Now that I’m approaching 120 negatives/plates of this work, I decided it was time to fit in some prototype work for the book. Get a plan together so I’m ready when the project is complete. I got a taste of what it might look like and feel like. I also tried some gold toning on the old Kallitype process.
Here you see all of the prints and a sheet of vellum on my cutting table.
Since this book will be made of original prints, I wanted to include the text in some non-digital, non-offset web press way. I suppose you could argue that I printed the paper from a word file and that breaks the chain. However, the print is a photograph from a wet collodion negative. If my handwriting was better, I would write the text by hand. For now, this is an interesting and non-commercial printing way to address this work. And I think it looks very nice. It fits.
The negatives for making the prints. I used lithograph tape to clean up the edges. These are wet collodion negatives. The text is on Half Plate.
If you can imagine 40 handmade prints, each with a page of text. The text won’t be exhaustive, maybe a paragraph or just a sentence. In between the print and the text is a sheet of vellum bound in to protect both pages. That makes the book 80 pages plus the 40 sheets of vellum. And I know that I’ll have four or five prints of text for my statement. Let’s say 85 pages total plus the 45 sheets of vellum. That’s a considerable body of work.
I really like this “fuzzy” text. How did it happen? The litho tape raised the glass off of the paper just slightly. I can control how much, or none at all (see the other example). This was my first test. This is an old school Kallitype and no toning. I like the other output but with this text. Will run one tomorrow and see.
What a beautiful book this will be!!! I’m beyond excited! It motivates me to work hard before winter comes.
I hope to make a total of five books. I will keep them as uniform as possible, but the nature of the work makes each one unique, and “one-off”. Art wrapped in art. Yes, the content will be the same, but my hand will vary. It will make the work human or unique. I like that.