Book Fest

Last Saturday at the Book Arts Center, participants had a chance to try several techniques for free, and take home their handmade items. We made books from scrap paper, Jello-O boxes, office supplies, and fabric scraps. We watched a paper marbling demonstration and learned how the process worked before everyone had a chance to make their own marbled paper design. Everyone had the opportunity to print their own card on the press to take home, make a dragon book using simple origami techniques, and even make their own paper from pulp.

Learning to marble paper

Some of the marbled paper designs

Making books from unexpected materials

Handmade paper drying on the windows

Lots of fun was had by all trying their hand at new skills and techniques!

WNYBAC Book Fest

The newest card at WNYBAC, "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." is a grammatically correct sentence that uses a single word for all parts of speech. Print this card and take it home tomorrow at Book Fest!

Tomorrow at the Book Arts Center in downtown Buffalo, we will be holding Book Fest from 12-6pm. We will have hands-on demonstrations on techniques such as paper marbling, letterpress printing, bookbinding, and paper making. Participants will have the opportunity to try their hand at these techniques and leave with a hand printed card or a book made from unexpected materials.

We will be having some in-store specials including:

Buy 2, get 1 free bargain books

2/$1 pins

$5 slightly imperfect WNYBAC aprons

20% off our McSweeney's collection

We've also got lots of new hand printed cards in the shop for any occasion.

Stop by, check out our print museum and studio, and learn something new!

Call for Work

Wide Margins: An Exhibition of 'Zines from the Sublime to the Silly

On view July 16-September 3

Opening Event Friday July 16, 6PM-9PM

Submissions must be received by July 7 to be included in the show.

Entries can be dropped off at the Book Arts Center during our regular hours Wednesday through Saturday from 12pm-6pm, or mailed to our PO Box.

Drop off at:
Western New York Book Arts Center
468 Washington St.
Buffalo NY 14203

Mail to:
Western New York Book Arts Center
PO Box 770
Buffalo, NY 14213

The Western New York Book Arts Collaborative (WNYBAC) will be presenting an exhibition to display and pay homage to zines and self-publishing. Zines can be defined as any small circulation publication, almost always self-published, on a broad variety of topics including but not limited to politics, comics, fan fiction, art and design, ephemera, personal journals, and a range of other topics that fall outside of mainstream publication. Showcasing the wide range of content and form that exists in this genre, this exhibition will also demonstrate how zines relate strongly to the art and craft of bookbinding and book arts in general, and will include spotlighted zinesters whose work evolved into what can be considered “book art”. Both the history of zine-making, as well as the contemporary scene will be addressed, and zines on all topics and from all eras are welcome.

There is no fee to enter.

As part of the exhibition, we will be putting together a zine as a program for the event. We would like to collect thoughts and reflections from zinesters and participants relating to their experience with zines and zine-making. We would appreciate your input of any kind - a sentence, a paragraph, or whatever you can contribute. Please send this along with your submission form.

Zines in the exhibition will not be for sale. You may send multiple copies of the zine to sell in the WNYBAC shop during and after the exhibition. These items will be sold on consignment, with WNYBAC retaining 40% of the sale price. WNYBAC welcomes the donation of your zine to our permanent collection zine library.

If you would prefer a zine not be handled during the show, please specify this on your entry form. Please include an entry form for each of your zines if you are submitting more than one.

Submission forms can be downloaded here.

Please contact WNYBAC at info@wnybookarts.org or 716 348-1430 if you have any questions.

Western NY Book Arts Center
468 Washington St.
Buffalo NY 14203
716 348 1430
info@wnybookarts.org
http://www.wnybookarts.org

Fresh off the Press: Hi!

Say it simply: Hi!

Hand-printed cards available on white or rust colored paper, both with yellow ink and matching envelope. $2 each ($1.60 members).

Did You Know?

While it seems unlikely knowing Buffalo's reputation for cold weather most of the year, air conditioning as we know it was invented here. Better yet, it was invented to aid in the printing process.

A native of Angola, NY, Willis Haviland Carrier began working for the Buffalo Forge Company in June 1901. While at Buffalo Forge, Carrier began experimenting with air conditioning as a way to solve a problem faced by printers at the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company in Brooklyn, NY. At the time, printing press operators struggled with aligning the ink print onto the paper because of paper's hygroscopic properties - that is, the tendency of paper to expand and contract in conditions of heat and humidity.

He attempted to take the moisture out of the air by fanning it through pieces of brine-saturated burlap, but this technique caused salt and water residue to rust nearby machines and was therefore ineffective. Instead, Carrier developed a system to send air through cold coils to cool the air and control the amount of moisture the colder air could hold. This in turn allowed him to control the amount of humidity in the room.

On July 17, 1902, the first air conditioner began working at Sackett-Wilhelms, designed and build in Buffalo. His patent was called the 'Apparatus for Treating Air' and was awarded U.S. Pat # 808897 in 1906.

Photo: Willis Haviland Carrier with the first Apparatus for Treating Air, 1902.