Notebook Procrastination

I came to the print shop this afternoon to, well, print something. But in cleaning up around the press I encountered a sheaf of 11”x17” scrap paper, previously used for packing on the press, that cried out for upcycling. So I launched into an epic procrastination.

I started by trimming the paper down to 4”x5½” pieces. I stacked them up and used my cordless electric drill to punch 3 holes along the top.

Next I set up the lettepress with a piece of “perf bar,” hardened steel teeth that can punch a perforation in paper. It’s used on the letterpress just as if you were printing, except there’s piece of steel on the taped to the platen to avoid damaging it:

I stuck two pieces of sproingy white foam behind the perf bar to push the perforated pieces of paper off the teeth after perforation; otherwise they get stuck in the teeth, and I need to stop the press and peel them out.

As a final step, I assembled everything together—two covers made from upcycled tympan paper, the perforated pieces of paper—and bound it all together using three 1” screw posts (I credit Elmine and Ton with turning me on to this way of binding).

It was a two hour project from start to finish, and I never did get to do the printing I’d intended to do. But it was the kind of fanciful procrastination that makes creativity creativitying.

Meanwhile, across the studio, Lisa was engaged in her own flights of creative exploration.

(See also Perforated Notebooks, from 2019, where I covered some of the same terrain).