iBookBinding Podcast

In the previous episodes, we only had one guest not with a bookish profession but with a bookish hobby. Ivan Gulkov will be the second of our guests of that type. He's a hobbyist printer and in the first part of our talk with him, we discussed the history of printing and what it is to be a hobbyist printer in the modern world and how it all started in the late 19th century.

Next week we'll post the second part of this episode. Among other things, Ivan invites us to a workshop tour there and shows some of his prints.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWTUJdzm10s

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

Follow Ivan:

Portfolio: https://www.behance.net/oprion

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oprionus/

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/27982742@N03/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk0q0mG3v6GP_24ex7davKQ

00:00 - Beginning

00:47 - Becoming and hobbyist printer

01:56 - Moving from old computers to printing presses

03:51 - What is it to be a hobbyist printer

06:00 - Appearance of small printing presses in the late 19th century

06:50 - Ivan's tabletop press

08:33 - Small wooden printing press from Stepan's collection

09:12 - Linoprinter by Mattel

09:41 - Is there a society of hobby printers?

12:23 - Printer's starter kit and its value

15:54 - Hobby and professional type casters

21:03 - Gutenberg and his bankruptcy

27:11 - Fonts and copyrights

30:36 - Ivan's project to replicate fonts of Francysk Skaryna

35:19 - Printers' fingerprints on old proof copies of books

36:08 - A portrait of a modern hobbyist printer and the printers of the olden times

41:26 - Learning and making your first prints

43:53 - Journeyman printers

47:34 - Printer's fairs

50:35 - Modern printers in Russia

55:26 - Bookish people of the modern maker movement

During this Bookish Talk, we discuss the Basler Papiermühle -- a late medieval papermill turned paper, printing, and bookbinding museum. Stepan visited this museum a couple of years ago, so that's not a very recent experience. Still, it should give a good sense of what it looks and feels like.

Watch the video on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/S5yzLo4whVA

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

https://www.papiermuseum.ch/

00:00 - Beginning

00:28 - Basler Papiermühle

01:06 - Importance of Basel's location to the development of book production

02:16 - Entering the museum

02:42 - A couple of words about the process of papermaking

08:01 - Collection of papermaking molds

08:22 - A mold for 3d-watermarks

09:50 - The difference between laid and wove paper

14:39 - Making paper in the museum

16:02 - Toilet paper

17:50 - Preparing paper pulp with fermentation and decomposition

18:56 - Papermaking mold made with a thread mesh instead of wire

19:09 - History of writing

19:30 - Calligraphy

21:30 - Paper marbling

22:11 - Early printing

24:07 - Modern printing

25:39 - Printing illustrations with blocks

28:55 - Offset printing

29:35 - Typewriters

31:38 - Bookbinder's workshop

This is the second part of our talk with Brenda Gallagher, a graphic designer and bookbinder from Boulder, Colorado. In this video, she shows some of her bindings and invites us to see her bookbinding workshop and printing studio.

Please check the timestamps below.

Watch the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW8KLHEiYoQ

(and it's definitely worth watching!)

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

Follow Brenda:

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bgallagher4/

- Website: http://www.brendagallagher.com/

Read more about lacunose: https://www.ibookbinding.com/tutorials/lacunose-painting-with-leather-and-making-clouds/

Fish skin leather supplier in the US: https://www.fiskurleather.com/

Atlantic Wolffish photo credit: fisheries.noaa.gov/species/atlantic-wolffish

Jeff Osgood, Brenda's husband on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clay.of.the.dead/

00:00 - Beginning

00:32 - Workshop tour

00:46 - Bookbinder's plough

01:14 - Storage of materials

02:27 - Stuff on the workbench

02:43 - Bindings show & tell

02:48 - Uppercase Encyclopedia

08:08 - Song of Myself (Walt Whitman) illustrated by Allen Crawford

10:45 - Happy Abstract — A letter from William Blake to Thomas Butts, dated 11 September 1801

17:41 - A notebook with lacunose elements on the cover

20:19 - A word about book boxes

21:27 - The Girl from the Sea: A Play for Voices by George Mackay Brown and Michael Onken

24:38 - Discussion of the fish skin leather

29:29 - Homework binding for the American Academy of Bookbinding - graphite edge and edge painting

32:41 - Brenda's workbook with preliminary design tests and experiments

33:05 - Using computer software for designing bindings

34:38 - Bread bag tie binding

37:30 - Printing workshop tour

37:35 - Printing block with the engraved picture by Allen Crawford for the Song of Myself

38:13 - Backing press

38:42 - Guillotine

38:48 - Chandler & Price 8x10 printing press

40:07 - Brenda's family and her bookbinding

We discuss two objects from my collection. A book and... something else. Both of them have something in common: after I got them, I searched the internet and found them being sold on auctions in the previous years. And, yes, I'm 99% sure these are the same objects I have now.

