Lecture
Lost on the Titanic: The Making of the Great Omar
Dominic Riley
Friday, November 5th
Wine and snacks @ 5:30pm; talk will start @6:00 p.m.
Folder Shakespeare Library, Board Room
Suggested donation of $ 5.00
The Great Omar was the most fabulous, elaborate and opulent binding ever created. It was embellished with over one thousand jewels, five thousand leather onlays and a hundred square feet of gold leaf, and took a team of craftsmen over two and a half years to make. It went down with the Titanic. This lecture tells the story of the making of the fabulous Great Omar. It is also the story of the renowned bookbinding firm of Sangorski and Sutcliffe – who were known for their elaborate jeweled bindings – and the men that made this extraordinary book. It also tells the moving story of life after the tragedy, and of one young man in particular, who decided against the odds to recreate the binding, a venture which itself is mired in tragedy and which occupied him for the rest of his life.
Please rsvp to gbwpotomacchapter@gmail.com.
Two-day Workshop
Pastepapers Old and New
with Michael Burke
November 6th and 7th, 2010
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Folger Shakespeare Library, Werner Gundersheimer Conservation Laboratory
Members: $ 200.00 Non-members: $ 250.00
Explore the joys of making your own historical decorated papers, then experiment with contemporary designs and inventive techniques. Although known from around 1650, pastepapers were made popular in the mid 1700s by the Moravian Sisters of Herrnhut in Saxony. Recent study of these papers has sparked a revival of interest in them, and in this workshop Michael will introduce you to the methods, materials and patterns used on the original pastepapers.
We will begin by mixing the colors using natural earth pigments, and making the few simple tools used by the Sisters. We will then reproduce each of their original designs using the same colors, patterns, freehand brush strokes and tooling. Part two of the class will bring us up to date with a wide range of inventive techniques for making modern pastepapers. Michael will show you how to make combs, stamps, rollers and other mark-making tools used in pastepaper design, and show a range of techniques he uses to create many different effects, from the simple pulled papers, to the highly regular striped patterns.
Please RSVP to gbwpotomacchapter@gmail.com.
Space in the class is not guaranteed until payment is received.
Potomac Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers 