Thursday, 27 November 2008
Libre Livre Website
We have just released an update of the Libre Livre Website, including by popular demand a third Gallery. Experience shows that despite all efforts, the odd error (missing link etc) may slip through. If any of our devoted band of followers notices a mistake we would be most grateful if you could let us know. Thanks
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Libre Livre Photo Gallery
Take a peek in the Libre Livre Photo Gallery to see some pictures of our recent work
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Haywards Heath Book Fair
The Haywards Heath Book Fair on 22 November proved a great marketing opportunity for Libre Livre. We focussed on 3 key product areas: books with wooden boards, letterpress printing and marbled papers. All three proved of interest; a number of people spent some time looking at our stall and we distributed almost all the hand printed business cards that we took along with us.
As you can see from these photos our table was colourful and loaded with a
good range of samples, including some notebooks bound in Japanese paper and others in Italian block printed paper.
I created a short presentation showing some of our products, books of historical interest and some sketches of Victorian binders at work. It was particularly gratifying that all this, which worked really well without a glitch, was done using Linus software.
Monday, 17 November 2008
The Rye Bookfair
The Libre Livre team decided a few weeks ago it was time for an outing, and as we spend our time printing and making books what could be better than the chance to sell a few. We found out about a book sale in Rye and decided to team up, motor down and see what we could get for some of our spares.
Saturday morning lie in? Not for us. By half seven the team were on the road. First stop Lewes to meet up with our friend Hannah, who kindly advised us that a set of luggage wheels might come in useful, and even more kindly lent us some of hers. Thus equipped and laden with books the three of us set off cross county for Rye.
It was when we got to the center of town that we discovered that none of us actually knew where the Thomas Peacock College was. Luckily a railway porter - a rare breed, but still extant - pointed us in the right direction. It was only a few hundred yards away. Straight through the station car park, disregarding the "No left turn sign" and we were there; in good time too, so we thought.
Not only were we the last team to arrive but we had been allocated a great spot immediately inside the door. The first stall anybody would see was ours. That may be the reason that the organizer insisted we take our stock out of the cut-down cardboard boxes in the which we had intended to display it, and persuaded a neighboring stall holder to lend us a once smart green baize cloth to cover our table.
The Libre Livre head marbler took charge of the display while I wheeled in carton after carton of books, mentally thanking Hannah with each load. Once in I authorized a complete re-arrangement of our table. It may have looked like a jumble sale, but at least more titles were visible. In retrospect this was not so wise as before we had even finished putting out our titles dealers from the surrounding stalls were circling. One immediately bought the "Letters of Edwin Lutyens" priced at £2, only to display it on his table for £25 (I am delighted to report he had not sold it by the end of the day)
"Ladies and gentleman, the Sale is now open" announced the orgnanizer, almost the last word the Libre Livre team heard from him during the day; although we did notice one or two sharp glances in our direction. The masses descended upon us; and bought nothing. After half an hour we made our first sale, to Hannah, and then two more. By eleven we had sold three.
A charming lady grasping my favorite old copy of Elephant Bill asked me if we had anything on Africa or India, a question which to my astonishment I was able to answer, even more astonishingly in the affirmative. By sheer chance I had seen Bandoola lying on the car seat five minutes before. There might be more: we gave her our card and suggested she might contact us before the next sale. A sensible looking lady picked out a couple of John Buchan's, and another who looked exactly like my idea of Mary Poppins (Oh, why couldn't I have had a nanny?) asked for vol 1 of The Borrowers, the only volume we hadn't got.
My friends Wojtek and Liz had driven over from Chichester to give us moral support, which was generous in itself and all the more so as they immediately converted it into a sale, one of our largest of the day. I was releaved that they found things of interest on a number of other stalls too, including a full set of Dickens, to justify their journey.
By lunch time we had sold around 50. Better than we had feared, and more than enough to cover the cost of the petrol and the stall. Just. Which was lucky, as we did not sell anything else.
We did, however, discover that Brian, who had the stall behind ours and who had shown astonishing patience all day as we stumbled around behind his stock, was a bookbinder too. The rest of the afternoon was enjoyable if not lucrative as we swapped stories of binders we have known, techniques for coptic headbands and so on.
At last the agony was over. Wojtek and Liz very kindly helped us pack up - oddly we seemed to have with more than we had started out with, but W put six crates into the back of his van. Hannah squeezed herself into the back between bags and boxes, and off we went.
All in all an enjoyable team event, and one we hope to repeat (we've got to we've got so many books to get rid of).
Saturday morning lie in? Not for us. By half seven the team were on the road. First stop Lewes to meet up with our friend Hannah, who kindly advised us that a set of luggage wheels might come in useful, and even more kindly lent us some of hers. Thus equipped and laden with books the three of us set off cross county for Rye.
It was when we got to the center of town that we discovered that none of us actually knew where the Thomas Peacock College was. Luckily a railway porter - a rare breed, but still extant - pointed us in the right direction. It was only a few hundred yards away. Straight through the station car park, disregarding the "No left turn sign" and we were there; in good time too, so we thought.
Not only were we the last team to arrive but we had been allocated a great spot immediately inside the door. The first stall anybody would see was ours. That may be the reason that the organizer insisted we take our stock out of the cut-down cardboard boxes in the which we had intended to display it, and persuaded a neighboring stall holder to lend us a once smart green baize cloth to cover our table.
