Broom paper

Book Bombs reunited this week in the Bay Area for some rabble rousing papermaking. Continuing our investigation of invasive plants, broom fiber was harvested from Farm Alley and the parking lot of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park (pictured above and below).

The stalks were soaked to harvest the bast fiber (below).

And papermaking ensued. Pictures to come...

Look What Dardos Can Do!

This post is a slightly off topic, but we just had to pay tribute to the amazing beater and the team that built it at the recent Friends of Dard Hunter Conference at the Arrowmont School of Art and Crafts in Gaitlinburg, TN. Led by David Reina, over the course of three days, 200 people hours, with architectural-grade plywood and the Arrowmont woodshop, they put together a working wooden beater. The intention is that the plans will eventually be on the Friends website, for others who might like to take on the challenge.

Above, friend of Book Bombs, Nicole Donnelly makes some cuts on the design with assistance from Brian Queen. Below are some of the images in-progress.




And by Saturday evening, she was ready and working!

Book Bombs and the Friends of Dard Hunter

Book Bombs recently were presenters at the Friends of Dard Hunter Conference at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gaitlinburg, TN. We discussed the projects we've completed over the past year, and released Book Bombs Issue #2 , We Walk Asking Questions. We met and made many new friends at the conference, and for those of you who are on Facebook, we invite you to become a fan of Book Bombs!

We Walk Asking Questions was printed in an edition of 200, and is wrapped in a half-cover made of paulownia and pampas grass, invasive plants from the two coasts on which Book Bombs resides. The binding was done during the conference, and help was received from Nicole Donnelly, Katharina Siedler, and (not pictured) Lindsay Beal. To Nicole, Katharina, and Lindsay - thanks! We couldn't have done it without you!


Of course, the conference had many other highlights. Below are just a few.


Catherine Nash demonstrates her techniques of combining encaustic with handmade paper.


Some of Randy Arnold's amazing handbuilt bookbinding tools.

Examples of arborglyphs by Earle Swope.


An amazing, ginormous handmade sheet of paper from China, presented by Sidney Korestsky. A video of making an even larger sheet is available from Carriage House Paper.

Above and below, images of pulp spraying and its results in a workshop with Betsy Dollar.

Paulownia-Pampas Paper

Previous posts (here and here) have described the fiber preparation of both Princess Tree bark (Paulownia tomentosa) and Andean pampas grass (Cortaderia jubata). As a reflection of the two coasts were the Book Bombers now reside, the two fibers were beaten together at an undisclosed California location and formed into sheets that will be a part of Book Bombs Issue #2.

Above, you can see a shot of the paper being pressed. After pressing, the paper was resist dried on the studio walls.


Below, details of the wet sheets resist drying.



On another note, Book Bombs will be presenting at the upcoming Friends of Dard Hunter Conference at the Arrowmont School of Crafts. Come join us and hear about our adventures!

Princess Tree Bark Cooking

Last summer, Book Bombs had harvested both leaves and bark from Paulownia tomentosa, also known as the Princess Tree. The leaves were made into paper for our February Print Bombing. The bark (above) was dried and put aside for another project.

And now, for part of the upcoming Book Bombs Issue #2, this bark was pulled out of storage. For its preparation, the bark was soaked overnight. The resulting dark plant liquor (below) was then poured onto the garden as fertilizer.


The fiber was cooked in washing soda, and then rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed to remove traces of the washing soda and the black gunk from the fibers.



The resulting fibers were a rusty color, however here you can see them prior to rinsing the black gunk. Book Bombs discovered that if the fibers were again soaked overnight, most of the gunk fell off the fibers to the bottom of the bucket and the fibers then could be scooped off the top. However, we made the mistake of dumping the bucket entirely into the strainer and having to rinse it all by hand. Live and learn!

Still more to come on processing. Stay tuned...

Cooking Andean Pampas Grass

Andean pampas grass, (Cortaderia jubata), is a native of South America. In California, it was introduced and is still grown as an ornamental plant, however, it is highly invasive, especially on fragile coastal dunes.

