DE WALDEN PRESS

 Miniature Hand made limited edition books

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Qualicum Blue

The House That Jack Built 

Shakespeare's Flowers

Shakespeare's Harvest

Shakespeare: Man of Property

The Fortune Teller

Tower of London A to Z

Old London Bridge      

The Malvern Story

Sonnet XVIII

Morgan

Sea Change

NOTICEBOARD

New Online Exhibition of the Guild of Bookworkers new travelling exhibition called Marking Time. It features 50 works that will travel to nine venues across the US. Printed catalogue available soon.

New Online Exhibition There is an exhibition on now at Drexel University, Pennsylvania, of miniature books. They are mostly older, with some St Onge. The online exhibit will have to suffice for me, as I won't be able to visit in person, but do check it out if you're in the area.

New Blog about my Next Book I have started writing a blog about making "Leonardo Dreams of his Flying machine. It will detail the hows, whys and wherefores of making this book. This is definitely a minority sport, but will give the curious an opportunity to ask questions and understand how books are made. The top two questions I get asked are How are they made? and How long do they take to make?

NEW BOOK: I'm currently working on a new book, "Leonardo Dreams". The text is the result of a work produced by Charles Anthony Silvestri (words) and Eric Whitacre (music). The two talented men drafted and composed the work "Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine" and I first heard it sung by the Canadian Youth Choir in May of 2006. I found it so uplifting and stimulating that I decided to ask permission to use the text for my forthcoming book. This will be a small edition, maximum size eighteen, maybe smaller. To be published sometime in 2010, more details later. I'm hoping to use handmade paper from Griffen Mill (see below) for the printed text of Leonardo Dreams.

NEW LINK: Griffen Mill- http://www.griffenmillhandmadepaper.com Using traditional techniques and materials, Chris and Mike Gibbs make high quality papers that have many different uses.   

 Scroll down for further links           

SMALLER EDITIONS.
De Walden Press books are made with great care and the process is very time-consuming.  In order to give myself more time to make new books I have decided to reduce the size of the editions.  This means that costs such as printing are shared between fewer books, so the price per book will be slightly higher for the smaller editions.

DE WALDEN PRESS OUT WEST - THE BIG MOVE

In 2003  Jan and her husband decided to move to Canada, to be nearer to Jan's family.  This meant that all bookmaking ceased in Malvern in December 2002, so that the whole 'kit & caboodle' could be packed up ready to be shipped to Canada.  Some six months later, it was delivered safely and only slightly rusty to its new location here in Qualicum Beach, and it was then possible to resume publication of 'Old London Bridge'.  The book had already been printed, the leather dyed, and  all was ready for binding. Four copies were bound before leaving the U.K., and three were then packed away, so no copies were published until 2003, although the date inside the book shows 2002 as the publication date.  A mystery for future collectors!  The fourth bound copy was left with Peter Scott, who was writing an article about the Press, and this copy eventually found its way to the Miniature Book Society Annual Competition 2003, and won a Distinguished Book Award.

MOVE BRINGS CHANGES

Times change, and we have to try to go with the flow.  The printer of 'Old London Bridge'  decided to retire in 2004, and De Walden Press made the decision to undertake the job of printing its own publications on a hand press.  After some searching, I found a small Craftsman platen printing press in Victoria, shipped it up to Qualicum Beach, and this is now in use. So from researching, writing and illustrating the text, to printing, binding and mailing books out to customers, everything from now on will be done in-house, except where stated.     
LINKS TO SITES OF INTEREST

MINIATURE BOOKS ON THE WEB

Miniature Book Society, Inc. A society that promotes and publicizes miniature books of all types. including letterpress; calligraphic; finely bound; publishers editions; limited and not so limited editions.  The Society's Miniature Book Competition entries for 2002 and 2003 are shown online, and the Society organizes an annual Conclave (meeting)  which is attended by members from all over the world. 

This year's meeting will take place in Princeton, NJ.  For further information, go to www.mbs.org 

Lilly Library, University of Indiana   A large and fascinating collection which includes the Ruth Adomeit archive. A number of books is shown online, with lots of supplementary information. www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/miniatures

The Charlotte M. Smith Collection of Miniature Books, University of Iowa Libraries.  These books were exhibited in 1996 and this is shown online, at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/bookcolls/Smith Miniature Collection/smithindex.htm

LINKS TO SPECIALIZED SUPPLIERS OF BOOKMAKING MATERIALS

Ann Muir Marbling - Hand Marbled paper  http://members.lycos.co.uk/annmuirmarbling

SITES RELATED TO CONTENT OF DE WALDEN PRESS BOOKS

'Morgan'   The Morgan Motor Company Ltd.  www.morgan-motor.co.uk  

'The Tower of London A to Z'  Her Majesty's Royal Palaces http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/

'Shakespeare's Flowers' & 'Shakespeare's Harvest' Royal Botanic Gardens Kew  www.rbgkew.org.uk/library

'Shakespeare: Man of Property'  The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust www.shakespeare.org.uk

'Old London Bridge'   www.oldlondonbridge.com  

SITES RELATING TO LETTERPRESS PRINTING & BOOKBINDING

National Library of Canada, Private Presses  www.nlc-bnc.ca/presses 

Frog Hollow Press   www.froghollowpress.com

Greenboathouse Press

Fine Press Book Association  www.fpba.com

Canadian Bookbinders & Book Artists Guild www.cbbag.ca

Society of Bookbinders www.societyofbookbinders.co.uk

Shanty Bay Press www.shantybaypress.com Walter Bachinski and Janis Butler's finely printed and illustrated books.
Alcuin Society www.alcuinsociety.com A Vancouver-based society founded to promote a wider appreciation of finely-wrought books among book lovers around the world. Alcuin organizes an annual book-design competition and hosts the Vancouver Wayzgoose.
Barbarian Press www.barbarianpress.com Crispin and Jan Elsted More great fine press books.
Contact
Copyright © 2004-2009 Jan Kellett.  All rights reserved.
Last modified: August 26 2009
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