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Oldways Homestead Timeless Tech, 2002

mighty mountain man of book craft, Jim Croft

The Timeless Tech 2002 event was a huge success. Seventeen participants including hosts Jim Croft and Melody Eckroth, engaged each other with workshop presentations, home made music and momentous exchanges. Meals came from the Oldways gardens and accommodations included tepee, yurt, tree house, tents and mountain cabin. We all lived “off the grid”.

Workshops spanned traditional topics of illuminations, dyes and inks, tool and press making, endbandings, book repair, adhesive binding, block and photo printing, but each presentation also had innovative insights and latest developments.

Pam Spitzmueller reported on the recent Chris Clarkson workshop on endbanding. Pam provided a very Clarksonian delivery as she offered features of his deep understanding of the functions, applications and history of these structures. Pam also updated the group on Chris’ recent projects including the condition survey and conservation of the Hamuli, late Coptic, books at the Morgan Library.

Denise Carbone provided a wonderful presentation on the caterpillar stitch, a variable splayed chain built on paired stations. This stitch type relates to the historical helix, but extends that Gothic prototype by adding multi gathering pickup patterns and unsupported chains, some of which produce a caterpillar. A particularly wonderful component of Denise’s presentation was her spiral bound workbook with color xerographic instructions and a pre perforated stitching card.

Pam, Paula, Denise, Barb

Another terrific workshop was provided by Rich Spelker. This was on the history and practice of cochineal ink making. Rich displayed an extensive set of various colors derived from various formulations, all evidencing his careful researches. Some participants tried the inks for book edge colorants and were well satisfied. Rich made an additional mauve brown “Muir” ink from colorant shed from the seed cone of Sequoia.

Every participant gave at least one presentation over the course of the two week rendezvous. This self generating program was a founding premise of the Timeless Tech event. The format was doubly successful as audience participants contributed responses to the given presentations. The outcome was an authentic rendezvous exchange and a very attentive and awake audience quite unlike more passive audiences at professional meetings.

Another founding premise was the Timeless Tech theme; the focus was on ageless skills and ageless products. This theme was very successfully pursued in the working environment of the Oldways shop. The Oldways, church size, workroom was always busy with traditional wood, bone and paper projects. The workroom is opened to the outdoors and filled with plenty of daylight.

root cellar and open air kitchen, Oldways Homestead

Much of the shop and project work went on quietly, but long, loud and productive conversation was also in good supply. Many intense exchanges developed at meal times in the outdoor kitchen or in the garden. The outdoor homestead prompted invigorating discussion. Whole rethinkings were frequent and much better understandings of manually learned skills emerged. For example, discussions of book repair methods were progressively shifted to a wider and wider perspective that eventually included a whole matrix of the specification options, the influence of predicted use, the variabilities of the item, the differences of practitioner skill and the constrains of cost.

Another interesting consensus emerged on the factor of speed in hand work generally. Here the scenarios for perpetuating hand skills into the future were built first on production work streams. These future streams might well be established modern sectors such as the digital imaging of books, but only where handling and dexterity skills are a significant component. The streams of production would then leverage the rate or speed of the work.

A perfect example of craft speed and time cost accounting out of history was a presentation by Tom Conroy. Tom very successfully demonstrated, in real time and on real leather plaques, how even the most elaborate English Restoration era decorative tooling was based on a simple ruled panel which could then incrementally be filled in by eye. This enabled the decoration to be costed by the hour.

Tom prompted many discussion directions. One, for example, considered bindery by-products such as paper and leather trimmings. The plow trimmings of the deckle edges of the sewn books were particularly valuable. Barb Tetenbaum named these trimmings “profit margin”. On a moments reflection the value of these trimmings became more evident, due to the factor of extra density of fiber damned up along the deckle edges.

Conversations also shifted to cosmic dimensions without warning. These could depart from sayings of the Gospel of Thomas, or the science of Wolfram, or the cabal matrix of Teller. In the presence of kitchen fires, someone noted that since the domestication of fire we have evolved as soot eaters. The homestead environment induced a cosmic mind state and Jim says that the most common question from visitors is; “What day is this?”

night session by lantern

Jack Thompson added plenty variety to the discussions by bringing up topics such as New Zealand possum vellum, or mediaeval hovel construction or dynamics of deliquescent salts. Moreover, he frequently described his weird topics by the use of silent hand gestures alone. Melody Eckroth created even more enchanted mind states. She was responsible for anamolies ranging from joda dolls in the lettuce to meteor showers. Barb and Melissa added to euphorias with old-timey music.

