Update from Pegana Press

As the year draws to its conclusion, we are wrapping up another project at the press.  Mike tells me he only has the title page left to print and an introduction.  The test print has been done on a beautiful Color Sime illustration from the Dunsany estate and we will be moving forward getting the illustration printed.

Once these are complete, I will begin hand binding Lost Tales Volume 4, another collection of previously unpublished stories written by Lord Dunsany.

For details or to preorder this limited edition hand made letterpress book, please go to our website.

presenting The Men of Baldfolk & Other Fanciful Tales

 Mike and Rita of Pegana Press are pleased to announce that we are taking preorders for The Men of Baldfolk & Other Fanciful Tales by Lord Dunsany on our website.

In this offering, we have moved away from the chapbook single signature design that marked our Lost Tales editions.  But as with the rest, our books continue to be hand made from start to finish by Mike and Rita Tortorello at Pegana Press.

This book is quarter bound, black cloth spine with Florentine paper covered boards.  Letterpress spine title on Hahnemühle Ingres paper.  Inside the book is hand typeset letterpress printed, also on Hahnemühle Ingres.

Now for the good stuff...

5 of the 9 stories contained in this book have never appeared in print before now.  The other 4 have not appeared since their original magazine publications.

We are also excited to offer as frontispiece, a rare Sime watercolor.

If you're a Dunsany fan, you are in for a treat with these stories.  A rare and beautiful book of material from a master story crafter, brought to you with love from Mike and Rita of Pegana Press.

...and Thor said to the rest "It is even as we have dreamed.  The years have been going by and the ages passing away; Time has been active here, and it grows late on Earth.  Unstained and cold are the stones.  It is later than we had dreamed."       

--Lord Dunsany from The Vengeance of Thor, written 1929 and previously unpublished.  Available from Pegana Press Spring 2016.

We invite you to visit our website.

Getting Closer

We are putting the final touches on The Men of Baldfolk and Other Fanciful Tales by Lord Dunsany, the newest release from Pegana Press.

Mike has finished the printing and has collated the pages into book form.  We are waiting on the illustration, which should be finished soon.

Rita is binding variations of dummy copies to see how Mike's vision for this book will look fully bound.

We hope to share pictures on our website around May 1st.

There are 9 stories in the book, 5 of which have never been published before, the other 4 are uncollected in book form.  The material spans 1908 to 1955.  Featured as frontispiece is a rare, color Sime illustration.

Please visit our website for updates.

An Update from The Bindery

I've really been enjoying binding The Golden Key.

Pegana Press Bindery in 2013

Since Mike and I operate Pegana Press out of our home, we have had to make adjustments along the way as we evolve and shape our mission.  When I first began binding books, I was working anywhere there was space in the house.  I've bound books in the living room and on the dining room table.  I've cut book cloth on the massage table in the room where I see clients for Reiki and energy work.  And now at last I have a designated area where I bind books.  It's a small space, but somehow it makes the whole process advance more smoothly and quickly.

Pegana Press 2015.  Cutting cloth.

Having this space has allowed me to feel more organized and grounded.  Because of this I have been able to communicate more with the people who buy our books.

The preorders began in June, and we want to keep everyone up to date. as their books become available.  One of my new favorite jobs is to email people during the binding process with updates on the status of their book.  So when I bind a small batch of books (usually 8 to 10 at a time), I will let them sit for a day or two, and then check them out to make sure all is going well.  Once I'm satisfied, I can begin emailing the next 8 to 10 customers who ordered books.

So if you've ordered a copy of The Golden Key from Pegana Press, you can expect to be notified soon on the status of your book.  That is, if you haven't already received word.

I'll be getting back to the bindery now.  I've got another batch of books to bind in today.

The Golden Key/Pegana Press 2015

I'll leave you with a quote from The Golden Key

    ... And her great blue eyes looked down on the little Tangle, as if all the stars in the sky were melted in them to make their brightness.

     "Ah! but," said Tangle, "when people live long they grow old.  At least I always thought so."

     "I have not time to grow old," said the lady.  "I am too busy for that.  It is very idle to grow old..." 

Hmmm, I'll have to remember that.
 

 

Binding The Golden Key pt 6

The Golden Key/Pegana Press 2015

As you can see, no two books are exactly alike.  Each front title and spine title are cut by hand individually.

This photo shows the front title being trimmed down from its parent sheet.


The second photo shows the spine title being trimmed down.  Requiring only a ruler and cutting tools, the most important thing is to have a good eye and a steady hand.

The Golden Key/Pegana Press 2015

The next step will be to attach the titles to each book.  After drying, the book is finished and ready to be read.

You can view the finished book on the George MacDonald tab of Pegana Press.

Binding The Golden Key pt 5

Today I finished binding 10 copies of The Golden Key.  They are resting under weight tonight, and will continue to for up to two weeks.

We're using Bertini paper from Italia for the end papers, and I'm still getting used to it, even though I've  worked with it a bit when binding the dummy copies.  The Lama Li Lakta paper from Nepal (used for the Lost Tales books) is very forgiving, almost like cloth.  This Bertini is stiffer paper and less forgiving, although very sturdy.