The Libre Livre head marbler took charge of the display while I wheeled in carton after carton of books, mentally thanking Hannah with each load. Once in I authorized a complete re-arrangement of our table. It may have looked like a jumble sale, but at least more titles were visible. In retrospect this was not so wise as before we had even finished putting out our titles dealers from the surrounding stalls were circling. One immediately bought the "Letters of Edwin Lutyens" priced at £2, only to display it on his table for £25 (I am delighted to report he had not sold it by the end of the day)
"Ladies and gentleman, the Sale is now open" announced the orgnanizer, almost the last word the Libre Livre team heard from him during the day; although we did notice one or two sharp glances in our direction. The masses descended upon us; and bought nothing. After half an hour we made our first sale, to Hannah, and then two more. By eleven we had sold three.
A charming lady grasping my favorite old copy of Elephant Bill asked me if we had anything on Africa or India, a question which to my astonishment I was able to answer, even more astonishingly in the affirmative. By sheer chance I had seen Bandoola lying on the car seat five minutes before. There might be more: we gave her our card and suggested she might contact us before the next sale. A sensible looking lady picked out a couple of John Buchan's, and another who looked exactly like my idea of Mary Poppins (Oh, why couldn't I have had a nanny?) asked for vol 1 of The Borrowers, the only volume we hadn't got.
My friends Wojtek and Liz had driven over from Chichester to give us moral support, which was generous in itself and all the more so as they immediately converted it into a sale, one of our largest of the day. I was releaved that they found things of interest on a number of other stalls too, including a full set of Dickens, to justify their journey.
By lunch time we had sold around 50. Better than we had feared, and more than enough to cover the cost of the petrol and the stall. Just. Which was lucky, as we did not sell anything else.
We did, however, discover that Brian, who had the stall behind ours and who had shown astonishing patience all day as we stumbled around behind his stock, was a bookbinder too. The rest of the afternoon was enjoyable if not lucrative as we swapped stories of binders we have known, techniques for coptic headbands and so on.
At last the agony was over. Wojtek and Liz very kindly helped us pack up - oddly we seemed to have with more than we had started out with, but W put six crates into the back of his van. Hannah squeezed herself into the back between bags and boxes, and off we went.
All in all an enjoyable team event, and one we hope to repeat (we've got to we've got so many books to get rid of).
Friday, 14 November 2008
Modern conservation
Do the words "book conservator" conjure up an image of a fusty old man surrounded by tottering piles of leather bound tomes, and a glue pot?
At Libre Livre we believe conservation requires, amongst other things, an understanding of the principles of material science and makes use of modern equipment. Our ultra sonic humidifier, for example. allows us to apply gentle humidity precisely where it is required to relax folded or stressed paper, loosen old paste and perform a welter of other delicate tasks.
That is not to say that we don't value tried and tested tools and techniques just as much. One of my favourite tools is my old bone folder, a piece of cow bone worn and stained, but time and again proving to be just the right shape to reach into a tricky corner or to firm up a smooth crease.
At Libre Livre we believe conservation requires, amongst other things, an understanding of the principles of material science and makes use of modern equipment. Our ultra sonic humidifier, for example. allows us to apply gentle humidity precisely where it is required to relax folded or stressed paper, loosen old paste and perform a welter of other delicate tasks.
That is not to say that we don't value tried and tested tools and techniques just as much. One of my favourite tools is my old bone folder, a piece of cow bone worn and stained, but time and again proving to be just the right shape to reach into a tricky corner or to firm up a smooth crease.
Monday, 10 November 2008
No secrets at Libre Livre
"The secret" it is often said "is in the preparation", but not at Libre Livre. I am working hard to prepare for the Haywards Heath book fair, where together with Bookbinders of Lewes, Libre Livre will be contributing to a stall dedicated to "the art of the book". I have decided to produce a range of small single section notebooks covered in Libre Livre marbled paper, and a selection of coptic books with wooden boards.
The boards of the coptic books are made from number of woods, oak, mahogany and walnut to name but three. Each book takes around half a day to prepare. The sewing requires a very even tension to avoid a wedge shape at either head or foot, and that applies just as much to the headbands (coptic of course) as to the main body.
Over the next few days I will be loading some pictures of the books in question to the Libre Livre Photo Gallery, which can be accessed from the links on the right
The boards of the coptic books are made from number of woods, oak, mahogany and walnut to name but three. Each book takes around half a day to prepare. The sewing requires a very even tension to avoid a wedge shape at either head or foot, and that applies just as much to the headbands (coptic of course) as to the main body.
Over the next few days I will be loading some pictures of the books in question to the Libre Livre Photo Gallery, which can be accessed from the links on the right
Monday, 3 November 2008
Book Fairs Coming Up
Two forthcoming bookfairs have come to my notice:
Rye (Thomas Peacocke Community college) on 15th November
Haywards Heath (Claire Hall) on 22 November
Libre Livre will, of course, be featuring at both.
Rye (Thomas Peacocke Community college) on 15th November
Haywards Heath (Claire Hall) on 22 November
Libre Livre will, of course, be featuring at both.
Binders Beware
Alert all binders
There was a news flash on Radio 4 this morning which mentioned that a drummer maker has recently died from anthrax caught from "imported leather". I think it is likely that the skin was in fact vellum, but nonetheless it is a salutary message.
There was a news flash on Radio 4 this morning which mentioned that a drummer maker has recently died from anthrax caught from "imported leather". I think it is likely that the skin was in fact vellum, but nonetheless it is a salutary message.
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