The Oldways Timeless Tech event amounted to an intensive version of a Paper & Book Intensive program. The days were filled with great experiences in the company of fascinating charaters. Many participants agreed to meet again next year; same time, same place. Those interested in a TT2003 should contact Jim Croft at <oldway@imbris.com>

Shanna living "off the grid"

Timeless Tech 2002 Participants

(1) Gudrun Aurand, Pullman, WA, (2) Denise Carbone, Stratford, NJ, (3) Tom Conroy, Berkeley, CA, (4) Jim Croft, Santa, ID, (5) Melody Eckroth, Santa, ID, (6) Ethan Ensign, Salt Lake City, UT, (7) Gary Frost, Coralville, IA, (8) Don Guyot, Seattle, WA, (9) Paula Jull, Pocatelo, ID, (10) Shanna Leino, Harrisville, NH, (11) Mellisa Moreton, Glen Ellyn, IL, (12) Rich Spelker, San Francisco, CA, (13) Pamela Spitzmueller, Medord, MA, Santa ID, (14) Barb Tetenbaum, Portland, OR, (15) Jack Thompson, Portland, OR, (16) Jan Wagner, Portland, OR, (17) Steve Wagner, Portland, OR.

note Rusty, "The Wonder Dog", attempting to get into the picture

CLASS SCHEDULE (by Gudrun Aurand)

Thursday 7-25-02=20 Morning Tom Conroy. Knife sharpening. Different styles of leather paring and wood working knives. =20 Afternoon Tom Conroy. Making finishing presses. Narration and demonstration: choice of wood, drilling and threading.

Friday 7-26-02 =20 Morning Denise Carbone. Storage books. Construction and use. Presented by Denise for Hedi Kyle. Afternoon Melissa Moreton. Presentation with accompanying photographs of Papermills she visited. Basel, Switzerland; Fabriano and Amalfi, Italy.

Saturday 7-27-02=20 Field trip day. Visiting Moscow, ID and surrounding points of interest.

Sunday 7-28-02 =20 Morning Janet Wagner. An illuminated letter. Historic background. Instruction with the option to create an illuminated letter. Afternoon Gudrun Aurand. Adhesive Bindings. Historic context. Evening Movie night. Paper making in India. Parchment making in Ethiopia.

Monday 7-29-02 =20 Morning Richard Spelker. Cochineal inks and dyes. Built on Jim Stroud's findings. Rip brought a wealth of sample dyes to test with. Afternoon Denise Carbone. Sewing Stitches. Their functional and decorative application, based on a class Betsy Eldridge gave 1991 at a PBI in Indianola, WA. Each participant was handed an instructional booklet with text, image and practise card. Denise had created and spiral bound this amazing book.=20

Tuesday 7-30-02 =20 Morning Tom Conroy. Making tooled designs using common gold tooling tools without layout, without gold (i.e. blind tooled designs). Afternoon Jack Thompson. Knife sharpening for paring leather. Medium: wet-dry aluminum oxide. The session was preceded by video about knife sharpening.

Wednesday 7-31-02 Morning Barbara Tetenbaum. Introduction into Reduction- Stenciling Techniques. Afternoon Carving and printing of images, all materials supplied by Barbara. Barbara showed a Leporello folding technique that connects boards and images made, to create a book format. Thursday 8-01-02=20 Morning Melody Eckroth. Right brain - left brain. An overview of the written word and its impact on human society. The presentation was based on the book: The Alphabet versus the Goddess. The conflict between word and Image by Leonard Shlain. 1998.=20 Afternoon Gary Frost. Exploring Book Craft Kit Production, Marketing and Vending by machine.

Friday 8-02-02 Morning Summary of Chris Clarkson's workshop: Endbands, end of spinebands and headbands; July 2002 Cambridge, MA. Afternoon Ethan Ensign. Alternative re-backing for 19th century cloth bound books. Demonstration.

Saturday 8-03-02 Morning Paula Jull. Cyanotype. 1840ies photographie. Introduction into its history. Paula provided help and all materials to make our own cyanotype. Eternal Consciousness provided the sun. Afternoon Tom Conroy. Opening a book to 360 degrees. Ideology and demonstration.

Sunday 8-04-02 Morning Shanna Leino. Leather work before covering. Blind tooling, pierce work, cut leather applique over gilt parchment. Afternoon Pam Spitzm=FCller. Skin sewing techniques. Materials to be sewn: leather, vellum, rawhide, buckskin. Materials as sewing medium: thread, vellum strips, sinew. Sewing implemets: needles (glover, domed, sharp); hog-bristle needle (wax-end); pricking wheel; lacing punch, hole punch.

Monday 8-05-02 Morning Jim Croft. Historic and modern methods of choosing and working wood for book covers. Afternoon Nick Jaeger. Unfettered, unbound and writing free - Quill cutting. Vacme-Press. Introduction and demonstration.

Tuesday 8-06-02 Morning Tom Conroy. Smoke proofs of finishing tools. Capturing of Maker's Mark.=20 Afternoon Meeting. Assessment of workshop, suggestions for next year.

Wednesday 7-24-02 through Wednesday 8-07-02 Morning Afternoon Evening Night Jim Croft provided space, tools, help, everything. Melody Eckroth, Janet & Steve Wagner took care of our physical well being by providing delicious meals. All provided spiritual support with their music.

Timeless Tech 2003 proposed

There was enthusiasm for another session next year. The event will follow guidelines established for the 2002 event. There is also an FotB Report of an earlier Oldway Homestead workshop on the medieval book.