how do the successful ones do it? Usually for restful introspection, the calm after the storm that was by communicating a clear and concise message to the the Spring, a time for reflecting on the previous events of public about what it is that they provide and by having the year and planning my next ventures into the world of one or two pieces that really catch the eye and pull the bookbinding; and of course a time for picking tomatoes punters in to talk about them. One of the problems we and runner beans from the garden. face with each group exhibition we put on, the essential compromise, is that all the items shown are created in Competition time is looming. The deadline for the isolation and may not bear any relevance to each other Annual UK Competition and Exhibition is racing at all beyond the binder being in DB or perhaps the text. towards us and with it the deadline to register for the But there’s no way around this and it is testament to the International Competition and pay out that entry fee – the hard working curators in DB that we pull off such fabulous counterbalance and only path towards that fabulous prize exhibitions. pot. So Myths, Heroes and Legends it is – plenty of scope there. Thank you to Jan Bosch for kick-starting our new feature From Afar in which we shall be publishing an article in I’m very much looking forward to taking part in the each newsletter from one of our foreign counterparts. Open day at The St Bride Foundation on Sunday 29th November. I’ll be there demonstrating so I’m expecting For me planning my next bindings starts with the materials. some support. I think it’s very important that we get the After all, the things we create can only be an adaptation Associate members more involved in the Society. There of the materials we start with, as food can only be the sum seems to be an increasing amount of expectation on a of the ingredients. Sometimes these maybe something relatively small number of already busy people to make I have been using and feel I have further to go with, the Society function. It would be fabulous if we could sometimes something I have stumbled upon elsewhere, spread that load a little. It can feel that there is an inner or something I have been using and done something and an outer circle of DB and that most of the work is different with whilst restoring books. After staring blankly done by an inner, inner circle. at it, often several times a day for several weeks, comes the experimentation, seeing what it can do, whether it will This year and the previous few years have seen me do the thing I want it to do, then the finding out what it will spending a considerable amount of time manning stalls actually do and if it will actually do something appropriate at Book Fairs and Art Fairs and so on. I have become very to the subject. Only then can the design really be thought familiar with the fair atmosphere, the way that things can through, finalised and finally realised, and then I hope, change from mind numbing monotony - finding yourself exhibited alongside all your offerings. examining the same screw hole in your booth for the eight hundredth time for the boredom of looking at Thank you to everyone who contributed to this edition of everything else you have looked at so many times that the Newsletter. day, the way the air-con drones and fluorescent lighting buzzes, after four days, can drive you nearly insane - to Happy binding to everyone. suddenly being surrounded by people jostling for your Daniel Wray db introduction 3 Find out more at: www.designerbookbinders.org.uk NEWSLETTER OF DESIGNER BOOKBINDERS NO 171 AUTUMN 2015 Autumn Spotlight 2015 It is with sadness that I have to announce the death of ex- We’re all looking forward to the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair Fellow of DB Denise Lubett who died, aged 92, in the early on the weekend of October 31st/November 1st. For anyone hours of Saturday morning 15 August 2015 at her home in who has never been before, make an effort to go. It’s a great London. She is survived by her son Roland, his wife Tandy day out with much to see. There are new books and old and her three grandchildren Fiona, Tania and Naomi – all books, some great lectures and prices for all budgets. And a resident in Australia – also by her elder brother John Stewart mini trade fair. It only happens once every two years so don’t Ullman and by her nephew Nicolas. An obituary will be miss it. published in the next newsletter I am pleased to announce that we are in the process of The 2015 issue of The New Bookbinder will be with you shortly organising the first ever DB Open Day. This will be held at if it hasn’t arrived already. The title this year is Of Space and the St. Bride Foundation in London on November 29th and Place and I know the diverse articles will engage readers on will be in place of our usual Autumn Meeting. We hope many many levels and be very thought-provoking. Many thanks members, and their families, will come along to make this go to its editors, Annette Friedrich and Joyce Lee (and their a success. See the announcement in the pages that follow. team), for putting together such a wonderful publication. Practical information will also be published on the website. The 3rd Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding DB is producing a limited edition 2016 calendar that has a Competition is officially launched and entrants are already photograph per month depicting the process of binding a signing up – all very exciting and positive. This is an event book. It is going to look wonderful and will surely become we’ll keep members informed about over the coming a collector’s item. See details on the enclosed flyer. This is a months. 2017 might seem a long way off but don’t delay fund-raising project so please buy one for yourself and your sending in your entry form if you want to be a part of this book-loving friends (Christmas is not far off). prestigious affair. Until next time, I feel it’s important to know what societies outside of the UK do, who they are, how they were set up and what they get up Lori to. With this in mind I wrote to our European counterparts recently inviting them to begin a dialogue along these lines. *In this issue it is the Stichting Handboekbinden from The Our initial plan is to have a different society contribute an Netherlands. This feature will expand in the future to include article for each issue that tells us something about them. societies outside of Europe. I hope it will be of interest Dan’s editorial gives more information about our first and any non-UK members who would like to contact me contributor.* regarding their group, please do. The Society of Bookbinders Conference took place in Keele this year and I’m sure was the success it always is. I’m not able to report on the Competition results because of print deadlines. You will know the outcome by the time you read this. 2016 MEETING DATES NEWSLETTER ON THE FRONT COVER DEADLINES 23 January 2016 20 February 2016 Photograph with finishing Winter Issue DBPL Applications tools for the DB Calendar. 01.11.2015 Executive Committee Fellows and Licentiates Taken by Haein Song in 16 April 2016 the Black Fox Bindery in Spring Issue DBPL London. 01.02.2016 4 feature Find out more at: www.designerbookbinders.org.uk NEWSLETTER OF DESIGNER BOOKBINDERS NO 171 AUTUMN 2015 Here we go again! Reflections on organising the International Bookbinding Competition by Jeanette Koch The lovely pop-up dragon in our prospectus for the next international competition with the theme ‘Myths, Heroes and Legends’ is currently flying out to members, past entrants, and teaching establishments all over the world. The prospectus was designed and produced by the Bodleian Library publishing department after several discussions back and forth with me as to the theme image and more importantly the ‘wow’ factor of the object. Shakespeare’s pop-up Globe Theatre was greatly praised last time round so this one had to do the trick too! The detail is in the small print and that has to be right from the start, so Entry Rules and Registration Forms have to be checked and double-checked and sent out with the Dragon. Now I am sitting back and waiting for the letters and emails from eager participants to roll in.