years ending in 6 have been good... part 2

1996

It all really started in the late 1800s when so many Scandinavians moved to Seattle that English wasn’t even spoken in some neighborhoods and households. Norwegians, mainly, who moved there to do what they had done in Norway: fish.

My grandmother, born in Minnesota, moved to Seattle in 1901 when she was two. She spoke only Norwegian at home, with friends, shopping—until she started school—all Norwegian.

So many Scandinavians moved to Washington State that part of the charter for the University of Washington required the school to have a Scandinavian Department. The charter calls for, not just a few classes covering that part of the world, but a whole department.

Another result of this migratory influx was that my high school offered Swedish as a foreign language. I took it for three years. Swedish appealed to me because my father’s father came from Sweden (settling in Denver), while my mother’s four grandparents were from Norway.  Norwegian was taught at Ballard.  Danish was also available at a high school, but I can’t remember where.

Because of my high school Swedish classes, I managed to be in the receiving team to greet the king of Sweden when he came to Seattle. Didn’t actually shake his hand, but if I remember right, I wore platform shoes, just to be extra fancy. I certainly didn’t cut my hair, though.

After high school I attended the University of Washington and took Scandinavian classes—mostly because they were smaller than classes in my major. I accidentally took enough classes to get a degree. Anyway, as an undergrad at Washington I spent a semester in Linköping, which is not pronounced “Link-o-ping,” as my wife believes, but “Lynn-shipping,” as the Swedes say. Linköping happens to be the very town from which my grandfather had emigrated illegally. There I met Lasse who is still my dearest friend, even though he is so inconsiderate in that he and Maria have the nerve to live about ten thousand miles from Arizona. I love them, but clearly they are bad people. Well, just for that reason.

I loved it there.

Fast forward to 1992, when I finished at North Bennet Street. My goal upon graduating was to get more training but without having to pay for it. First I wanted to take the time to relearn everything we had covered in school, which I did in my evenings for a few years. After I had gotten comfortable with most of what we had covered at NBSS, I applied to several grants to study in Sweden somewhere.

In 1996 it happened. Thanks to the graciousness of Per Cullhed and Lars Munkhammar (and the Fulbright program) I had the opportunity to work and study in the library at Uppsala University. Their graciousness was equally spread amongst the others in the lab: Adam Larsson, Lars Bjordal, Bosse Carlsson and Åke. (Åke was 63 at the time and had started in the field when he was 13!) It was a fantastic year amongst even more fantastic people, in a great country. Even taking the wrong bus en route to Linköping was kind of fun. Ended up in Lidköping. Clearly my Swedish wasn’t so great.

It was the year that made everything else possible. What did I do? I made books, studied structures, laughed, swore in Swedish because it didn’t sound like swearing to me, went to Helsinki and Copenhagen, and made more books. I also bought as many books as I could afford. At the end of the year, one of the other Fulbrighters told me that I was the only one of us who had done what I set out to do. I think that was probably true, but it was only true because the folks who hosted me, helped me do it.

One example is shown here with Bosse teaching me proper safety practices in a conservation lab:

People ask me what the year in Sweden was like and I tell them this story, which perfectly sums up the spirit of the entire year: By the end of the year, my finances were smaller than slim. When packing to come home, I tried to get a bunch of stuff into three suitcases each less than 30 kilos (maybe it was 25, not sure). Gave everything else away. I knew I’d have to pay for the third bag, and probably for all the bags, which were overweight a tad—a real concern given my empty pockets. When Lasse and I got in line at the airport a man walked up and asked where I was going. Seattle, I said. He said, Come with me. We lugged my bags over and set them down next to a counter. The computers had just gone down, he said, and they weren’t charging for extra bags or extra weight. I just had to weigh the suitcases and put them on the conveyor. Pretty much the whole year was like that.

After finishing, I went back to the University of Washington and began working part time so that I could do more private work. I was looking forward to doing that for years. The Mendery at Washington was a nice place to be—gave me great experience and I got football tickets. The Huskies were even good at the time. I was preparing to work at UW half time and looking forward to that arrangement very much. There was lots of interesting work up in Seattle for private practice.

