Friday, February 22, 2008

My degree in pop-up books


Well, I'm sure you don't want to hear any more about my actual academic experience at West Dean, but the MA portion of my program started this week and I thought I would tell you what I'm getting an MA in. Pop-up books. That's right, I am getting a degree in the repair of pop-up books. Don't get me wrong there is a science to this stuff and I will be performing loads of tests on repair methods and what not, but I think it's hilarious that I'm focusing my degree on something so cool. So far I have visited a couple places with pop-up collections and I thought I would show you some of the cool stuff I have seen.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Lots of Books

Well my work placement has ended...sadly. To be honest I didn't even want to come back to West Dean, although now that I'm here it's not so bad. I spent six weeks working in the Guild Hall in London which means I was right next to St. Paul's Cathedral. Everyday I got up at 6am got ready and was at the train station in Brighton by 7am to take the train to London. It takes about 90 minutes to get there, but luckily that gave me lots of time to catch up on lots of reading. I managed to read the three Philip Pullman books The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, The Life of Pi, The Kite Runner, and Withering Heights. And all along I have been reading Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You). Needless to say a lot of reading was accomplished in my 3 hour a day commute.

I managed to get lots of work done while I was there, three books were conserved and about 40 pamphlets, so not too shabby. I think the best part about working there was the people, they were fantastic. Everyday Paul, Paul, Alberto and I would go across the street to Pret for a nice coffee and maybe a little snack and a nice chat. Everyone was really nice and friendly which always makes a job more enjoyable. Honestly I'm not really sure what to say about the placement that won't bore you all to tears, but I did have a great time and I am going to miss being there and being in London again. Ok, I'm done now, I will move on to more interesting things from here on out...promise.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Finally!

Well as you might have noticed I have been a little abscent from the blogging scene as of late. This is because I was doing a work placement at The Guild Hall in London. As my first trial by fire I was handed this lovely piece of work which had been severely eaten by mold. (Sorry if I'm boring you already) Anyway I had to repair the vellum and remove the cover from the old boards and make a new case for the manuscript. I t ended up looking like this:


Ok, I promise that's all I'll bore you with for now and I will fill everyone in on the actual placement and goings-on of my time there, but I just wanted to post a little bit to get the previous post off the top of my blog and appease Annalise who might die if it does not change soon. :)