The "Chumichurris" wishes you ¡happy holidays¡

**************************

"Chumichurri" does not mean anything.

It's only one affectionate word.

Here I use it to name a few nice personages

that allow me to congratulate this holidays to you,

I might have used equally the "Simpsons" or the "Flintstones".

*

This one is the most smiling, one distinguishes him perfectly,

with his good-natured smile.

Although I have added to him,

as to all the following ones,

a black point to simulate his eye

and to distinguish him very well.

He is saying...

! HAPPY HOLIDAYS¡

*

This angered him since last year,

when he did not win the lottery.

But anyway he wishes you...

! GOOD LUCK FOR THE 22^ND¡

*

Fuuuu, I’m blowing, how much cold it’s there outside, says this one,

but wishing you all to spend ...

! A HAPPY CHRISTMAS NIGHT¡

*

One can already see that this one has been preparing a turkey

( a peacock if he’s a marbler)

for dinner,

it will be necessary to eat the rests of it on the following day,

! MERRY CHRISTMAS¡

*

The following one is a little worried,

He doesn’t want to be the “innocent” of the 28th,

and has taken a hat,

that makes him even more...

daring,

to remember you...

! THAT WE ARE IN THE HOLIDAYS¡

! DANCE AND ENJOY¡

*

This is the most prepared "chumichurri" for

New Year's Eve,

hidden behind his mask,

he wishes you...

! A GREAT END OF 2010 AND A BETTER ENTRY OF THE NEW YEAR 2011¡

*****

You will wonder

from where they have come out

these celebrities.

From my bath.

Most of them from this marbled paper.

And the "spirit of the New Year's Eve" from this other one.

You can play with the images,

turn them and look for the "chumichurris",

as if there were a puzzle,

a pastime.

! You will find many others¡

***

I tried to marble other papers,

more "experiments".

I very much like what I got,

but there were no “chumichurris” on it.

They only appeared when I needed an idea for my congratulation.

They are friends,

the "chumichurris" know well what friendship is,

they can smile, help, be grateful, invite, make happy,

cheer up, support, converse, accompany,

they know how to improve the life of their friends.

And they allow me to make use of this Christmas to say

all these things without seeming too vulgar.

I would like saying them every day of the year,

but I am content to say to you

that these holidays...

! take out the "chumichurri" that we all have inside¡

! HAVE VERY

HAPPY DAYS

ALL OF YOU¡

Exhibition in Paris.

*********************

Today it’s open in Paris

a new exhibition

of four turkish artists,

Süreyya UYAN,
Ayşen BİLGİ,
Şanda SERİM and
Yeşim GÖKTEPE.

***

See it, a dream you can make true

if you’re there
from 14th to 28th, December
and you go to

Galería Art'est,
Quincampoix, 96,
Paris, 3,
from Tuesday to Saturday,
between 14 and 20 hours.

***

If you want to know more about them

here’s the link to their web in English

EBRIZMIR

Süreyya , Ayşen, Şanda and Yeşim

from Spain I send my best wishes to you.

Good luck.

***

"Decorated Papers"

*******************

On December, the second, it will be presented at the Conferences’ Hall of Madrid Complutense University, the book “Decorated papers in the bindings of the library of the Toledo Cathedral” that I have written in collaboration with Antonio Carpallo.

This book is the first monograph in Spanish dedicated exclusively to the study of the decorated papers used in the bindings of a bibliographical fund. So it is included in the most modern currents on bookbinding studies, which deal with all its elements without forgetting any. Because, really, the decorated papers have been relegated on these studies, at least in Spain, where only a little time ago they had began. Even at the point that, when someone has written a few words on this subject, they have been classified only between "white" papers or "decorated" papers (meaning nothing more than: with colours).

The invention of printing was the event that encouraged the development of very diverse techniques of paper decoration in Europe. Books were edited by thousands, volumes that must be bound, and then bookbinders needed a big quantity of papers that should hide the leather on the back of the pasteboard and the "gap", the inner joint between it and the book.

Bookbinders developed two of the decorative paper techniques that with major frequency we found in books used as endleaves: marbling, put to point in Europe by French bookbinders from the beginning of the XVIIth century, and paste papers, probably of northern origin, slightly later.

Nevertheless, as well as the printing generated this demand also it separated other craftsmen of his traditional work. Wood engravers, who had been the makers of the xylographic books previous to the printing, the Poor’s Bible or the Apocalypse, will have to change his activity after it. The book printers obtain the privilege to use the vertical press and the ancient engravers would have to invent different printing methods. France and Italy develop new xylographic impression techniques that, full of colors, they will use for “rooms garment” and for bookbinding. Even they will replace colors for gum and dyed wool or for ink or golden alloy and then it will become into fashion the "velvet" or “brocade” papers.

The book that I present wishes to open the sense in spanish of the term “decorated paper” to the different techniques of paper decoration that are used in bookbinding. The fund on which the study has been realized has allowed us to describe practically all the mentioned techniques, since the part corresponding to the legacy of the Cardinal Zelada was bound mostly in Italy during the XVIIIth century, very probably with papers realized or distributed by the famous factory “Remondini“, and contains abundant examples of each one.

***

Link if you want to buy the book:

Tienda virtual I.S.E.T. ref. TM010

Demo in Cologne.

*********

Jan van Oostrum, the man in charge of the marbling demonstrations at the Fairs of Sint Niklass, Cologne and Leyden, could not assist in Cologne this year because of family affairs and I was asked to replace him.

For it I got an unexpected gift: an appearance in a newspaper of the city, with a photo and a small paragraph whose translation appears further down.

Not so much the "intrinsic values" of the paper, but more the beautiful patterns are the issue at the stall of Antonio Velez Celemin. All day the Spaniard was standing behind a low water tray and marbling sheets of paper with paint and ox gall. He makes various colour drops flow together and works magic creating new patterns all the time - a demonstration that was well received by the spectators and evoked amazement.

I have never liked the employment of the word magic to define marbling, it is simply a chemical process, but I recognize how happy made me appear in the newspaper, and also to be accompanied there by another photo of my friend Tanja Karipidis, whose paste papers form a perfect rainbow plenty of her "magic".

Tanja Karipidis