2008 Woodie Awards
Students hand-make limited edition books
Students illustrate The Raven
by Sandi Tatum
Issue date: 8/18/08 Section: A&E
Painting illustrations, carving illustrations into wood, painting the wood, stamping paper, and making covers is only a fraction of what two Piedmont students accomplished while making illustrated books.
Regina and Mat Fried, both seniors graduating in December, were asked to help make illustrations for limited edition hand-made books of The Raven. With the knowledge they obtained from the bookmaking class offered at Piedmont and four months of planning and executing the project, they have made 38, books so far.
"This was very exhausting but a great learning experience," says Mat. "Future projects will be easier because there won't be so much planning."
Simon Britan, publisher of Euterpe Books, started the company to make limited edition hand made books for non-copyrighted material. The Raven has not had a special edition made since 1875. He asked Regina and Mat to help him with this project.
To make one of these 28 page long limited edition books, hours of work and planning went into the project. They also hired the help of Carolyn Mote, sophomore, and Halley Beagle, senior, to help with the making and assembling of the books.
After two months of planning and picking out supplies, Regina began the project by water painting on paper what the illustrations would look like. Once she finished that, Mat began carving the illustrations into wood plates to make a stamp. There are eight plates total and Mat says each one took about 10 hours of work.
After all the plates were made, the pages were stamped with paint-covered wood plates and then the covers had to be made. The covers were an adventure of their own because they had to find the right fabric. The first two months of research included how to bind the books.
"We did all the cover parts at once. With four people doing parts nothing is perfect," says Regina. "In the future we will make one book at a time."
"The best part was when a book was completely done, when the first book fit into the cover," says Mat.
Regina, Mat, Mote and Beagle will make no more than 160 books. Only 149 of them will be sold for the cost of $244. The more books they make and sell, the less valuable they become.
On August 8, Mat and Regina had their first launch party in the Piedmont gallery. They plan on having two more launch parties this year. One will be August 23 at Humpus Bumpus Books in Cumming, while the other will be Sept. 9 at the University of Georgia.
The Frieds say this experience might give them the opportunity to become partners with Euterpe Books. Future limited edition books for the publishing company include The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Regina and Mat Fried, both seniors graduating in December, were asked to help make illustrations for limited edition hand-made books of The Raven. With the knowledge they obtained from the bookmaking class offered at Piedmont and four months of planning and executing the project, they have made 38, books so far.
"This was very exhausting but a great learning experience," says Mat. "Future projects will be easier because there won't be so much planning."
Simon Britan, publisher of Euterpe Books, started the company to make limited edition hand made books for non-copyrighted material. The Raven has not had a special edition made since 1875. He asked Regina and Mat to help him with this project.
To make one of these 28 page long limited edition books, hours of work and planning went into the project. They also hired the help of Carolyn Mote, sophomore, and Halley Beagle, senior, to help with the making and assembling of the books.
After two months of planning and picking out supplies, Regina began the project by water painting on paper what the illustrations would look like. Once she finished that, Mat began carving the illustrations into wood plates to make a stamp. There are eight plates total and Mat says each one took about 10 hours of work.
After all the plates were made, the pages were stamped with paint-covered wood plates and then the covers had to be made. The covers were an adventure of their own because they had to find the right fabric. The first two months of research included how to bind the books.
"We did all the cover parts at once. With four people doing parts nothing is perfect," says Regina. "In the future we will make one book at a time."
"The best part was when a book was completely done, when the first book fit into the cover," says Mat.
Regina, Mat, Mote and Beagle will make no more than 160 books. Only 149 of them will be sold for the cost of $244. The more books they make and sell, the less valuable they become.
On August 8, Mat and Regina had their first launch party in the Piedmont gallery. They plan on having two more launch parties this year. One will be August 23 at Humpus Bumpus Books in Cumming, while the other will be Sept. 9 at the University of Georgia.
The Frieds say this experience might give them the opportunity to become partners with Euterpe Books. Future limited edition books for the publishing company include The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.
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