Type Is Mass

This is Hagen's Type Is Mass abstract cut paper book. These shapes represent masses of type, image in a conceptual composition. You can see the flow of the book, its masterful pacing, its elegant simplicity. One idea transitioning into the next.
Her next step is to replace some of the shapes with text, paragraphs of copy that vary in weight.
Bravo Hagen!
















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New Unsupported Blanket Stitch Book

We had a bookmaking brunch at my house yesterday and I think we've formed our own little "Bookmaking Club." Here's mine - covered with a couple of Martha Stewart vintage alphabet cards.

Map Book

Here are shots of the book made from Sarah's vintage map stash.

Thank You Minus

These vintage maps came from Sarah in the mail today with a note describing her adventures rifling through a box of vintage maps in a new antique store down the street from her NYC apt. Wow. That was a really long sentence. I'll use the maps in one of my bookmaking classes to make a book for her.

Thank you Sarah for the cool materials!

New Calligraphy Class at Binders

You can now sign up for my new Calligraphy class at Binders here.

Calligraphy Class (CLASS 2 8/20-9/24)
Instructor: Anne Elser
Wednesdays, 6 sessions, Aug.20-Sept.24
6-8:30pm
Fee: $140

Are you fascinated with how beautiful calligraphy looks and want to try it yourself? This is an introductory look at two major calligraphic faces, Copperplate and Blackletter. They're both very different from each other, which should give the student a nice balance of styles within which to experiment. Calligraphy is less about pretty handwriting, but more about DRAWING each and every letter. It's about establishing a pacing and rhythmic motion as you write - giving you a consistency of shapes and letters, and spaces in between words and lines. It is highly relaxing and meditative. Like yoga for the hands.
Towards the end of the class, we'll be experimenting with a more colorful and modern approach to calligraphy,
using the folded pen nib and colored inks.
Students will be given handouts and guide sheets for both Copperplate and Blackletter. We will also address spacing and layout for addressing envelopes. For the modern calligraphic work, we will be working more intuitively.

Supply List
Binders
1. Pad of market layout paper: 9'' x 12'' (Canson® Pro Layout. 50 sheets per pad.)
2. Mechanical pencil.
3. Eraser.
4. Cork-backed metal ruler (any size you're comfortable with)
5. Dinky Dips® & holder. (or any other inkwell)
6. Oblique Pen Point Holder (for Copperplate.)
7. Fine Pen Point Nibs (for Copperplate.)
9. Speedball® C Pen Set (penholder and six nibs.)
10. KY Series Sumi Ink from Yasutomo®. (6 oz. black rectangular bottle.)
For Modern Calligraphy
11. Palette paint tray 6 or 9 well.
12. Bombay India Ink® 1 oz bottles. Any color(s).
13. New Horizon Folded Nib®.
Grocery Store:
14. Container of Wet Wipes (to clean your nibs and hands).
Suggested web sites:
15. www.johnnealbooks.com
16. www.paperinkarts.com
77. www.friendsofthealphabet.org (Atlanta Calligraphy Guild)

New Bookmaking Workshops at Binders

HI friends,

There are two Binders bookmaking workshops coming up this Fall that I'll be teaching:

The first is in September and you can sign up for it here:

Bookmaking Wkshp Sept (CLASS 9/19-9/21)
Instructor: Anne Elser
Fri. Sept 19 - Sun. Sept. 21
Fri. and Sat. 11am-5pm, Sun. 12pm-5pm
Fee: $140
We will make a flat back library case bound book and a clamshell box for it to fit into.

The second is in October and you can sign up for it here:

Bookmaking Wkshp Oct (CLASS 10/17-10/19)
Instructor: Anne Elser
Fri. Oct. 17 - Sun. Oct. 19
Fri. and Sat. 11am-5pm, Sun. 12pm-5pm
Fee: $140
We will make a coptic stitched book and a telescoping box for it to fit into.

Yet Another Book

Hallo friends,

Wanna know why I haven't been posting?

1. I'm on a book marathon.
2. I got an iPhone 3G.

I spent the greater part of my Friday morning standing in line with Anton and Doug at the ATT store. It was actually quite fun: Anton worked the crowd and the time went by rather fast. The phone is a dream - though iTunes was too overloaded that morning to get everyone up and running at once. Last night I stayed up until 2am syncing to the great cloud (big brother) in the sky. The best feature (at least to me) is the calendar syncing. I have said goodbye to my Kate Spade day planner and hello to iCal. Handwritten notes are now jotted down in the little books I fiendishly make.

All is well. Hand and mouse are one. (sigh)

new books!

Cheeky Monkey Sweater

Here's a sweater I'm 75% finished with. Emma Varnam's Cheeky Monkey Jumper. It's a british pattern and I can't help thinking of Mike Meyers as Simon on SNL as I work. What you see here is the back. The front's got a cute little monkey face with button eyes. This will be Anton's 2008-9 sweater. I hope it fits him! Here's one completed by another knitter. Beautifully done.

