Lunch with a book conservator

Part of my journey this year is reaching out to the local book conservators in the area and learning as much as possible from their valuable wisdom. With such a small group of people in the profession, it is nice to have face time with someone just as passionate about the art.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of having lunch with Hannah Tashjian, conservator at the UC Berkeley Library. It was such a pleasure to sit down and fire away my question to the first book conservator I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. She talked about different programs available here on the western seaboard, most notably the Academy of American Bookbinding. She talked about the extensive papyrus collection the university has and the exciting work she’s done with that. The most important part for me however, was her patience with my stumbling of questions. I was a bit nervous of asking all the right questions and trying to make perfect use of our time. I felt it really put me out of my comfort zone, which is the track I’m looking for.

After lunch, she showed me a couple of the libraries around campus where I ended up in the Bancroft Library just for a moment. It is where the university houses its rare books collections and is an extremely beautiful building. I spent the rest of the afternoon in the general stacks browsing the book art collection.

In other news, I’ve added a resource tab at the top of the page for a collection of information I have found extremely valuable. For those out there interested in understanding more about a book conservator's journey, I highly recommended the book by Annie Tremmel Wilcox titled, A Degree of Mastery: A Journey through Book Arts Apprenticeship. I haven’t been able to put it down for it describes everything I feel about bookbinding and the craftsmanship that takes years to obtain. It is wonderful and any emerging bookbinder should take the time to read it.

School starts Tuesday. Here we go!