Cuts for printing Spanish playing cards / Planchas de imprenta (naipes)

These snapshots are from the Museu Frederic Marès in Barcelona. Marès was a Catalan sculptor. His statues speckle Barcelona. You've probably seen them at Montjuic and Pl. Catalunya. His home became a museum. The first floor houses his collection of Spanish figurative sculpture. The rest of it is one big cabinet of curiosities--comprised of anything and everything he could hoard.  

Marès graduated from the school I attended last year, and later in his life, ended up directing it. The story I heard was that his hoarding actually gave birth to the book arts program. He needed somebody to bind all of his paper ephemera and photographs into albums. 

Marès was, apparently, deeply quirky. He'd shuffle around his house/studio/museum, checking on his collections in his nightgown, well into his old age. 

Anyway, I loved seeing these cuts for printing Spanish playing cards there. 

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Hice estas dos fotos en el Museo Marès de Barcelona. La casa de Marès, escultor catalán, se convirtió en museo mientras él vivía, y sigue siéndolo. En la primera planta se expone su colección de escultura hispánica. Las demás plantas son un gran gabinete de curiosidades que contiene todo lo que coleccionaba. 

Marès estudió en La Llotja y llegó a dirigirla. Me contaron que, de la necesidad de encuadernar todos los recuerdos y fotos que guardaba, nació el Conservatorio de las Artes del Libro. 

Marès era no solo excéntrico, sino muy así, andando por la casa-museo en zapatillas de casa para vigilar las colecciones.  

Entre ellas hay unas pocas planchas de imprenta, incluso estas. Son para imprimir los naipes. 

Dear Barcelona / Querida Barcelona,

Love, India / con cariño, India

These remind me of Candy Chang's sidewalk psychiatry. / Esto me recuerda de este proyecto de psiquiatría peatonal por Candy Chang.

Mapmaking final project

I've mentioned this mapmaking class earlier. This was the final project I did for it.

An experimental cardboard intaglio plate.

The image is taken from maps of Idelfons Cerdà's 1853 plan for the city. But not all of Cerdà's plan was built. This image corresponds more to an imaginary city than the real city.

This spot is where the Raval and the grid knit together. It's near the Sant Antoni stop on the purple line.

Final print measure 11x15"

The printmaking process:

1) Clamp together a thick piece of bookboard and to a thinner one. Sand the edges of both together, like you would do to make a two color intaglio print. Bevel them to a 45 degree angle.

2) Cut your relief out of the thinner piece of board. Reverse your image. Any dents in the cardboard will print. I bought a heavy duty box cutter for this. I suppose you could also have somebody laser cut this for you, but you're making a cheap intaglio plate, remember?

3) Glue together with PVA. Put under weight overnight.

4) Decide whether to print with wet or dry paper? Wet paper is damp packed the night before. This is a good option for heavy paper (300+ gsm). If printing wet, coat your plate with aluminum foil or matte medium so the paper doesn't stick. With foil, turn in the edges as you would when making a case for a book.

If you're using a thinner paper (150ish gsm), just put a sheet of tissue paper between your plate and the paper. You can get enough impression without soaking.

5) Crank the plate through the press with two blankets, a foam pad (to keep the blankets in good shape), and a lot of pressure. If you printed with damp paper, dry prints with a weight between sheets of blotter until no longer humid. The blotter may have to be cut to frame the image, in order not to flatten the relief.

I keep finding great photos of Barcelona as I sort through everything. For your viewing pleasure:

My school's old building.

The Basilica in the rain. Beautiful even then.

Pl. Catalunya

Modernisme street lighting + seating

Pl. Espanya

A block east of Pl. Cataluyna

8 Maps of Barcelona

I took this mapmaking class a few weeks ago. I used to think online learning was just like offset lithography: modern and soul-less.

Well, it's great. Kind of like blogging.

It jumpstarted a couple of projects for me, and I discovered all these cool maps of my city:

1) Barcelona is on the Mediterranean, and green tendrils of growing things stick out of every balcony. So it makes sense that this city is full of urban gardens. Thanks to socialism, we can even search for them with an online map. Also check out the group that put this together, La Fábrica del Sol, which gives tours that focus on the the city's green spaces.

2) This tongue-in-cheek map of the old city on They Draw and Travel captures the city's sense of humor.

3) This map is pinned up in a little bakery off the Plaça de la Virreina. I just love its illustrative-ness. This is exactly what Gracia (my neighborhood) is like: dense, quaint.

4) This is an interactive online map of Picasso's Barcelona. Thanks, Picasso Museum!

5) This is the lithography stone that Idelfons Cerdà's plan for L'Eixample was printed from. It lives in the Museum of City History. A lot of skill went into making this thing: cartography, hand lettering, and traditional stone lithography.

6) Get your paws on a copy of the special edition of reproductions of Cerdà's maps issued in 2009 by the Catalan Cartographic Institute. It is one sweet piece of bookbinding. One of the places you can find it (for free!) is on the third floor of the Sagrada Famìlia Library. 

7) I loved this poster for Sant Jordi day, coming soon to a Catalan city near you. Here the famous grid has become a visual shorthand for the city.

8) These hand drawn maps of the city (with sketches!) by Clara Nubiola. Published by B-side Books. Photo credit.

Balcony gardens

Ahh, an apartment with a 'balcón,' or balcony. You could do so many things ... eat your breakfast there ... escape from your roommates .... draw the rooftops.

Or grow plants. Here are some snapshots I took of balcony gardens I loved in Barcelona.

This whole side of a building is covered with plants. At the base there is a telescope so you can watch the birds and other wildlife that live there.

Signage

Salt Lake City:

Provo:

I think Colt Bowden is responsible for these next two:

Bubble letters in Salt Lake.

Eye candy:

Segovia. Also, 'merienda' might just be my favorite word in Spanish.

In Madrid at the International Book Fair. This photo is for the sentiment, not the sign. :)

Spain somewhere?

Madrid

Segovia:

This is my favorite of this post:

This is Barcelona: the pause.

That moment of communion with your groceries before you haul them up three flights of stairs. 

This is Barcelona: anarchism

Nothing says Barcelona like anarchist graffiti.  This is a nice twist on the black 'A in circle' thing all over the neighborhood.

This is BCN

everyday things that make me smile:

Castellers practice!

More lettering on signs

These almost all have a 1930s vibe.  

In Porto:

"Dr. Ricardo Jorge" that part is so great. 

In Barcelona:

Check out the 'A'.