Spring War Preparations

My summer internal alarm clock is kicking in. Today was my lay day from the gym but I still woke up at 6.30am. So instead of sleeping in, I decided to get up and do some prep work for Spring War. I got all of the covers cut out from my exemplar books. I should be able to get at least half to a useful stage by the time my collegia is on on Saturday. It might be useful if some of them are only half constructed as this will let people see "inside" the construction. I will also cut and kit up some spares to be working on and use to demonstrate bits and pieces in the class. Gotta love a technique that can be done anywhere!

I also need to get the pages cut and hole punched for my freebie giveaways for the class. I already have the covers cut out. Also need to cut out buttons.

I will also do some of the quick and dirty vade mecums to sell. I'm thinking about $10 should be about right.

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Duststorm

Duststorm
Originally uploaded by Jane Stockton

I woke up this morning really early (which is annoying 'cause Wednesday is my layday from the gym when I get to have a sleep in!) and could tell that the duststorm had hit. This video was taken at 6.30am. By the time I got to work at 8am it was even darker, redder and thicker.

I think that the car washing places are going to make a fortune over the next few days.

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Exemplar List

I've spent the afternoon working out what I need to make for my list of bookbinding exemplars. I wasn't doing anything productive as far as getting them started. I think having the list will make things better. I have an example of all of the different styles of limp bindings, including a variety of clasps and spine types.

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Medieval Anatomical Pop-Up Book

This was too much fun to miss out on.

From Bookn3rd:

The world’s largest collection of sixteenth-century anatomical prints, or ‘fugitive sheets’ has been digitized and is available online, thanks to the Wellcome Library. There are nineteen prints with pop-up action allowing the reader to see different organ systems in the order of dissection. In this male and female set you can see both still images and video of the flaps being lifted—brilliant! (I do wish that more of the entries offered stills, since the video is cool but it’s hard to get a detailed view of the different layers.)

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Embroidered Bookbindings from the Bodlein

A new database to search at the Bodlien called LUNA. A collaboration between ARTstor and the Bodleian Library to produce 25,000 images from 35mm filmstrip negatives and positive slides. Material includes medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts.

Embroidered bookbindings - http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet/view/search?q=embroidered&sort=Shelfmark%2Csort_order&search=Search

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Cleopatra the Very Tired Cat

Very Tired Cat, originally uploaded by Jane Stockton.

Cleo had had a very big day and was very tired.

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Vade Mecum Closed

Vade Mecum Closed, originally uploaded by Jane Stockton.

Vade Mecum were medieval notebooks. They hung from belts and were used by doctors to carry important reference materials with them when visiting the sick. I've made this one inspired by the style but using individual pages for a notebook. Not very authentic.

EDIT: I've now found evidence for this sort of loose leather cover. So there are really only two things about this not authentic. The individual pages and the button to keep it closed. So, about 80%. That's pretty good. I think I will make some of these for Spring War.

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Vade Mecum Open

Vade Mecum Open, originally uploaded by Jane Stockton.

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Dune Binding Collage

Dune Binding Collage, originally uploaded by Jane Stockton.

I wanted to have a book I could take with me to my SCA events but that wouldn't stick out. So I decided to rebind my copy of Dune in a way that would make it blend in a bit more. It is made using a medieval secondary tacketing method.

If you click on the image and go to Flickr, there are notes on the image to explain what I did.

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