Category: JOURNAL

A technical journal of my college activities during my MA year at Camberwell College of Art, whilst studying Book Conservation.

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New projects with tape removal

Might I take this opportunity to remind everyone that tape is not for sticking books back together. That’s all.

The projects coming in have been a selection of spine removals, tape removal, rehousing, rebacking and a full fine binding for an author based locally, which is going to be a great project get going on – so good stuff all around!

These lifting tools have been made from old hacksaw blades and are extremely useful for getting under spine pieces, end papers and for tape removal.

I also finally managed to get my little pamphlet bindings folded and in the press, they’ll be ready for trimming and sewing next week – watch this space for completed ones!

Phew! Busy week – don’t mention the map, it’s my nemesis.

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Finding Old Books and Messages

As book lover, I am often rummaging around in charity shops for old interesting books, perhaps with the hope that one day I might find a signed first edition of Harry Potter, or something equally as profitable – no luck yet! However, I do sometimes find some interesting volumes, my favourites of which contain written messages from loved ones. Yesterday was one of those good days when I stumbled across a whole shelf of old books in the Link to Hope charity shop in Worthing (a good haunt!). I managed restrain from buying the entire shelf, but did come away with a few gems – most of which will need a little love and attention in the studio to stabilise their future existence.

New old books!
New old books!

So here they are, notes and all…

Some spine repair needed here
“To Miss Bourne August 1885”
Some serious red rot
“Robert Bedford”
No message, but nice drawings
The Wind in the Willows
“To Henry Mills from his loving Mummy”
Not that old, but I liked it

I’ve always loved reading messages in books, it’s like a little piece of someones life that is passed on, sometimes to a complete stranger like me, but that makes them all the more fascinating and nice to read. So my advice – always write in your books, you never know where they will end up!

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aMAZEme at the Southbank Centre

This week The Man and I had one of our “Luke & Maudie’s Fun Day Out”. I love these days, they are filled with enjoyable meandering, varied and regular pub visits (preferably trying out new ones) and generally having an enjoyable fun day.

The Saturday just gone was one of these days, this time along the Southbank – one of my favourite parts of London, and if you have not been recently, or are due to visit London soon, I cannot suggest it strongly enough to visit. It’s fabulous all year round, come Christmas there will be hundreds of little markets and lights on all the trees. But this time of the year is a time for drinking outside and picking up the sunshine amongst the London cloud – its wonderful!

The Propstore was the first stop – a bar just outside the National Theatre, which is one of these pop-up bars that will be there until the end of September. It’s made from old bits of scenery from the theatre and supplies micro-brewery beers including a very nice pale ale!

We also popped into the The Royal Festival Hall (another favourite), and managed to see a fantastic exhibition called aMAZEme. It’s been created by Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo and is based on the concepts of Art & Literature, Entertainment and Generosity. It is a collection of books built up into a maze in the shape of a fingerprint and really is great. It is one of these rare exhibitions where you can get involved, the phrase is “feel free to pick up the books and have a read, but please replace them for others to enjoy” – how great is that?!

I thoroughly enjoyed it, there isn’t much like being surrounded by walls of books, so I strongly suggest anyone in and around London goes and has a look, and possibly a pint on the river – can’t get much better than that!

Some books were in need of conservation!

I remember this book from when I was a kid!

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The scraps are scraps no more

Well I definitely passed a marker today, as I have finished the paper repairs for the toys scrapbook – Mrs E. Nevill Jackson’t Scrapbook from the Museum of Childhood. They have taken a long time as many of them protruded from the edges of the book, meaning they have been crushed over the years.

Some pictures of the book and its inserts before I completed the work.

Mrs E Nevill Jackson’s Scrapbook

The head of the book with crushed inserts

The foredge of the book with crushed inserts

In order to repair these pages, many of them had to be locally humidified first, as they were folded in on themselves, and opening up the folds without the introduction of moisture, would have broken them. I separated the local humidification from the rest of the book using melinex and effectively sectioned off a page at a time. Once humidified, they each had to be dried between blotters before I could repair them. The repairs were then done using japanese tissue (usumino) for the support and a toned thicker tissue for any infills, as can be seen in my last post.

The repaired pages…

The front of the book with paper repairs complete

The head of the book with repaired inserts

The foredge of the book with repaired inserts

So obviously now the inserts are much bigger than the book, as they would have been originally. In order to prevent them being crushed again, I am going to have create some sort of chemise cover to extend the boards and protect the inserts – so watch this space!!!

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Rediscovering the fountain pen (and other favourites)

I recently hit a big landmark birthday (sigh… the wrinkles are coming), and, being blessed with the love of The Man, who knows me so well, I got one of the best presents ever – a brand new Montblanc fountain pen! A thing of pure exquisite beauty. So whilst enjoying the delights of my newest pen, I started to reminiss about the other pens I have loved in the past, and had a rummage in my stationery cupboard to find said pens! And, after a thorough clean, I have got most of them working, with the exception of one – so here they are!

Black Parker pen with 14K nib and black ink

Red Parker pen with blue ink

Montblanc Meisterstuck with with 14K nib and green ink

Blue Sheaffer pen with turquoise ink

Silver Waterman pen with blue ink

Waterman nib in pieces – how sad!

fILOFAX pen for Mini and Pocket organisers

Yard-O-Lead pencil in rolled gold

Sheaffer biro in electroplated gold

Pencil, made in Japan

Very thick pencil, made in Japan

uni POSCA thick pen with light blue ink

Despite all these wonderful pens, my handwriting and spelling is still embarrassingly horrendous – so apologies if you can’t read any of it!

What’s your favourite type of pen?

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Scrapbook from the Museum of Childhood

Some time back in a post earlier in the year, I mentioned that I would potentially be working on a scrapbook from the Museum of Childhood. Well I was lucky enough to be allowed that project to work on as part of my MA final project, along with a recipe scrapbook that I am working on at college.

So I thought I would write an update of the work I have been doing on this second scrapbook, whilst at the V&A. This past week, I have been working on substantial paper repairs for the material that is sticking out of the scrapbook. These are items that, due to their oversize, have been bashed and damaged – so I am repairing them.

Marking up for a new infill to fill in the gaps of the paper

Lining up the infill, freshly cut using a needle from toned tissue

The new infill stuck down with wheat starch paste

Trimmed and done!

Local humidification of a particularly bent bit

Freshly flattened after humidification

It’s quite short and picture heavy, this one, but I will try and post some more soon!