Well, he done and did it. Fritz Otto started his own 'Insta' to take control of his own identity and manage his own 'reputation'... Thought there might have been some clause in his contract about social media..., but nope. So, here he is. Welcome Fritz Otto!
To see what he's up to, follow @fritzottobuchbinder.
To see more of his labours and personal projects at the Pressbengel Project, in addition to some silliness, click on the "Fritz Otto" label.
I was recently graced with a gift of two nice-sized steelhead trout skins by the fishmonger's wife. For a change they were a matched pair, i.e. they could have been both sides of the same fish, a nice bonus when thinking about binding designs.
Decided to tan these using green tea. I had seen wonderful examples by Janey Chang and Abigail Bainbridge in which much of the natural coloring had been preserved. It would have largely been lost had I used black tea, or made parchment.
Cleaning and other preparations the same as before, lots of changes of cold water with unscented/undyed dish detergent kept in the fridge. Next...
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| The skins in the first bath of 5 bags of tea. I used about 60 bags total of Tetley's Green Tea. It is important to start with a dilute tannin mixture to ensure the skin tans through to the center. |
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| The second bath had 10 bags of tea. This went on with changes every day and half in which the amount of bags increased each time. The last was about 25 bags for 2 days. I snipped into the skin during changes to make sure the center was getting tannins. |
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| "Making parchment from fish is nothing... This softening after tanning is brutal hard work. Working on oversized books was bad enough." As he felt them drying he added some olive oil to his hands to help lubricate the skins and finish them. |
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| Team-work and a good week's work. |
In the first step of the process, cleaning the fish, we decided to filter out the shinies (aka scales)... A few stubborn ones went through the tanning process and ended up yellowish. For kicks we threw them on the flatbed scanner (4800 dpi and downscaled for web).
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| A sampling... |
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| Untanned, note the growth rings, just like tree-rings said the dendrochronologist's daughter... |
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| This was one of the stubborn ones that wanted to be tanned... |
These skins will be used on Life-history and Habits of the Salmon, Sea-trout, Trout, and other Freshwater Fish (1910).
When Designer Bookbinders' latest issue of The New Bookbinder, volume 40 arrived, the one with my article "Fish Tales: Experiments with fish skin for bookbinding", Fritz Otto was blown away to find himself and the salmon parchment/shark leather box he made included in the "Lockdown" section of the issue. It's a fantastic issue, that carries the subtitle/theme of "Creative covering; the clothes on our books." Fish skin certainly fits that theme.
"Lockdown" was a two-page spread of images from each of the issue's contributors with a brief blurb about what they had been doing during the COVID-induced lockdown we have all lived with since March. Lots of different projects, most binding related, some not such as mask making, gardening, and painting. It was a wonderful recognition that the work we do does not exist in a vacuum.
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| Checking out the cover with Nadine Werner's fantastically photographed paper folding. |
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| Hey, look, that's me! How'd that happen? You can't see it, but that's the picture from when I made that box. The Meister shot it on b/w film, something he has been getting back into. |
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| Here's the description on the back. Even mentioned my guide, the Bone Folder. |
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| Hmmmm, a sign of the world of total information control we live in. Instagram added this when the image was uploaded. Better watch what I upload, or not! ✊ |
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| Most of the Warwick Press collection. |
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| Opening the portfolio. The flaps are made of book cloth and paper that have been glued together and when dry, cut to size and folded to fit. |
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| Opening the portfolio and removing Once Upon a Time, vol 4. |
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| He really likes the way the flaps look and work. |
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| Hmmmm... |
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| Definitely like it... |
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| Thank you for showing me. Instructions for making these are where...? Ah-ha, the handout is here. |
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| Fritz Otto is going to make the variant on the left. The diagram shows a cross section of the components and how they're covered. |
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| Fritz Otto redeeming himself after miscutting the boards for box. The Meister was demonstrating in a live FB feed and was most embarrassed... Because parchment is so transparent, Fritz Otto painted the exterior of the box black first. Then he glued the parchment onto the sides, and is now paring shark leather to go on the ends. It was a small salmon fillet. |
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| Here he is edge-paring the shark leather. |
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| One shark leather panel is on at the top of the box, next he'll glue on the other. When done, he'll put felt on the base, something that'll also hide the turn-ins. |
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| Here he test fitting the panels that will go inside the box that will create "neck"/Hals that will keep the lid in place. They are made from card stock and covered fully on one side and turned in enough on the other to cover the "neck." You can see that he has already pre-folded the salmon for the lid. |
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| Pieces going in as they should... So far so good. |
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| Everything fits... Good! Long sides first, then short sides between those during final assembly. |
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| Getting ready to glue the salmon onto the sides of the box. |
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| Almost done with the turn-ins. |
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| Test fitting the lid. If you click on the picture, you can see the join for the "neck." This way of creating the "neck" is pretty simple. There are more complex ways to cover the box that wouldn't show cut edges. |
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| Lid fits, and the shark and salmon go together well. |
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| Not bad... |
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| Can't deliver to fish monger's wife yet. Still need to put paper on the inside of the lid's sidewalls, and then some felt on the base. |
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| Sonderarbeiten des Buchbinders as bound by Arno Werner |
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| Catch of the day. |
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| Filleting was the easy part. |
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| The Peachey lifting knife was great! |
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| Just fried in a little olive oil with pepper. Didn't need more for a tasty meal. |
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| Rülps! (How Germans Burp) That was delicious! |
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| Coloring the freshly plowed top-edge using a paste paper technique. |
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| I think I'm liking the effect! |
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| Next, I add some shape and crispness to the rolled leather endband. |
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| And, a little more in that spot... |
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| OK, that's done. What's next? |
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| Making sure the implements of destruction are all ready. I got sent out of the room, and didn't get to watch the de-skinning or stretching... |
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| Inspecting the skins. Brrr, it's cold in the basement studio this time of year. |
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| Oh, great... I get to scrape away the nasty, left-over fleshy stuff... Gross! |
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| Detail of the grossness. The Peachey lifting knife is great for scraping this stuff off. Some day I better get my own fish to skin, prepare, eat, and use on a binding. Better be worth it. |
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| Broiled with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and pine nuts – it was wonderful! |