Pampas grass was recently harvested to be made into a part of Book Bombs' upcoming zine (more information on that to come). The image above was a tussock that grew alongside railroad tracks in Richmond, California. It has razor sharp leaves, and we recommend gloves for any harvesting that our readers might attempt.

The light, fluffy blond seed-hair was collected and saved for future projects - see below:


The stalks and leaves were cut down and soaked overnight . . .


. . .and then cooked in washing soda prior to beating. Interestingly, pampas grass turns a rusty orange when cooked.



More to come on the processing this into paper. Stay tuned...

More Axis Alley pictures

Impractical Labor

Denim paper production is underway for an installation in a few weeks in Baltimore as part of the Axis Alley project. It's been a few months since Book Bombs has engaged in the pulpy side of production, and I was oh-so-ready to get my hands wet. While I got the vat set up, I was thinking of the absurd elements of the task we are undertaking: cutting up old jeans, pulling sheets of handmade paper, cutting this paper down by hand into the shapes of endangered native plant species, and wheat pasting all of this to the back of a building that will ultimately be demolished in a few months. The absurdity is heightened by the use of tools that were not designed for me: clumsily cutting rags using Michelle's large right-handed shears with my small left hand since I'd forgotten my own scissors, leaning into a too-tall vat to form sheets large enough to test the production limits of my five-foot frame. The labor is ultimately satisfying, but I couldn't help but think about the time in one's life of newly learning fine motor skills and constantly climbing up into kitchen chairs designed for humans twice one's size.

Look for more updates on the Axis Alley project soon, but this seems an appropriate time to share a link to Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA). ILSSA, instigated by our friends-in-labor Bridget Elmer and Emily Larned, serves as a point of solidarity for those of us who engage in obsolete technologies as a labor of love and perhaps compulsion.
ILSSA operates a listserv for communications amongst members. Union members also receive printed matter on a periodic basis from the ILSSA Research Institute (pictured above!). Their motto: "as long as it takes!" That sounds about right. Thanks for the solidarity, folks! Sometimes it really helps us get through the task at hand....

[posted by Local 215 Shop MT]

BIGA$$ PAPER!!!

This past weekend, at an undisclosed Philadelphia location, Book Bombs poured the approximately 8' x 3' sheet of paper for our upcoming installation in Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery's Window on Broad. Below are examples of the fibers when wet and dry.



We will be installing in the Window next week -- check back here for images. The Window is located at 333 South Broad Street in Center City, Philadelphia, at the University of the Arts. And don't forget to keep your eyes peeled the first week of February for the next installment in our series of public prints!

As a final note, Book Bombs extends its thanks and appreciation to the magnificent Lori Spencer, who invited us to exhibit in the Window. Thanks so much for thinking of us.

This Paper is a Shirt

Finally Book Bombs is nearing the first printing. In preparation for this first print, we cut up old shirts and pants:

and then paper pulped them:

Keep an eye peeled for more on the printing, and at long last, the distribution....

Book Bombs heads south!

Last weekend, Book Bombs flew the city to Atlanta, GA, to join other papermakers at the Friends of Dard Hunter Conference. At the event, Book Bomber Mary Tasillo gave the talk,"Slow Papermaking," as part of the Papermaking and Sustainable Art Practices panel, where she discussed the Book Bombs project. Also on the panel were Patterson Clark and Zina Castanuela.

The countdown to Philagrafika 2010 has begun -- check out our page on their site here. And keep your eyes peeled come January as Book Bombs makes appearances around Philadelphia...

The Welcome House at Night

After dark, the Welcome House has been transforming into a glowing video cube, documenting the daytime events. Here are some still images of the video about Book Bombs Shelter by the amazing Ricardo Rivera of klip collective.










Thanks once again to everyone who came out and participated. And a special thanks to Marianne Bernstein and Angela Jerardi who made the Welcome House happen!