Vacation Time = Book Time

These are all the journals I made last week during my vacation. I also got a fair amount of leather from Hardin Furniture, so there should be even more soon. Now I just need to find them a home.....

More Limp Leather Journals

I got a message from the new shop manager at WNYBAC requesting more limp leather journals. So last night I made these ones up.

I used the paste papers I made last year for the inside covers.

And while I was at it, I made this awesome book for myself :-)

Uninstalling Exhibitions

I had some extra time this week and decided to go in to WNYBAC. Today i helped uninstall two shows. For the miniature book show, we had to complete an "exit" condition report, on each book, in the provided binders. So I worked on that, while packing books for shipping to the next museum. I also uninstalled the second gallery show. This involved packing works by one artist for shipping (she lives in Texas). And wrapping the other works for pick-up by the artists. Finally, I had to scrape off the vinyl letters from the miniature book show, and spackle the walls in the gallery. They will be painted tomorrow.

Also, I brought in the four additional books I made in and Jessica immediately claimed the one with green thread.

More Longstitch

New journals for the WNYBAC shop.

Sales

I just received word that three of my long stitch journals have sold at WNYBAC. Woohoo!

My Favorite

This was my favorite book in the miniature show. It uses the poem from Alice in Wonderland....and comes complete with a little glass crocodile!!

Last Official Day

Today was my last official day at WNYBAC, since I am starting my MLS on Monday. It was pretty uneventful. There were an INSANE amount of mail orders from the weekend. It took about 2 hours just to get them all together. Then the usual run to the post office. Then, I helped put up some vinyl lettering for the miniature book show. I spent the remainder of my time folding "snake" and pop-up books.

Miniature Book Show Installed

 Today I printed and packaged the mail orders. I did not make the post office run because I had to help with the installation of the Miniature Books.  We used approximately 110 of the 140 books. they took up 5 floor cases and 1 wall case near the shop area. Rich is also going to add some books done by  local artists. Several of the books were missing their labels. After they were all arranged I had to type up new labels for probably 40 of the books.
Tonight I'm going to be helping Jessica bake mini treats for the opening on Friday. The opening should be fun, the show looks great. I'll try to remember to post pictures after the remaining labels are added and the Plexiglas cleaned.

Another day....

Today was a typical Wednesday. I gathered the few order and made my post office run. I also had to clean the museum and gallery area, in preparation for the New Year's event. Several of the presses were getting dusty during construction, and a few of the framed works for the auction had fingerprints on the glass. Once that was all sorted, I folded some new letterpress cards and put them into plastic sleeves for the shop. My last task was to copy information from the 2010 petty cash receipts into an Excel spreadsheet, so it could be used for the year end accounts.

Window Display Stage 2

Today we added Christmas lights to the display. More lights will be going up in the window displays soon.

I also prepared several post office orders and made the usual run down. I also arranged books and priced prints for the shop, in preparation for the Holiday sale and the New Years event. With the Beyond In exhibit gone, and the gallery walls are hanging pieces donated for the New Year's silent auction. I helped to hang some of the donated images.
My other task for the day was working on the Spring workshop series. I compiled a list of details for each workshop including the instructor, date, cost, and description. This list will be used to add the information to the website via Dreamweaver. I also created the registration form using Google Docs.

Window Display Stage 1

More books to come...

Workshop and New Exhibit

Today started with a workshop in the print studio. There was a group of high school seniors in for a field trip, and they were making prints using 5 different presses and various printing techniques. I helped demonstrate how to use the presses and ink the plates using different brayers.
My next task was to help check and log the condition of books for the next exhibit, MIMB: Monumental Ideas in Miniature books. There was 140+ books to check. During this process we also sorted out the damaged books and the books we didn't like enough to display. It was fun to see all the different books for the show.

Altered Book Window Display

Today at WNYBAC consisted of the usual, post office run, mopping the floors (the salt was making them nasty) and pricing some items for the shop. I also rearranged the books on our shop display table, and tacked some book bags on the wall by another shelving area. People haven't really been looking in the second shelving area because it's so close to the elevator construction. Hopefully hanging the bags will help draw people back in that direction... and sell a few bags!
I spent most of the day folding books. It's funny because when I was working on my little folded books for the exhibition, I suggested doing a window display to Jessica. But the Beyond In exhibit had just gone up, meaning nothing would move for a while, and I forgot all about it. Well, the exhibit is coming down now so Chris and Amy (independently) decided to do an altered book window display. Imagine my surprise when I came in and Chris asked if I would fold books! So I folded a few diamonds and a couple other different types, trying to add some diversity. They are planning to run cord through the books to help spread out the pages. I'm interested to see how that comes out. I always tried to use the best folding style for the spine thickness, so I'm not sure what the end result will look like with cord. I'll be sure to post some pictures.

