Monday, January 5, 2015

Paper on the Press: 2014 Conference Overview



Dear Friends,

It was wonderful to see many of you in the beautiful city of San Francisco this past October at our Annual Meeting, Paper on the Press. It was exciting to continue the tradition of collaborating with an allied organization, American Printing History Association (APHA), to bring together a program full of multi-faceted exhibitions, tours, and presentations. We gained a great deal from exchanging traditions and ideas with the members of APHA, and I am proud that their members had the opportunity to learn so much about paper and its history from the Friends.

We opened the conference with the Anita Lynn Forgach Keynote Address by Howard and Katherine Clark at the impressive Internet Archive. I’m certain that revisiting the history of Twinrocker Handmade Paper in the very city where it was founded will be counted by many as one of the most revered keynote addresses among a history of inspiring and enlightening presentations. The conference continued at San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB) and Mills College, where conference attendees were treated to a myriad of demonstrations and presentations. A tour of Magnolia Editions, a lively vendor’s fair at SFCB, a stunning Members’ Exhibition, and a riotous performance by the Papermaker’s Band contributed to a very successful and fun annual meeting. As always, we closed the conference by breaking bread together at our banquet, where we raised funds through a silent auction for our future conference scholarship recipients. We also took this opportunity to present a gift to our outgoing Executive Director, Betsy Dollar, whom we cannot thank enough for her years of hard work and dedication to the Friends of Dard Hunter.

As we remember a wonderful 2014 conference and begin 2015, I must acknowledge my own excitement at the emergence of new leadership within our organization. The close of our San Francisco conference ushered in a new Executive Committee and Board of Directors, which includes a new Executive Director. The excitement and ambition with which new board members have taken on projects is admirable. The amount of work that has been accomplished since mid-October is astounding! Our Executive Director, Paul Romaine, has been working tirelessly with Betsy to transfer responsibilities and update systems. Vice President of Publicity and Outreach, Colin Browne, has been busy developing new member resources, and Vice President of Publications, May Babcock, has proposed a very exciting new identity for our beloved Bull & Branch and has implemented a new system of email newsletters to keep you all in the know. Vice President of Annual Meetings, Marie Bannerot McInerney, has already lined up what will certainly be an amazing 2015 conference at the Banff Centre in Alberta, CA.

Throughout the following year, I hope you will keep up with these projects and more by reading this blog. If you have an idea for a blog post or would like to contribute a review, profile, or essay, please contact May at editor@friendsofdardhunter.org. I look forward to watching the Friends of Dard Hunter continue to evolve, and I am perpetually inspired by the many different ways our members contribute to what our organization is and how it contributes to the world.

Yours,
Jennifer Baker
President



Keynote Speakers Kathryn and Howard Clark >


Tour of Magnolia Editions Fine Art Print Studio >



Book scanning by IA staff. (Val Lucas)

Tour of the Internet Archive >


Visitors explore Studio 308 on Friday, October 17. (Paul Romaine)

Tour of 1890 Bryant Street Studios >


Conference attendees and BCC member Henry Snyder. (Paul Romaine)

Book Club of California Open House >


Columbian hand press, composing room. (Val Lucas)

Tour of the Grabhorn Institute, Arion Press and M&H Type >


Dennis Ichiyama at the San Francisco Center for the Book. (Photo courtesy of SFCB)

Wood Type Printing Demo >


Detail of final sheet (with incorporated print) cast in half-round corn-cob mould. (Alta Price)

Pulp Casting Demo >


Left: Albrecht Dürer, St. Jerome in His Study, 1514 [MMA. 19.73.68]; verso; and x-ray. (Angela Campbell)

Session I, Panel 1 - Early Renaissance Paper >

  • "Into the Fold: Understanding Albrecht Dürer's Meisterstiche Papers" presented by Angela Campbell
  • "Fifteenth-Century Papermakers and Printers: Negotiations and Innovations" presented by Timothy Barrett

Bank of England Five Pound Note, January 1, 1855. (Richard Kelly)

Session I, Panel 2 - Nineteenth-Century Paper I: Paper Objects

  • "The Anatomy of a Banknote: 1855 Innovations in Design, Papermaking, and Printing" presented by Richard Kelly
  • "Calendered Paper, Electrotyping, Hard-Packing and Late Nineteenth-Century "Fancy Type Faces" presented by Michael Knies


Hemp fabric, soaked in a slaked-lime solution and beaten by hand for 15 minutes. (Elizabeth Boyne)

Session II, Panel 1 - Printing by Hand in Asia >

  • presented by Steph Rue, Radha Pandey and Elizabeth Boyne

  • "Contemporary Hand Papermaking and Letterpress at Mummy Mountain Press" presented by Wendy Burk and Karla Elling
  • "Experiments with Paper & Print at Paperhouse Studio" presented by Flora Shum and Emily Cook

Laser Cutting Fine Binding, Artist Monique Lallier, Interpreter of Maladies. (Brian Queen)
Session II, Panel 4 - Techniques and Technologies >
  • "The Paper Artist & the Engineer: How Technology Supports the Creative Process" presented by Brian Queen
  • "Flax: The Printer's Plant" presented by Josef Beery
  • "Pulp Diction" presented by Amy LeePard and Suzanne Sawyer

  • Recreating Japanese Book Cover Papers from the Edo Perio" presented by Anne Covell and Kazuko Hioki

  • "The Conversation Between Paper and Printing in Contemporary Artists' Books" presented by Inge Bruggeman
  • "Material of the Margins: Handmade Paper in Artists' Books" presented by Tatiana Ginsberg
  • "Size Matters" presented by Kitty Maryatt

Session III, Panel 4 - Post-Modern Paper >

  • "Printing the Drinkable Book: Advances in Paper in the Twenty-First Century" presented by Jamie Mahoney
  • "Divers Digital Desiderata: Explorations in Digital Printing" presented by John Labovitz
  • "Hand Papermaking & the Printed Word: Dynamic Tools for Healing" presented by Amy Richard

The U.S Government Printing Office as it looked in 1921.
  • "Print paper ought to be as free as the air and water": American Newspapers, Canadian Newsprint, and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, 1909-1913" presented by Geoffrey Little
  • "Forest/Tree/Paper/Documents: Proposals for Papermaking at the U.S. Government Printing Office" presented by George Barnum

  • "Valley of Venetian Ties: Historic Paper Mills and Printers of Toscolano Maderno" presented by Megan Singleton
  • "Much to Do with Little: Paper and Book Making at Aba House, Nungua, Ghana" presented by Kathy Wosika
More photos on the Friends of Dard Hunter Facebook group >







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