Why am I so sure? What was their story? Should one use online price on old books as a benchmark? We answer all of these questions and more in this episode of the Bookish Talk!

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOUq_tHBJAQ

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

The Illuminator. Containing all the parts of The Illuminators Magazine & completing the subject - 1862

Old auction: https://www.catawiki.nl/l/36281941-barnard-sons-the-illuminator-containing-all-the-parts-of-the-illuminators-magazine-completing-the-subject-1862

About the book on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/illuminator-and-43385830

The book on Issuu: https://issuu.com/stepanchizhov/docs/the_20illuminator._20containing_20all_20the_20part

Some illustrations shared on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHBmojQJNas/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHJMEwRpZPn/

Cliches for newspaper comics by Loek van Delden (1918-2004) - Smidje Verholen (nr. 1-35, 1958)

Old auction: https://www.lotsearch.net/lot/loek-van-delden-1918-2004-smidje-verholen-46159074

About the artist:

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/delden_van.htm

https://www.lambiek.net/aanvang/delden_avan.htm

00:00 - Beginning

00:56 - Introducing the objects we are going to discuss today

01:57 - Auction's page for the first object

02:25 - The Illuminator. Containing all the parts of The Illuminators Magazine (1862)

03:11 - A sidenote on facsimile reproductions

04:00 - Why am I sure that's the same book I got from a bookseller in the Hague?

05:14 - The difference between the estimate, the final selling price, and the price I got the book at the book market

05:49 - Should one use online price on old books as a benchmark?

08:06 - Moving to the second object

08:42 - Cliches of a series of newspaper comic strips by Loek van Delden

12:07 - Finding stories about vintage objects and their previous owners

12:48 - Should I do anything with these cliches? And a bit about copyright.

I first met Brenda at the American Academy of Bookbinding in 2015. At that moment, she already had some 20 years of experience in bookbinding. If you add a strong background in graphic design, it's not hard to imagine that the result can be pretty impressive. And Brenda's work lives up to the promise and even exceeds it!

Check the timestamps below, and stay tuned for the second part of this episode. There Brenda shows her bindings and invites us to see her printing studio.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sCqeE9-Tn4

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

Follow Brenda:

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bgallagher4/

- Website: http://www.brendagallagher.com/

00:00 - Beginning

01:14 - Brenda's approach to bookbinding

02:49 - Dealing with virtual work vs. making real objects

03:46 - From the first bookbinding class to study at the American Academy of Bookbinding

07:57 - Other schools in the US that offer education in bookbinding

10:45 - Telluride is beautiful, but it's not very easy to get there!

13:55 - What is a beautiful book?

18:05 - On creation, protection, and destruction

22:09 - Being a bookbinding teacher

26:11 - Miracle of making a book from scratch

28:07 - Volunteering at the American Academy of Bookbinding

30:50 - Open-Set traveling exhibition

Pavel takes us to what is probably one of the smallest printing houses that produced thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of copies of Communist newspapers in 1905 and 1906. It was a very successful illegal operation ran by Russian communists in the very center of Moscow. Watch the video to learn the full story and see some photos from the museum!

You will see a lot of photos from the museum if you watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQv_llB8NfM

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

We talk to Kalin Daskalov - Stopan - a bookbinder from Bulgaria who tries to create the modern style of Bulgarian bindings from scratch. His works are heavily influenced by the folk art of the country but you can also see his personal style. Stopan speaks about his path to bookbinding and collaboration with his father, a silversmith. Then we have a show & tell and a tour of his workshop.

Please check the links and timestamps below!

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl0iyS7zvZs

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

Folow Stopan:

- Website: https://www.iostopan.com

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iostopan

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iostopan

Follow Stopan's father:

- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/i.daskalov.silversmith

- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/atelie.daskalov

Follow Anna Markova: https://www.instagram.com/annamarkova_bookhist/

Podcast with Eliane Gomes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu-81ulWb8o

Chelopek - the Bulgarian Bookvillage: http://knigini.com/en/home/

00:00 - Beginning

00:22 - Musings on peculiarities of the Balcaniс languages

03:44 - Introduction of the guest

05:06 - The meaning of the pseudonym Stopan

07:07 - Was there a market for bindings in Bulgaria when Stopan started to practice bookbinding?

08:34 - Being the only licensed craftsman-bookbinder in Bulgaria's capital

09:18 - Reinventing the lost tradition of bookbinding in Bulgaria

12:33 - Chelopek - the Bulgarian Bookvillage

14:13 - What can a bookbinder teach their students

15:45 - A profile of an average Stopan's student

16:44 - "Knigovezets" is the word for "bookbinder" in Bulgarian

17:22 - When did Stopan start making books? The synergy of knowledge and skill after all these years

19:26 - Which techniques and approaches excite Stopan at the moment?

