Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

Yesterday was a perfect spring day with sunshine and warmth and all things good. Today is also a perfect spring day, but of the drizzly, rainy kind that feeds all the growing things. I’m not sure the little growing things really need the rain because the ground is still pretty wet from the last rain we had plus the winter melt, but the trees are doing thirsty work making leaves so they’ll use up any extra left over water. I know that there are parts of the world who are struggling with a too dry spring season and I wish I could share. Here it’s been snow and rain and rain and rain for many weeks. It should settle down eventually and I can only hope the trees get enough wet now to protect them from the blistering heat to come. The weather has changed so drastically over the course of my lifetime that I just don’t know what to expect anymore. I do love the trees, though, and I hate to see them suffer so let it rain on my beauties while they grow their summer suits. I can wait  for the sunshine.

The Art of Book Design: Beauty in Common Things

Beauty in Common Things by Chambers, A. C; Whymper, Emily Hepburn, 1833-1886, illustrator; Dickes, William, 1815-1892 (printer); Stanford, Edward, 1827-1904 engraver; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Great Britain). General Literature Committee. 1874. London

The gilded cover is an engraving of all the plants displayed in the book. I’ve added 2 of the interior plates below the fold for anyone interested. [Read more…]

A Year Long Journey

Thanks for everyone’s kind thoughts, the antibiotics seem to be doing something, though everything I’ve read about pertussis includes the warning that the coughing fits can last up to 3 months (depending on the source – shortest I’ve heard is 10 weeks, in China apparently they call it the “100-day cough”). So I’m not looking forward to that, because in about 3 weeks I have a big conference (in Madrid!) where I have presenting responsibilities and I was hoping the “long cough” (as it is called in Latvian) wouldn’t be quite so long…

However, I am looking forward to discovering more art like A Year Long Journey by Ryo Takemasa. Only one example, you must visit the site to see more:

The Art of Book Design: Kate Greenaway’s Almanack

Cover for Kate Greenaway’s Almanack for 1893, London, [1892].
(Source: archive.org) 

A book of weekly dates for religious services in 1893. Each page has a sweet watercolour drawing depicting family activities of the time.

 

From archive.org, where you can view the entire book. I warn you this site can be a bit of a rabbithole.

The Art of Book Design: A Floral Fantasy

Walter Crane. A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden. London: Harper, 1899 — Source.

When I started this series I envisaged it as being about the art of book cover design, not about the art between the covers.  The art between the covers of this book, though, is available on-line and it’s gorgeous so I thought I’d share a few interior plates. The book is a lighthearted look at the “personalities” of plants done in verse and gorgeous art nouveau design. [Read more…]

Tree Tuesday

I love to see the bright, fresh blossoms on flowering trees in early spring, but around here the show hasn’t started yet and the trees seem to be waking up very, very slowly. In Germany, though, the cherry trees are in full bloom and Avalus has taken some gorgeous photographs to share with us.

©Avalus, all rights reserved

[Read more…]