Yesterday was awful. All the aches and pains of being confined to a tiny space for more than a day jumped up and bit me in the butt, and I’m also struggling with a bad case of jet lag and the crankies. So I spent yesterday in an achey, woozy fog, and today looks only slightly better.
Then to top it all off, the internet connection at my house died. I could not communicate with the rest of the world from my comfy chair, and I was too messed up to stagger someplace with a live connection. I dropped off the internet for most of yesterday, which, considering my mood, might have been a good thing.
Also, this morning I read this story about resurrecting Renaissance technologies. Internet down, and people are building wooden printing presses and trying to bring back bookmaking? Definitely signs that we’re in the End Times.
The way I feel right now, though, I’m just going to bow to the zombies, presenting them my head, and tell them to eat and get it all over with.
I think a little Dylan Thomas is appropriate now:
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Warning: it’s 9am, and I already feel like a zombie.
I’d love to get involved in a bookmaking project. I’ve looked into doing stuff like that before (is it ironic that I looked into it on the internet), though most of my interest is effectively prop-making as background for my fiction writing and role playing stuff. I have a lovely handmade leather book that I picked up at a Ren Fest / craft fair several years ago, but it so nice looking that years later I’m afraid to actually mark in it.
Well, afraid and also continually looking at the best method to write inside it. Seems like your typical pen or pencil just wouldn’t feel right.
Bookbinding is fun. I’m especially fond of the Japanese stab-bound style, but I’ve tried a lot of the standard techniques.
As far as the zombie apocalypse goes, according to Mira Grant, it started in 2014.
The joys of a more socialistical time and place: back in the sixties I did some courses in Archive Repair and Restoration Bookbinding at the old London College of Printing down at the Elephant and Castle. Cost almost nothing and was an absolute delight. I’ve often thought that if my retirement plans include more than falling face down onto my keyboard bookbinding is what it’ll be…
Yeah, I did some of that stuff in jr. high — we had a very nice option in shop class of working with offset printing & lithography & book binding, rather than the usual big noisy saws and chunks of wood in which we either made birdhouses or doorstops. Usually ending up with doorstops no matter what we intended to make.
@dWhisper #3,
May I suggest one of these. http://www.glasspens.com/pens.html I have one, and it’s a lovely item to use. Also easier to clean than a dip pen with a metal nib, and far less inclined to spatter than a hand cut quill, both of which I also have used.
Old techniques and tools may be inefficient and not cost effective for mass production, but that doesn’t mean they have no value nor should be abandoned. Knowing and preserving traditional methods is as much about culture and history as it is the product.
http://blog.massfolkarts.org/
People still buy handmade tailored suits and dresses, so why not other crafts? Or does it only have value if it’s a luxury for the wealthy? Besides which, who wouldn’t want something special and unique, not mass produced (e.g. a family tree penned on parchment by a calligrapher)?
Numenaster (#7) –
As a lefty who prefers and uses fountain pens and not crappy ball points, those glass pens are
way coolastounding. I want one right now.