It looks wonderful in the book, but it's a different entity entirely to work with.

The Golden Key/Pegana Press Bindery

This photo was taken after the book had been under weight for 2 hours.  I was happy to see that the paper was drying beautifully.

There is still one step to go, attaching the titles, but that won't be for at least a week.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this peek into the binding process.  I wanted to share about our process because I was reading recently about other presses that market their books as being hand bound.  I found myself wondering how they can offer their books so cheaply and make hundreds of copies.  Then I found out that those books are made using machines.  What we're doing at Pegana Press is really pretty unique in today's world.

Binding The Golden Key pt 4

I decided to take a quick break from binding to post some photos of one of the cases I'm working on this afternoon.  First I glue the fabric to the boards and add the spine treatment.  Then I set the joint next to the spine...

The Golden Key/Pegana Press Bindery

and wrap the case around the book block.

The Golden Key/Pegana Press Bindery

Here's the finished case looking very pretty.

The Golden Key/Pegana Press Bindery

The case binding with it's book sits under weight over night to give the binding a nice shape.  Tomorrow I'll begin gluing the books into their bindings.

Back to work now.

Binding The Golden Key pt 3

It's Sunday the 11th, and I want post a reminder to anyone who still wants to order their copy of The Golden Key at the preorder price, that today is the last day to do that.

Before I go back to the bindery, I wanted to post some more photos of the binding process for this project, so you can see all the love that goes into your copy of this book.

Here are the spine reinforcements which always take so much time.  Early on, I tried to do this on a paper guillotine, but the pieces would shift, and cut unevenly, so I have had to cut each one by hand.

When I first started doing this, I would only get one usable one for every two I cut.  I've had a lot of practice since then.  ;)

The Golden Key/Pegana Press Bindery

Here is the yellow book cloth, just cut into sections across the grain from a roll of dubletta cloth.  I will be able to bind three books from each of these sections.

The Golden Key/Pegana Press Bindery

The next step is to make the case bindings.  With cloth and binder's board and glue.  This is the fun part of binding for me.  Taking all the hand prepared materials and making something that begins to resemble the finished book.

The Golden Key/Pegana Press Bindery

I will wrap each finished case around its book block, set the joint, where the book opens, and then allow it to rest under weight overnight, before binding the book in on the following day.

Well now, it's back to the bindery.  More later.

Binding The Golden Key pt 2

Yesterday I finished up the day by attaching mull and headbands to the book.  I let them dry over night.  I was really pleased with the result when I looked through them this morning.  The headbands I chose are golden.

The next step involves making the cases for the binding.  During the design process, I bound a dummy and glued the front title to the cover.  This worked really well for The Age Of Malygris/Clark Ashton Smith/Pegana Press 2014, because that title was on a really thin paper.  The paper we're using for the title of The Golden Key is much thicker and I could see that it would be subject to wear unless it was inset into the cover.

That means before making the cases, I need to make the insets into the boards used for the front cover.  This is done by hand, as crazy as that sounds.  But I've had a lot of practice with the Lost Tales books.

The inset of this book is quite large, because it has to accommodate the illustration on the front title.  I made two more dummy bindings with the insets to make sure the design would work.

Besides getting the boards ready, I need to cut the book cloth to the right size.  I've always used a cotton dubletta cloth on all our books, so I've continued with dubletta and for this edition we've chosen yellow to fit in with the title.

Another important step is to create the spine reinforcements which create a flat spine for our letterpress spine titles.  This was decided upon when we made our first case bound book for the Lost Tales series.  Having books in our collection with traditional spines, has taught us a valuable lesson about how paper titles glued to a spine can chip and crumble with handling over time.  The books with spine reinforcements create a flat spine, and those seem to cause less wear to a paper title.

Therefore, each spine reinforcement also has to be cut by hand.  This is one of the hardest jobs to get precise, but I feel that this extra step is worth the work and time to ensure that the paper titles stand up to handling over time.  This photo shows the case binding with a (white) paper liner to help reinforce the book and a spine reinforcement in place.  This is what the finished case looks like, all ready to glue a book into.

I'm planning on making the cases on Saturday.  More later.

Binding The Golden Key

At Pegana Press we make all of our books by hand from start to finish.  

I'd like to share the binding process here with you, and I'll be taking photos as I bind The Golden Key.

After Mike trims and collates the pages, he hands them off to me in the form of signatures.  This is a beautiful book to work on and I'm really enjoying it.

I start by piercing the holes for sewing into each signature.  They have to line up, so the book will be even.  I use a template and a stabbing cradle and pierce each one by hand.

The next step is the sewing.  For The Golden Key, I used linen thread and linen sewing tapes.  I am binding in batches of 12 to 14 until I catch up with the preorders, so I sewed a stack of books before moving on to the next step.

Today I tipped in the end papers, which were cut and folded by hand.  I have to wait for the end papers to dry before moving on the next step, gluing the spines.  Once that glue has dried, I round the spines.  This afternoon, I will add mull and head bands.

Tomorrow, I will be cutting cloth and spine reinforcements.  The reinforcements create a flat spine for our letterpress titles to be glued to. 

Back to the bindery.  More later.