But then, and I think because of the time in Sweden, NBSS called and asked me to run the bookbinding department. I went out for an interview, it all worked out, and then I flew back to Seattle where I spent the final few weeks working until two or three in the morning to finish off my private work, Mendery work, and pack. Slept a few hours a night; managed to keep eating. It was a bit tiring but an exciting time. Early August I drove out in a rental truck to a new life.

Taught at NBSS for almost ten years. Probably should have moved on in 2006 to keep up the decade theme, but we moved to the desert in 2007 instead. A move that was possible because of my time in Sweden. A Fulbright carries some weight, even if folks don’t really know what it was for.

During my time in Massachusetts, I helped get Adam over here to teach; first at NBSS and helped some on a grand tour, maybe cracked opened some doors for him. I was able to see Per and Bosse when they came over for meetings. And for several years students from NBSS went to Uppsala for a couple of months in the summer. They all loved being there as much as I had.  And when I think about that year those are the things that I'm happiest about.

One really nice thing that reminded me of it all happened last Spring when I was teaching in San Francisco. I saw that someone I’ve never even met was teaching a binding technique that I had brought back from Sweden. I had taught it to Juliayn, who had taught it to them, and they were now teaching it to others.

That’s what the year 1996 was really about, after all. It wasn’t so much about me spending time in Sweden, but more about sharing knowledge across borders. And that’s what it did to a T. But I’ll take all the other benefits as well . . . .

And to think it all started with Norwegian fishermen heading out of Ballard looking for salmon a hundred years ago.

I can see clearly now, the schmutz is gone

I kept having friends complain about the state of my glasses and wondering how I could see anything.  The problem was that I didn't have time to get new ones and I don't really enjoy doing all that anyway so I kept putting it off.

The problem was this:

 

Part of my reason for not moving ahead was that I wanted to know what had happened to cause this.  I have never had this problem before and didn't want to spend good money and have it happen again.

The glasses were bought at Costco. When I went there and asked the guy why this had happened he said it was because I probably sweat on them and it destroyed the coatings.  Look, I work hard as a binder and conservator but I don't really sweat much in doing the work.  I don't like to turn the A/C on until it gets to about 80 or so but still I'm not sweating.

I have, in my life, done real work where I did sweat and my glasses didn't react this way.  One summer I repaired a pier on the Seattle waterfront.  Replacing the flooring of a parking area with pieces of 12" x 16" x 10 foot long pieces of wood that had to be cut with a chain saw to fit.  It was fun.  The only concern was falling into the water 30 feet below but at that point in my life that would have just been a big laugh.  

I knocked out the old pieces, dropping them into the water below, cut replacement pieces with the chain saw, placed them and then used spikes to hold them in place before applying asphalt over the top.  It was really fun, beautiful weather and tourists watching from the ferry terminal on the next pier over made me want to give them a bit of a show.

The point is that I sweated a lot and still didn't have this happen to my glasses.

So, I'm in Seattle getting my eyes checked and asked the guy why it happened.  His response was, "Do you work with chemicals?  The fumes can cause this to happen."

AHA!  That actually makes sense. But I didn't know that chemical fumes could cause that kind of damage to lenses.

I don't have a fume hood, instead I have a portable device that sucks air away from what I'm working on and filters it.  Sometimes I'll just work outside, there's no one within a hundred yards of where I'm working so I don't think I'm hurting anyone.  Still this exposes my glasses to more fumes than if I had a hood.  (Though I should say I'm not using anything that's crazily toxic.)

But mainly, I'm going to be using my old glasses for this kind of work.  And keeping my new ones away from the  chemicals.  Hopefully they'll last longer that way. 

Cash across the water, cash across the sea....

The Interweb is a great thing. It removes borders and boundaries and makes everything accessible to all. Or at least to those who have computers and an Internet connection. For bookbinders and conservators that means that we can order and use the best materials from across the globe regardless of where they originate and wherever we are.

