Amanda's Audio Amblings

http://audioboo.fm/boos/857464

Here's the link to my latest podcast with some news from London and NI.
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Location:Northern Ireland

A Little Show & Tell: Books

As you can see, we've moved on to the UK now,  but on our last day in Paris we went to an antiquarian book fair at Saint Sulpice. This is held annually, and if you were reading this blog last year, you may remember that we went then too, and bought this beautiful old book.(scroll down a little).


This year I had a specific goal in mind, and I struck gold! Yes, I am now the proud owner of my very own tunnel book. This one is from the 1939 World Fair, and is therefore considerably younger (and cheaper) than the ones I mentioned in my last post. Nevertheless, I am thrilled to own one and I have to thank my dh for searching it out on my behalf. Perhaps it could be the start of a little collection?

This is the front cover.

Looking through the peep-hole.

And again. Look at that "vehicle" on the left! Is it a fore-runner to the segway?

A view from the side.

And to finish off some photos of the books I made in Paris at Atelier du Marais. I promise I will share my experience there in more detail a little later.

Project 1

Blank journal for writing and sketching. Leather cover, marbled end-sheets and prefab book block.

Rolled leather headband.

Project 2

Blank journal for drawing with hand-torn watercolour paper for pages .Linen covers, rolled leather headband.

Amanda's Amblings #5

listen to ‘Amanda's Amblings #5: Early tunnel books’ on Audioboo

 In the podcast today I talk about some early tunnel books I saw but I wasn't able to take any photos. Luckily I have been able to find some links to sites with photos and some with further information, in case you are interested in finding out more.

You can see The Thames Tunnel and Crystal Palace Peepshow, both of which I saw, at The Allegro Movable Book Collection (amazingly located in Australia!!) Just scroll down the page a little and you will see them.

There was an exhibition of children's pop-up books earlier this year at the University of Washington and they have some pictures of early German tunnel books by Martin Engelbrecht on their site. Again you need to scroll down, this time about half way down the page.

Over at the Smithsonian website, there is a post about the restoration of another Engelbrecht tunnel book and finally, if you're very keen, this link will take you to Historical Highlight in Paper Engineering, which briefly explains how tunnel books fit into the development of books, printing etc.

And to finish off, while I'm on the subject of miniature worlds, I saw this tiny etching press in the window of a workshop up the street.

You can see it does work, there are some tiny plates and actual prints.

And here is the inking table.

The workshop seemed to be for metal fabrication, so I'm a little unsure why the press is wooden. The tiny musical instruments seem to be more in keeping, but anyway perhaps they would be a good source of aluminium off-cuts for any local etchers.