Free online: Printing on Oxford India Paper, with Bodleian Printer in Residence

What’s beneath the words: a paper journey
Tuesday 23 June 2020, 3.30-4.30pm BST
Free online event via Zoom
All welcome; registration required
To register please use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Bh7G5Ox_T0ydzKalOCBeWQ

Contemporary letterpress artist David Armes (Red Plate Press) and book conservator Andrew Honey (Bodleian Libraries) share their appreciation for paper and for the craft and art that goes into the making of books. Armes explains how as Bodleian Printer in Residence, 2019-20, he printed a new book on ‘Oxford India Paper,’ very thin but opaque paper used to print Bibles, encyclopaedias, and other lengthy works. The resulting work, Curses, exploits the paper’s unique qualities. Find out how demanding this was, and hear about Armes’s printing residency in Oxford, where he created the work ‘Between Sun Turns,’ a response to the environment and cityscape in and around the city. It has been thought that ‘Oxford India paper’ was locally produced at the Wolvercote Paper Mill; Andrew Honey discusses this idea, and reveals other historical paper research taking place at the Bodleian.

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Having already replied direct to Ms Franklin, I now add that
Thomas Balston & Co (aka Whatman) pre WW2 made a hand made airmail grade, and I do have a couple of pieces yet.

If you missed this today you didn’t miss a thing, it was pretty dire. Starts with some background info on Oxford India paper and then doesn’t go any further on testing the characteristics of the paper or comparison with other thin bible papers.

The second half presentation was by an artist who did test prints on the paper using broken type and overprinting several times. Seemed to know nothing about inks and drying. One of his interests is negative space in his printing, (the area that is plain), came across as pretentious Usual University requirement, if you have had a secondment then a paper, conference presentation or now Zoom session is required.This is Oxford University?