Documenting his first go at making parchment from fish. |
Showing posts with label Fritz Otto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fritz Otto. Show all posts
Monday, September 2, 2019
Always Document Your Work and Keep Notes
Always photo-document your work and keep notes, no matter what career stage you're at. You never know when you'll refer back. Even Fritz Otto knows that.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Fritz Otto Goes Fishing
Thanks to Fritz Otto, I'm able to dive into another round of making fish skin parchment and leather. Have three skins in this batch, one coho salmon, and two haddocks. He'll make parchment from one of the haddocks, and then "we'' egg-tan the other and the coho following Nienke Hoogvliet's instructions from her book Fish Leather, a by-product of her RE-SEA ME project. Will be nice to have two identical species to compare.
The skins are soaking in a Mason jar with the dish detergent again. Tomorrow we stake out the one haddock to make parchment, and then start the egg-tanning. Looks straight forward.
A few weeks ago, Fritz Otto skinned the fillets we got, freezing the skins until we're ready. This is the coho. |
Back at it, again, with haddock and cohoe salmon. Will try egg tanning with some. Added research for an article on #fishskinbinding. pic.twitter.com/crrhbVUlYf— Peter D. Verheyen (@PressbengelProj) August 31, 2019
The skins were rinsed in unscented/un-dyed dish detergent to help remove oils. This process was repeated a few times, the skins kept in the refrigerator in-between to prevent decay. |
Next I showed him how to remove any remaining fleshy bits from the skin. |
He used a scalpel and scrapped away... |
Tiring work he just wanted to hide after. He said it was kind-of gross. I gave him some space... |
Reading up from Nienke Hoogvliet's instructions from her book Fish Leather |
See Fritz Otto Goes Fishing 2 for the next steps.
Book Arts arts du livre Canada (Vol 10., Nr. 2, 2019)
"Fish Tales, experiments with fish skin for bookbinding
The New Bookbinder: Journal of Designer Bookbinders (2020)
"Fish Tales, experiments with fish skin for bookbinding
The New Bookbinder: Journal of Designer Bookbinders (2020)
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Bookbinding Supplies | Buchbinderei-Bedarf, 1928
Below the 1928 Braunwarth & Lüthke catalog that gives a wonderful sense of the all the expendable supplies (paper, cloth, leather), hand tools, and equipment that a bookbinder of that time would have had available to them. Schmedt in Hamburg acquired Braunwarth & Lüthke 1990[ish] to give them a branch in Munich.
While not all items are depicted, where they are they can be a great aid to understanding terminology in foreign language manuals, especially in tandem with a resource like the Multi-lingual Bookbinding/Conservation Dictionary, https://bookbindingdictionary.com .
While not all items are depicted, where they are they can be a great aid to understanding terminology in foreign language manuals, especially in tandem with a resource like the Multi-lingual Bookbinding/Conservation Dictionary, https://bookbindingdictionary.com .
Braunwarth & Lüthke, München, Braunwarth & Lüthke - Preis-Liste über Materialien, Werkzeuge, Beschläge, Apparate und Maschinen für Buchbindereien und verwandte Branchen.1928. |
Scanning all 138 pages with Fritz Otto's help. No worries, the signatures were all loosely sew and the wrapper off, so no damage. |
Everything needed to equip a small hand bindery. Mk 1620 (Page 125) |
View below or download here.
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Fritz Otto Buchbinder
Needed a little help, alright a lot of help, in the studio, something that was very evident during Bookbinder Barbie's visit. We had fun, worked well together, and I was able to teach her about some of my favorite weird bookbinding proclivities like making parchment from fish skin. Most of what I learned from that experience was that working alone can be hard for any number of reasons.
That got me talking to some old connections in Germany, and through them learned about a very motivated and well-versed binder, Fritz Otto Buchbinder, who was looking for some new experiences. He's a Journeyman (Geselle) working towards his Meister, learned from some very good (and not so good) binders in the trade, and spent time at one of the few remaining art academies teaching binding. There are also a lot of under- and unemployed bookbinders around...
He arrived recently on the friendly skies of Lusthansa. They even managed to lose all his tools, save one. Ouch! To the rescue. the New World's best tool maker, Jeff Peachey who was able to outfit him with some of his finest tools. I was able to scare up some bone folders and Berlin-style brushes with the metal handle that he likes so much. The one tool he managed to save was the bone folder his Meister gave him as an apprentice. This Meister had gotten from the Meister of his Meisterin. Apparently it had guided a certain Franz through his career as a binder. There it is grinning from the pocket of his lab coat.
I look forward to having Fritz Otto in the studio with me, teaching him things as well as learning from him. He's curious, loves exploring the old binding manuals and trade publications. Mostly, I'm sure he'll get me binding more. I'll also be glad for his help working on the layout and running the trains.
That got me talking to some old connections in Germany, and through them learned about a very motivated and well-versed binder, Fritz Otto Buchbinder, who was looking for some new experiences. He's a Journeyman (Geselle) working towards his Meister, learned from some very good (and not so good) binders in the trade, and spent time at one of the few remaining art academies teaching binding. There are also a lot of under- and unemployed bookbinders around...
He arrived recently on the friendly skies of Lusthansa. They even managed to lose all his tools, save one. Ouch! To the rescue. the New World's best tool maker, Jeff Peachey who was able to outfit him with some of his finest tools. I was able to scare up some bone folders and Berlin-style brushes with the metal handle that he likes so much. The one tool he managed to save was the bone folder his Meister gave him as an apprentice. This Meister had gotten from the Meister of his Meisterin. Apparently it had guided a certain Franz through his career as a binder. There it is grinning from the pocket of his lab coat.
Fritz Otto Buchbinder with his Peachey Swiss paring knife. |
The tool starter set, more will appear as they are needed and made. |
Fritz was blown away to see this binding from the "golden age" of German binding, the period between the World Wars. |
Examining a "Dorfner-style" open joint binding on the print-on-demand version of Ernst Collin's The Bone Folder (Der Pressbengel). |
I look forward to having Fritz Otto in the studio with me, teaching him things as well as learning from him. He's curious, loves exploring the old binding manuals and trade publications. Mostly, I'm sure he'll get me binding more. I'll also be glad for his help working on the layout and running the trains.
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