Very Thorough Sketching

New Binders Calligraphy class

Its official! You'll be able to sign up for a new calligraphy class I'm teaching at Binders on Wednesday nights from 6:00 - 8:30 PM. It's a 6-week class from August 20th to Sept 24th. I'll provide a link to a sign up page as soon as it's available. Happy lettering!

~Anne

It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better...

...being a mom and watching him grow.

We just spent about a week with family up in Rabun Gap.
My cousin Barb took this and many other fab photos of the kids.
These 2 of Anton took my breath away enough to count my
blessings and remember the lyrics of "Something Good" from the Sound
of Music. Maria and the Capt fall in love and she realizes that there
was some great plan for her all along, in spite of the road being rocky
at times...

Perhaps I had a wicked childhood.
Perhaps I had a miserable youth.
But somewhere in my wicked, miserable past,
there must have been a moment of truth.

For here you are standing there loving me,
whether or not you should.
So somewhere in my youth or childhood,
I must have done something good.

Nothing comes from nothing,
nothing ever could.

So somewhere in my youth or childhood,
I must have done something good.

Mia in Barbara's Eyes

Check this one out. Look at that beautiful giggle.

Anton in Barbara's Eyes

So my cousin Barb is a Photoshop guru and has been taking pictures of all of us all week long. Here's one of Anton that turns me inside out.

Family of Bookmakers

Hi friends,

I've been up in Rabun Gap spending yummy family time with the Texas Dusey's. Today we made books together. Tomorrow we shop! Yay! Here are pictures of our efforts. Aren't they and their creations darling!?

~Anne

W I L L B I T E

After a trip to the vet to pick up cat food, I asked for a "will bite" sticker as Anton has grown very dangerous as he approaches his
"terrible" two's. If he can't bite YOU, he bites himSELF. Really!

I love my husband & I hate DOMINO.

Dougie Fresh sent this e-mail out to his dearest friends today and I, being his beloved, love him for it. I did not stamp this letter, but left it on his desk this this morning to stamp it, if he felt it was worth wasting money on. "This one's worth a stamp!" he said, and scanned in the letter for you all to see, before popping it in the mailbox.

From: douglas.elser@yahoo.com
Subject: Love My Wife
Date: June 13, 2008 7:27:13 PM EDT

I love my wife for many reasons, like for instance the son she gave me and all that. But her sense of humor is awesome.

Anne got tired of all the deceptive letters from DOMINO Magazine trying to convince her that she owed them money because she had accepted a 'free' issue or two. So this little gem went out in the US mail today.

~DE

Silence

This weekend Doug and I rented There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis was masterful as always. Completely transformed himself.

I was deeply struck by the soundtrack, too - dug a little deeper and discovered the composer Arvo Part. Below are some amazing things Arvo has said about composing, creativity and being open to space(s) I read in this article, where the author talks about the Fullness of Emptiness.

For all you designers out there: When he talks about rests, you can translate that as white space.

"I have discovered that it is enough if a single note is played beautifully. This single note, the sense of peace or silence have a calming effect on me." (p.4)

One word suggests more than two ever could. Candlelights will always be sexier than floodlights. Emptiness yields. The blank page tells every story, which is why writer's block is so overwhelming: we tremble before the mystery of our own omnipotence. Lao Tzu: "The Master says nothing, and leaves nothing unsaid."

"My music was always written after I had long been silent in the most literal sense of the word. When I speak of silence, I mean the 'nothingness' out of which God created the world. That is why, ideally, musical silence is sacred. Silence is not simply given to us, but in order that we may draw sustenance from it. This sustenance is no less valuable to me than the air I breathe. There's an expression: to live on air and love. I'd like to rephrase this: if you approach silence with love, music may result. A composer often has to wait a long time for this music. It is this reverent sense of expectation that constitutes the brief silence of which I am so fond." (p.5)

I have studied a little bit of neuroscience, enough to know that we do not experience things, but the differences between things. We see boundaries, and our brains conserve resources by assuming the rest. So when I say that no sound exists without silence, I mean it in the least metaphysical, most flesh-and-blood way possible. To experience is to compare. We owe all of our music to silence, even if we never stop to thank it. The single piece of advice common to every musician, no matter the instrument, is to play the rests. Play the rests.

There is also, however, a silence beneath silence. The rests emerge in this openness, the deeper silence in which we make our comparisons. Needless to say, you cannot hear it. But maybe you should try.

Look! A seed spreader!

I love my job

This is what I found written next to my car on the way home yesterday. Whose the wonderful student who wrote this?! CONfess!

Polymer Clay Shawl Closures

Hallo friends,

After selling my polymer clay buttons to Knitch, I've decided to try my hand at making shawl closures. They're made of 2 parts a stick that goes into a thing with a hole (sometimes it's just the stick that can do it by itself). That sounds really graphic, I know.
I tried making both parts out of polymer clay, but the stick part is too thin to be made out of the clay. So I've bought dowel rods and bamboo skewers and plan on painting them and then sticking one end with a polymer clay bead that matches. Here are pictures of my efforts. Having a blast here. I think next I'll move onto making hand-painted knitting needles. Weeee!

Wet and Happy

Here's my Hunny Bunny playing in the sprinkler for the first time. Joy!