21:19 - One of the current projects - a book for which Stopan made all elements himself, including paper and calligraphy

22:56 - Shifting from design bindings to artist's books

23:13 - Stopan's father is a silversmith

26:17 - Artisans working as a family is a very traditional thing

27:11 - Traditional motifs in Stopan's work

31:09 - On Glagolitic script and calligraphy

37:13 - Did Stopan have any experience with arts prior to becoming a bookbinder? How a programmer's experience helps Stopan now?

39:49 - Designing patterns for the bindings. Drawing. Handwriting

43:06 - How Stopan's experiments with calligraphy began?

46:46 - Pen's made by Stopan's father

47:33 - Some more examples of Stopan's recent works / Show & Tell

48:36 - Diptych book

56:36 - Scroll in a silver encasement

58:15 - Market for unique book objects

1:00:00 - Isn't it a bit sad to pass your prize-winning book to a collector?

1:03:23 - Workshop tour

1:12:51 - You don't really need lots of space to start making books

Is it wrong to buy a book at a low price when you know its real (high) value? How do the street book sales in Bucharest and Sofia look like? What's special about the book market in the Hague? These are some of the things we discuss in this episode of the Bookish Talk!

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mrW9UgEld0

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

00:00 - Beginning

00:10 - Searching for a bargain on a book market / Checking prices online

01:47 - The book market in the Hague is one of the cheapest in Europe

03:02 - Good prices on books in foreign and obscure languages

05:17 - Book market in the Hague as a source for books in different languages

06:48 - Isn't it bad to buy a book for cheap when you know its real value?

08:21 - Where booksellers get their books from? previous owners of the books/collections

10:09 - Some ideas for future talks

10:39 - Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes

11:29 - There's no one true way to build your collection

12:03 - One of the special parts of Stepan's collection are the books that tell stories about their previous owners

12:52 - Street booksellers of Bucharest and Sofia

14:52 - Neighbourhood book clubs of sorts built around these sellers

17:18 - Pavel's experience with book markets

18:33 - Why antique books are so expensive in Russia?

19:13 - Pavel talks about book markets in Spain

The second part of the episode with Stepan Chizhov acting as a guest is dedicated to more technical aspects of how iBookBinding works. We talk some nerdy stuff about 3d-printing in general and about making money with 3d-printing. You will also find a workshop tour here!

Watch the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh-0ty4RZio

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

00:00 - Beginning

00:19 - Making money with 3d-printing. Routine and time consumed on production

02:25 - Time spent packing the orders

03:57 - Increasing production efficiency with better/more expensive equipment. "Cheap" 3d-printers

05:47 - I want to try 3d-printing; where to begin?

08:08 - The models of 3d-printers I like the most (to date)

09:50 - Difference between the cheaper and more expensive printers

11:43 - Printing large objects

14:50 - Competition on the market of 3d-printed bookbinding tools / 3d-printed papermaking molds

17:33 - Improving the designs and following the requests of customers

19:47 - Examples of incremental improvements

24:32 - Book scanning frame for smartphones - show & tell

29:31 - 3d-printing workshop tour

30:59 - Some of the 3d-printers

32:45 - My first 3d-printer

33:24 - The largest printer I have - Creality CR-10 S4

34:19 - 37x37 cm papermaking mold / Printing large items in parts

35:17 - Calculations and 3d-designs that need relly powerful processors

39:51 - Workbench with woodworking and bookbinding tools

43:54 - My way of storing clamps

44:53 - Some of the weights I use for my projects

46:11 - I love buying things for storage and tools in thrift stores and on flea markets

46:48 - Book presses and sewing frames / Woodworking projects

48:10 - Cutting time-consuming processes / Troubles with stock and delivery because of the lockdowns

49:30 - Keeping work/life balance as a freelancer

This is the beginning of several talks we dedicated to antique book markets in different European countries and cities. We start with some book markets in Moscow and the Netherlands (mainly the market in The Hague).

What's your experience with book markets? What else you'd like us to talk about?

Watch the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sSPUyu3_qg

See the timestamps below.

Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

You can ask our future guests questions on:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/

Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/

00:00 - Beginning

01:25 - My personal preference: book market in The Hague

01:50 - Different book markets of Moscow

03:09 - Antique book markets in Moscow

05:00 - Books on Moscow's flea markets

05:43 - Unauthorized street sellers

06:32 - A seller next to the Red Square we remember since our childhood

07:34 - What makes an antique book market the best book market? My experience with the market in The Hague

09:43 - A bit about the history and organization of the book market in The Hague

10:33 - Book markets are much smaller these days (with photos)

13:57 - Are people buying books to read or for collections?

15:42 - Who's the main audience of the book markets and what about tourists?

17:37 - Go online and buy some used books! Support the sellers!