Super thin paper made by Hidaka Washi Ltd. is used by museums and other institutions all over the world for conservation and restoration projects. But the technology of production dates back a thousand years.
I like when a serious issue is approached with a sense of humor. But it seems to me the list is not full. Non-reversible adhesives should be added to the list, along with self-made repairs, and some other nightmarish things. However, that may be more of conservator's peeves, not archivist's.
Went to Haarlem today for the annual book market - Boeken in de Bavo. The market itself is quite nice, 75 sellers (or something like that), quite a diverse choice of books. But what's makes this fair really special is the astonishing location!
Ken Sanders tells his story of becoming a book detective while being a rare books seller for most of his life. One time he had to chase a book thief for three years to prepare the final sting and put him to jail.
Every once in a while the Museum Meermanno in the Hague (The Netherlands) brings a new temporary exhibition. This time they show the works of Quentin Blake, an artist, who had illustrated multiple books, including stories by the world-famous author Roald Dahl.
Ross MacDonald has led a secret double life for many years. While he was writing humor pieces and making illustrations for periodicals, he was also making paper-related props for over 40 movies.
We went to Belgium recently. Of course, I cannot miss anything related to books (especially old books). That's why when my wife and my grandfather went to see the Saint Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, I spent an hour in the Saint Nicholas' Church. Where, as it appears, every second Saturday there is a book market.
I was mesmerized by this short video earlier today. I’ve seen some photos in the Viktor’s Facebook feed before, but that’s even more impressive.
Save Your Books is one of the most inspiring YouTube channels about book restoration. It is curated by Sophia S.W. Bogle, a professional with over 25 years of experience in book conservation and restoration.
All these past months since I bought my first 3d-printed I’ve been experimenting with making different tools and jigs for bookbinding and other crafts. But one of the things I wanted to try since the very beginning of that creative process was to make moulds for papermaking.
Every spring there is a Bookbinders’ Fair in Belgium. It was started more than 20 years ago in Antwerp and is held in the nearby town of Sint-Niklaas.
József Tari started to collect miniature books 45 years ago. His miniature library now holds more than 5000 tomes. The smallest book in his collection is just 2.9 x 3.2 millimeters in size. This is much larger than the smallest books ever created (like that one, made by Russian scientist in 2016), but still very impressive.
This video was released in 1981, but it is definitely worth watching. Bookbinding craft is not so prone to changes and all the main processes are shown here in detail.
Have you seen this amazing pop-up book that was published in 2001 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the L. Frank Baum’s story?
This 3,800-year-old Babylonian clay tablet is supposed to be the oldest surviving trigonometric table. It is at least 1,000 years older than works of the Greek mathematician Pythagoras.