Alone with the Press

After taking last week off for feasting, I was back at WNYBAC today and therefore am back online.
It started out with the usual, getting some online orders ready to ship. I did not have to do the post office run today because one of the outgoing packages was 40+ pounds of leads and slugs. Needless to say that would be difficult to walk with (in addition to other packages), so Rick brought them down in the car.
While he was away, I got to play... but not for very long. For those of you who don't know, Buffalo has it's own ball drop for New Year's at the electric tower. The electric tower is only a block away from WNYBAC, so the upstairs Literary Center has an excellent and exclusive view. Capitalizing on this, WNYBAC hosts a New Year's Party as a fundraiser. Providing those who buy tickets with food, drinks, music and a nice, WARM view of the ball drop. Rich letterpress prints the invitations to the event. He purchased special stamps of the electric tower and some fireworks to use for the cover and to make posters with. There is a lot of work to be done on these, and while he was out I was manning the letterpress machine alone (!!!) to put down the first plate (blue fireworks). I will say that the stamp was already in place and the machine inked when I took over. But still... I printed at least 50 sheets.
Then I worked on a list of consignment sales. WNYBAC does some consignment in the shop (my books are there!), and pays out on sales quarterly. Being a not-for-profit, WNYBAC needs to keep a record over all money they bring in. Jessica does this using an Excel spreadsheet, which records the date, item sold, price and consignment number when applicable. I used this spreadsheet to compile a list of sales for each consignment number, which Jessica will then use to calculate the money owed and send out checks. In doing this I noticed that we sell Amos Kennedy's prints on consignment. That is pretty cool.
The rest of the day was spent helping to clean up in the studio for a school tour tomorrow, filing invoices, and teaching Jessica how to long stitch. A good day I think.

Book Binding Kits

This week I cut materials for and assembled the "Basic Bookbinding Kits," sold in the shop. Each kit included the materials necessary to make three case bindings, with text blocks sewn on tapes. I had to cut the book cloth, print and assemble the instruction booklets, re-create the sewing template, and heat/mold the beeswax. This took a while. Rich cut the paper and boards using the print studio's guillotine. This is an assembled kit (without beeswax because it was not sufficiently cooled).

Card Inventory

This week at WNYBAC, I folded and organized letterpress cards. I put cards/envelopes into plastic sleeves for sale. This was the start of an inventory on the letterpress cards currently in the gift shop. WNYBAC sells cards at consignment in various places in Buffalo. Doing inventory will show which cards should be for sale at other locations (what we have the most of) and what style of cards we need to print (Thank You, Happy Birthday, HI!, etc). I really enjoyed this task. Speaking as a Virgo, the cluster of cards and envelopes, randomly assorted in a few drawers, was enough to make me cringe.

I spent some time in the print studio. Rich showed me where the slugs, leads, and furniture were kept. We set type for a poster he was designing. He inked the press and I helped him to pull about 60 prints. Because I was bouncing back and forth between upstairs and down, Rich said that we could make a letterpress card sometime. That way I can see the whole process from beginning to end and have something tangible to show for it. Hopefully sometime is soon.

Long Stitch Journals For Sale

I apologize for the crappy pictures. This was my project... long stitch journals to sell at WNYBAC. I lined the leather with a decorative paper, which contrasts the white text paper really beautifully. I made four long stitch journals in two different styles. The flowers are the inside of the brown/purple, and the green is the red/black. They are currently living in a cubbyhole at the WNYBAC gift shop.

Book Fest

Yesterday at WNYBAC was Book Fest. This means the space is open with tables for demonstrations and different neat things. The tables included marbling paper, pop-up accordion books, stab sewn books, making buttons, and open studio in the print studio. There were a lot of people there. I started out drifting, then stayed behind the desk/register and finished packaging my fundraiser "thank you" gifts. Then I spent some time helping at the stab binding station. The books at that table were made from recycled materials (cereal boxes, envelopes, etc) and were drawing a lot of attention. I taught 4 people how to sew their book. It was great.
And when every body left... I got to marble some paper. My sheets came out a little crappy, but it was still neat to learn.

Tube Cities

 This week at WNYBAC, I had to gather materials to be mailed out to donors. There was recently a fund raiser for a ventilation system to be installed in the basement print studio, and $5000 was raised. Depending on the level of donation, individuals receive 3 letterpress cards, a poster, 5 pieces of ephemera, a free workshop, and a free one year membership. I collected all these materials and sorted them into piles (based on donation level). The posters needed to be rolled, so I had to cut down some 4' tubes to fit. After I started stacking them, I realized it looked like I was building little cities, so I took pictures. (Sorry about quality... I used my phone camera).

New Projects

Since I'm out of construction paper and my little folded books have been shipped off, I am starting a new minor project. I am going to make some long stitch journals to sell at WNYBAC. Let's see how it goes.