DEFINING THE RAINBOW Miniature Book, Rebecca Press, Ltd Ed. 2018, Special Copy

Description: Defining the Rainbow: A Miniature Book from Rebecca Press For years, I have collected names for the many different shades and hues of colors. Defining the Rainbow, a miniature book from Rebecca Press, offers a sampling of some of my favorites. I have found great pleasure in looking up the unfamiliar names and learning some of the background. It is my hope that readers will discover the same enjoyment. Some more common names were left off the lists in favor of words that are less widely known. I chose some because they are fun to say; I selected others because of how they look when written. Printing This book is printed on vintage handmade Hayle paper. Leonard Seastone of Tideline Press printed the book on his VanderCook from polymer plates. For those who are more familiar with the near-immediate gratification of digital printing, let me just give a little bit of insight into the the letterpress printing for this book. Each side of the page is printed separately (in this case, with the sheets being hand-placed into the press), after the ink has been applied (manually) to the type or (in this case) polymer plates. For something printed in one color, this means each sheet of paper passes through the press twice (front and back and alignment is not automatic — it’s fiddly work). In between, the ink needs several hours to dry. If you want a second color (for example, in my “green” section, both black and green inks are used), then the sheet must go through the press again (if color on 2 sides, then that means twice). I remind you of the alignment challenge. If you remember how hard it was to reinsert a typewriter page when corrections were needed (well, if you’re pretty old or are freakishly fascinated by ancient tech), you’ll have an idea of what this means. Plus, if you are changing the color on the press then the press needs to be thoroughly washed down so that the new color is crisp and clean (in the case of a light color like yellow, this can require more than one washing). Of course, this is a book about color, so 6 of the sections have their own second color and must go through the press 4 times (multiplied by the number of copies, of course). With the washing up and the aligning and the waiting for things to dry… Whew. Ok. So the book is printed using a total of 7 colors. Limited to 81 copies, of which 76 (50 regular and 26 deluxe) were offered for sale. For a handful of regular copies, we experimented with calligraphically embellished title and colophon pages, using multiple colors. This is one of those special copies. Marbled Papers I was fortunate to be able to work with two outstanding paper artists on this project. The techniques they use require skill, discipline, and artistry and every single sheet is made by hand (meaning every piece in every book is unique). Madeleine Durham made the jewel-like paste papers for the covers of this book as well as for portions of the deluxe boxes. None of my photos have been able to capture how beautiful and tactile her papers are, with their subtle veil of gold in addition to the main colors.Jemma Lewis hand-marbled the wrap-around dividers for each section. Custom designed especially for this book, these papers required a scaled-down pattern and very specific color needs because the marbling needed to extend the idea of the many hues in each color. Again, my photos don’t capture the subtleties and richness of her papers but they are gorgeous. Binding Bound in what I term a semi-constructed binding. Each section is sewn by hand (each with its own color thread). Boards are covered with the paste-paper. Cover title is individually calligraphed in gold.

Price: 180 USD

Location: Hyattsville, Maryland

End Time: 2024-12-20T21:14:29.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6 USD