It is always a joy to see someone enthusiastic about work they are doing, and tonight’s flick certainly manifests the pleasure that Sarah Nicholson takes in letterpress printing.     Rumours that letterpress printing is a dead/dying art are greatly exaggerated. I just looked at local listings and there are at least five small businesses doing letterpress printing in my community of approximately 300,00 people. Perhaps you can find one in your locality this weekend ..read more

Tonight’s flick shows some wood engravings by designer Enid Marx and Graham Moss of Incline Press printing one of her designs.     That flick is really just a teaser for a half hour video that shows the complete set-up of an Arab Platen Press. You might find time to watch it this weekend. Although demonstrated on an Arab, all these tips and instructions are equally applicable to any make of platen press, such as an Adana, a Model no 3-6, a Cropper, or a Chandler and Price. Introduced to the world in the 1870s, Josiah Wade’s Anglo-American Arab was still in production over a hundred ..read more

My focus was on kites again this week: this time, experimental ones. I call this the Exploded Square. It was unstable with no tails, and with a two-point bridle it was excessively tricky to set the correct angle. A three-point bridle with two legs attached to the top of the vertical struts and the third attached in the middle of the lower horizontal strut made flying easier. I also made a Bird Kite. I have seen pictures of similar kites in flight with just the wings, but I found that a tail helped the balance. I am still working on finding the best bridle for this one. Two legs didn’t work ..read more

Tonight’s short flick introduces Scott Hill of Evolution Letterpress in Seattle, Washington.     With the current revival of interest in letterpress printing, there is now more of it in our daily lives. See if you can spot any this weekend ..read more

When I am designing versions of this structure, I work in a computer program, but that is really only necessary because I am producing files for other people to print. If you wish to design your own modular accordion the templates for all the components can easily be made using just a pencil, a ruler, some scrap paper, and a knife or scissors. Some of you are extremely clever and have already figured out how to make your own templates. This post may contain information you will find useful. I used coloured paper for the example so the pictures would be clear, but you can use anything from mag ..read more

Tonight’s flick is the last in this series on paper makers. From the Vimeo page: This video is about 1500 year-old paper-making village in Japan where they produce large-scale paper for contemporary interior design.     This is a long weekend for many, so you might find time to watch two more videos. They are from the Drachen Foundation and relate to both Japanese paper making and kite-making. In the spring of 2006, nine accomplished kitemakers met in Kochi, Japan, to share ideas, inspiration, and hands-on experience to make an exciting exhibit.     ..read more

Today’s Byopia Press project is a little modular accordion based on the shape of a kite. To make the book, you will need to print three files: the body units, the connectors, and the text units. There is also a pdf with templates. You can just look at this on screen if you need a guide to which pieces go where and where the scoring/folding lines go on the first and last body units. (These have no scoring lines as they would show when folded.) If you would like to practice scoring and folding and putting the units together, you can print it out. You could also use the templates to cut out ..read more

From the text on Vimeo: This short documentary was filmed in the summer of 2018 and follows the process of Charlotte, NC based artist Elizabeth Palmisano as she experiments with a new body of work involving mixed media fiber arts and handmade paper. “This emerging body of work represents the transformative push brought on by adversity and the beauty that can come from humble, resourceful means. The work begins with upcycling everyday fibers such as paper towels, napkins, as well as scrap threads and transforming them into delicate, beautiful pieces of handmade paper. Once the paper is create ..read more

This is the final installment of my series on simple paper kites. Next week’s post will feature a DIY artist’s book — kite-related. The first kite today is a keeled diamond. The plans for today’s kites come from a book we have. I cannot tell you its name or author as it was a library discard and is missing the title page and publishing information. It was published after 1975, since the most recent date in the bibliography at the back is that year. The pages are brightly coloured with white illustrations. An image search on Google produced nothing that matched, so no one has scanned and uploa ..read more

Tonight’s flick from Stephanie Lunieski features a papermaker at Pyramid Atlantic.     You might want to check out the Pyramid Atlantic website this weekend. They offer workshops, exhibitions, and other opportunities for artists working with paper ..read more