Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A Cavalcade of Cartoonists

On Friday, March 4th, Preservation Services had quite a collection of visitors. Candidates from the Master's Program at The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) were invited to participate in a Book Arts Workshop created just for them to focus specifically on binding suggestions and techniques that could be applied to their Thesis Packaging that is due in May.

Since I am both a member of the Preservation Services staff and a Cartoonist at CCS, I wanted to bridge the gap between the two and give my classmates (and co-workers) a big treat. As community members we, the Cartoonists, have often attended the Letterpress and Bindery Studio workshops but because there is a limit to how many can participate at a given time, we have to stagger our visits and don't always make the cut, strictly due to space. But here in Preservation Services, we could happily fit all 10 of the participating Cartoonists and give one on one feedback more tailored to combining comics and book binding.

So with the aid of some creative carpooling, and collaborative curriculum planning, I met a group of excited Cartoonists at the Baker Information desk at 10am. After a brief tour and some introductions, there was no time to waste. Deborah Howe began to produce example after example to give just a small taste of the endless possibilities awaiting each Cartoonist's Thesis.


Then we jumped right in to a multi-signature pamphlet stitch.


Jon Chad, Faculty at CCS, uses a jig to puncture his signatures.


Two tables full of Cartoonists sewing their signatures!


Ben Horak (left) and Josh Kramer (right) giggle about starting a 'Book Binding for Men' club.


Betsey Swardlick completes her second kettle stitch, nice and tight!


Stephanie Wolff (right) helps Lawrence Derks line up his signatures.


Lena Chandok (right) starts folding her cover, while Andy Christensen (left) makes sure he's doing it right!


Cartoonists look on as Deborah Howe (far left) scores her cover lightning fast!


Gluing book cloth requires a LOT of concentration!


"I did good!"


Thanks Dartmouth College Library's Preservation Services!



Written by Beth Hetland

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