I'm grateful that I can order from Colophon Book Arts Supply and have it appear on my doorstep. It's wonderful. Same for Chena River Marblers, Hiromi, Hollander’s, Ernest Schaeffer, Talas and others. This is how it’s possible to make a living binding and conserving books while living on the backside of a desert mountain range.

But I think that we sometimes forget the benefits of buying directly from sources across the pond.

Both Harmatan and Hewit sell directly to customers in the States. I think most of us know this but don’t take advantage of it as often as we should. Most of us know Harmatan and Hewit from Standards, or various other venues around the country. Marc Lamb is at Harmatan and David Lanning is at Hewit.

Harmatan sells goatskins in a wide range of colors and in nine finishes. Hewit sells calf, goat, alum tawed, pigskins, and vellum plus equipment and supplies. Go to their sites and look around.  Have your credit card handy—you’ll want to use it.

None of this is new, or unknown, of course.  Everyone knows both companies make great skins.  I think that most of the skins I’ve used since I started this about 26 years ago has come from those two companies.  We also all know that Marc and David are great people.  And we know we can buy direct, but many don’t. 

It seems clear that Brexit has done a number on them, well, all of the UK.  Who knew that shooting yourself in the foot might not be the best idea?? Gee, maybe you google it before you vote.  Maybe?

But it also has done something for us, in the stronger dollar next to the pound.  It’s like Brexit put everything in England on sale.  Funny thing is that even with the “sale” situation it benefits them if we buy from them even at our reduced price.

I think what discourages people from ordering directly is concern about shipping charges. But last week I ordered one yard of book cloth from Talas and the charges were $21.50 for the cloth and $18.47 for shipping. I'm not saying that Talas isn't justified to charge so much to ship one yard of cloth—they need to stay in business.  What I’m saying is that you can't look at shipping charges from England and assume the charges within the States will be much less.  You’re going to be stunned when you see how much it costs to ship a bone folder across a dozen states.

David says, "Shipping rates to the United States are very competitive, so should not come as too much of a shock to the wallet." Maybe I should order a yard of book cloth from Hewit and see what it would be. Harman’s rates for leathers are also reasonable and fair. Marc says he recently sent a 12-skin order over here for $90.

To me there are two main advantages from buying directly.

 Available stock. How many green Harmatan Fine Leather skins do you think a domestic distributor has in stock? Or how many red Hewit Chieftan skins? The selection is going to be much better at the factory. If you want a fire engine red Chieftan of a certain size, the folks in Scotland will be able to look through more skins, probably from differently dye lots too, to find the color you're looking for.  Skins come in different sizes so more choices can help there as well. Here's a picture from Harmatan showing what they had around when the class stopped by for a visit several years ago. Enough to make you either drool, or plunge into a life of crime.

Secondly, they both offer the ability to modify or select the thickness of the skins. Why not just get skins the thickness you want without having to buy them and then send them off to a splitter? Hewit will shave skins down as requested. Harmatan will split them.

Both companies sell a variety of skins for a variety of purposes. They also make it very easy to buy across currencies. Did I already mentioning that with the current political situation in England the pound is really low, so it’s almost like everything over there is on sale. Take advantage!

Hewit also sells all kinds of other stuff as well, including leather dye. The Hewit leather dye is fantastic, light-stable, and easy to use. I talked with the author of a study of leather dyes who said that Hewit dyes are the best ones available in the States.  (The way I use it is shown in this YouTube video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqQND_lV1ew  ) 

 Hewit also sells finishing tools, glaire, paper, cloth, other tools and equipment, really everything you’d need to do binding. It’s a great resource.

Harmattan has chosen to stick only to leathers, but what a selection. 

Of course it will take a bit longer to get your order from the UK unless you choose the fast, expensive option. We in the Guild would love it if you would buy directly from them is to buy from them at Standards. It's in Charleston in a few weeks and in Tacoma in 2017.

Heck, Hewit will sell you leather for your bagpipes. I bet if you buy enough of them they’ll send you a kilt for free. Or at least a can of Haggis.

Their sites are:

http://www.hewit.com

http://www.harmatan.co.uk

And, finally, probably the new British national anthem:  http://tinyurl.com/j2szozu