Take a look at this! It’s the website of Jim Harner, who has the largest collection of miniature Shakesperiana in the world, and a very small slice of it in nice big pictures here. He just bought a copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so I’ll be included!!
Bo Press Blog
Backstage at Bo Press
Category Archives: Bo Press Books
The Emperor’s New Book
A lady asked for an invisible book:
Invisible Book
Invisible Book
Invisible Book
Invisible Book
The binding is inlaid with refracting lenses, to help with reading the almost illegible type.
Spring Cleaning Sale!
I just spent the day re-arranging my studio, and I feel (artistically speaking) as if I’ve dropped twenty pounds and twenty years. I was ruthless about throwing things out, and while going through the stock I had on hand, I thought, “Why do I have so much stock on hand?” Alternative bindings, test bindings, out-of-print titles, titles that, in a pretty fantasy of financial optimism, I made too many of. . .they’re all going up on eBay starting at around $10 each. Here’s some samples:
A Fan of Fans
Giant Lizards of the Solar System
The Way Through The Woods
I’ll be putting more titles up throughout the week, and some slow movers from the pocket globe department, too. Go bargain-hunting!
A Catalogue of Painted Samples
. . .of Fabrics, Laces, and Textiles, by the Great Artists of the European Tradition
A Catalogue of Painted Samples
A Catalogue of Painted Samples
The Title Page
Some Brocades
Jacobean Chic by Larkin
Wretched Excess by Caravaque
. . .and I just this minute realized I mis-spelled ‘metallic”. Sigh . . .
Anyway, the book is out, and I couldn’t be prouder of it! Here it is on the website. The book is bound in pink and gray Florentine paper with a spine of unbleached linen, and has two sets of ties to close it.
I would have had it out earlier, but when it was almost complete, I decided I didn’t like the labeling, and doing it over threw me into a world of trouble. But it was worth it, I think.
A New Category!
I’ve relabeled the miniature box category “Curiosities”, to cover all the vampire hunter kits, Japanese screens, traveler’s bookcases, fortune tellers, and future strangeness I might come up with. Added today:
Japanese Screen
Maps of the Continents
. . .And Here’s Tomorrow:
The Round Orrery
The Paris Tellurion
The Mystic Swami
At The Show: The Whole Story
I hadn’t flown for a few years, and reading all the air travel horror stories prepared me for anything, but both flights were smooth and airports were uncrowded. Teaneck is a $54 cab ride from Newark airport, which was unavoidable. I got to the Marriott and crashed.
Setting up the next day was pretty easy. The preview started at 6:00, which gave me plenty of time to set up and meet my neighbors. On my left was a metalsmith from Mexico, Jose Bolio, (whose suspiciously neat workshop I totally covet), who had the neatest display I saw at the show: two mahogany displays that opened book-like, and took up almost no space at all.
On my right was the completely wonderful Mike Barbour, who makes character dolls and has recently branched out into fantastical astronomical instruments. I snagged one of his telescopes for myself.
High points:
- the Map Stack sold for $400!
- I met and had a long conversation with Jim Brogan from The Microbibliophile. A super nice guy.
- Carol Singer from SP Miniatures introduced herself and offered to represent me. She bought eight or ten pieces, and they’re on her website now.
- I got all kinds of gossip about other miniature shows, and lots of good advice that I’ll use next time.
After the show I paid an all-too-short visit to Valerie and Matthew, owners of the copies of The Lysistrata and The Book Of Ruth that I published in miniature form. Valerie not only has a magnificent Arts and Crafts dollhouse, she has a great collection of micro-miniature books. Looking them over, I realized that I’m going to have to really work harder at my books in smaller sizes. Thinner paper, thinner board, and a better sense of scale in general.
Preparing for this show got the better of my creative work for months. Even though it was a great and very educational experience, for now all I want to do is make new little books.
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In the rush to turn out product for the IGMA show, a lot of the non-book things I made never got onto the website. I’ll be adding them a few at a time over the course of the next few days, and I’ll put photos up on the blog, as well. Here’s today’s:
Blue Orrery
Box Orrery
Both of these are tabletop orreries, and they also look good mounted on a wall, or even on the ceiling.
IGMA Show – An Overview
1. Even after building and furnishing a dollhouse, I had no idea how really really small 1/12 scale is.
2. IGMA people are the best.
3. Miniature paintings that look like bad copies on a website look absolutely magical in person.
4. If you removed the miniature food and the miniature needlework, there would have been damn few of us left.
5. My homemade display furniture looked homemade.
6. I need lights.
7. I had lots of small sales and TWO BIG ONES! so I ended up in the black.
8. New Jersey’s humidity rivals Mississippi’s.
9. It’s really hard to sell my books unless I explain each one.
10. I get really homesick.
. . . . .more to come.
Fame!
David Shook, of the literary blog Molossus, showed a few of my books to the editors of the LA Review of Books, who mentioned them on their blog. Bow down, puny humans!
Fame at Last
I just received my copy of the July issue of The Microbibliophile, Jim Brogan’s newsletter, review and all-around source for news about the miniature book world. This is the forth issue of the revived magazine, and the most elaborate and stuffed with material, including reviews of two of my books.
The Microbibliophile
Jim reviewed Napoleon’s Retreat and Minard’s Map and At The Flea Circus in great detail. He even inserted a fold-out copy of Minard’s map. The photography of the books is beautiful, too. To have my books reviewed is amazing enough, but for those reviews to be favorable is fabulous. I couldn’t be more smug if I were on the New York Times best-seller list.
But the most wonderful thing about this issue is its size. It has not just reviews but articles by Peter Thomas, Muriel Underwood, and Joan Knoertzer, articles about the upcoming MBS conclave in Dublin, people’s wish lists and searches, and a mind-boggling list by collector Henry Hurley of miniature books about fishing. What a great resource for all of us in the miniature book world!
Go subscribe right now! Here!