Lost Art Press

Category: The Anarchist’s Design Book

Better in Person

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Good news: All of the orders for “The Anarchist’s Design Book” shipped out today. We thank you for both your patience and your impatience. We hope the book will be worth your wait.

I barely remember our book-release party on Saturday for the “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” That had nothing to do with alcohol (I think I had time to drink only two beers all night) and had everything with too much social stimulation.

But the one thing I do remember is a line I heard over and over: “The pieces from the book look much better in person than they do in photographs.”

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The problem isn’t the photos. Narayan Nayar’s pictures of the pieces are outstanding. Instead, I think the comment relates to the unfamiliar forms and raking legs, which are difficult to depict in two dimensions. It’s the same parallax problem that plagues joint stools. The legs never look like they are angled the same. Sometimes one pair looks vertical and the other looks oddly raked.

So if you want to see some of these pieces in person, I recommend you make wire models of them using scraps and clothes hangers. Or stop by the Lost Art Press storefront on April 9 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. In addition to all of our books, we have special T-shirts, stickers, posters and other merchandise that won’t work in our online store.

I’ll be there, as will my daughter Katy, who will be selling her Anarchist’s Daughter Soft Wax (we hope to be able to make enough to sell it online soon).

In the meantime I guess I better make some rectilinear Morris chairs to get back some furniture cred.

— Christopher Schwarz

A Thousand Scribbles Later

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Before my dear friend Carl Bilderback passed away, he had one suggestion as to how I should change my life: Sign my name more neatly.

Today I was so glad I rejected that advice.

I drove to our Indianapolis warehouse in the morning and spent the day unpacking 1,000 books, examining them for damage, signing them in red ink and repacking them. If I had taken Carl’s advice, I’d still be at the warehouse making beautiful “S” shapes.

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As we examined every book, here are two things we noticed:

  1. The pages appear to be stuck together on some volumes. This is a result of painting the edges black. The black paint protects the pages from moisture and dirt. But the pages also need to be separated before you read the book. Simply fan the pages and they will separate without tearing.
  2. The smooth cover appears a bit burnished in places in raking light. This is also a result of the manufacturing process. We used a smooth cloth for this cover. When the cloth is glued to the boards of the book it can look a little burnished in some light. It’s not noticeable except in some light and after someone points it out to you.

I finished up signing the books late Monday afternoon. Our warehouse guy said they expect to have all the books in the mail by the end of the week – Monday at the latest.

— Christopher Schwarz

‘The Anarchist’s Design Book’ Ships this Week

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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At long last, “The Anarchist’s Design Book” has arrived in our Indianapolis warehouse and will begin shipping out to customers this week.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll drive to our warehouse to personally sign the first 1,000 copies for customers who ordered the book back in January, and then the warehouse employees will organize an assembly line to ship everything out.

We received our copies of the book for the Lost Art Press storefront late last week, and I think it was worth the extra wait. The delay in shipping the book was caused by the extra work required at the bindery to stain the edges of the pages black – a detail on early books that protects them from dirt and damage.

The bindery did a nice job staining the edges, so we’ll continue to do this on future press runs. (I’m ordering the second printing this week.)

There’s a lot more to say, but I’m too exhausted from the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event and book-release party to put any more words together.

— Christopher Schwarz

An Interview on ‘Looking Sideways’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

ATC_SquareLast month Andrew Sleigh of the “Looking Sideways” podcast discussed my work, Lost Art Press and how I cram anarchism, woodworking and historical research into one beer glass.

The 57-minute interview is now available for you to listen at the Looking Sideways site. In addition to the above topics, Andrew and I also discuss Enzo Mari’s influential book “Autoprogettazione,” and how John and I have structured Lost Art Press to be an anti-corporation. That’s something I haven’t talked about before in public. Yikes.

The most important part of the interview (for me, at least) is the discussion of why John and I look to the past to beat a path forward for the craft of woodworking. I really do consider what we do here as akin to exploring an advanced, alien technology.

Andrew was an excellent interviewer. I hope you enjoy the podcast.

— Christopher Schwarz

Instead of a Face-painting Station…

Posted on by Lost Art Press

 

…we’re going to offer a spray-painting station at “The Anarchist’s Design Book” book-release party Saturday night. I made this stencil years ago. And I have a can of spray paint.

For these photos I tried to get Megan Fitzpatrick to stencil my bare back, but she wouldn’t do it, saying the safety wanks would have my head. All I have to say to that is that if we didn’t have body painting then we wouldn’t have had Mel Gibson in “Braveheart.”

Um. So never mind on the body paint.

We’re wrapping up little details all week – installing doors, making sure we have electric lights, just little stuff. The place won’t be ready for the opening, but it will have to do.

One other quick reminder: The store will be open only on the second Saturday of each month. We’ve had lots of requests from people who are passing through Cincinnati to stop and visit or to pick up orders. I wish we could accommodate those requests, but we cannot.

This company is two people – no employees – and John lives two hours away. So it’s on me to run the store, and I have lots of editing, writing and furniture commissions to work on. Maybe someday we’ll have more help and can offer more hours, but until then I ask you to please not ask us to do what we cannot.

Hope to see y’all this weekend.

— Christopher Schwarz