A Planetary Collage – Timothy C. Ely | drawings, paintings, bookworms, book forms, sketchbooks, bookbindings, lists, poetry, recipes, equipment, book artist and stuff

Soon to Open In San Francisco: Cognitive Distance: The Bookworks and Thoughtforms of Timothy C. Ely

October 8, 2022 by telyhardware

The San Francisco Center for the Book is mounting an extensive show of my work starting on October 22, 2022 and running through January 8th of next year. This is a big show with around forty manuscript books spanning the past fifty years along with a number of drawings and prints. SFCB is also showing some of my most recent prints and books and will offer a 100 page catalog of the show. In their announcement, exhibition curator Jennie Hinchcliff observes: For […]

Categories: My Work, News

Awards for the Line of Sight Short Doc!

February 11, 2022 by telyhardware

In 2020, we released the short documentary showcasing my work. This video gives many their first look inside a finished book and it offers everyone a peek at my studio practice. It has been a pleasure to hear from so many who have enjoyed the video. I’ve also been pleased to hear that it introduced many to the world of the contemporary rare books and one-of-a-kind books — work which remains too little known as it resides in library special […]

Categories: My Work

My Interview on Spokane Public Broadcasting

October 29, 2021 by telyhardware

Yesterday evening, Spokane Public Broadcasting aired a 15 minute segment on my work. I’m pleased with the time and care they put into the finished piece and thought I’d share it. The entire episode is on YouTube. You will find my section starting at 14:33. Thanks to the folks at KSPS for their interest and care. Hope you enjoy! ©2021 — Timothy C. Ely — All Rights Reserved

Categories: Biography, My Work, News

Book Review: Richard Horton’s “Sewings Workshop Guide, with 9 Exercises”

June 24, 2021 by telyhardware

I received The Gibson System for the Guitar, carrying a copyright of 1939, when I began to take guitar lessons in 1960. This excellent foundation built my understanding and my skills. It focused on the fundamentals that mattered so well that it has value today. On the other hand, my family camped every few years. Of course, when we skipped years we forgot how to “do” camping. My grandfather’s tent must have been Civil War surplus and weighed more than […]

Categories: Mastery, Working & Methods

The Codex Offers Unusual Depths to Explore

December 14, 2020 by telyhardware

I create books in a most common historic form — the Codex. Of course there are many forms which can be bracketed between the earliest gatherings of written material to something written last month. But this is the form which reaches me as a maker. The primeval forms of scrolls and stones and tablets remain venerable and inspiring. They can provide stimulus for so-termed book artists. Yet the codex remains uniquely compelling for me — a fit basis of my […]

Categories: Mastery, My Work, Working & Methods • Tags: artist books, bookbinding, manuscript books, modern art, one of a kind books, Timothy C. Ely

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Line of Sight — A Short Documentary About My Work. Just Released!

September 10, 2020 by telyhardware

When I started making books in the 1970s, there was no clear roadmap for what I wanted to make. Now Doug Garnett and Sam Q. Garnett have created a short documentary on my work and many of the processes I use — including a full tour of my book Line of Sight. Enjoy! And pass it along! To share, here’s the link to the video on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/protonik/timothyelylineofsight And here’s the link to the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdqPEZy8Sc&feature=youtu.be Special thanks to […]

Categories: Biography, My Work

Writings About My Work

August 29, 2020 by telyhardware

Blogging co-conspirator Doug Garnett has collected a set of writings about my work onto a page added to this blog. So I thought my regular readers might find these writings of interest. After all, I’ve spent my career creating books which deliver an experience of mystery and delight — attempting to create an artifact which delivers the surprise one might feel encountering an unusual and compelling work hidden within a rare book collection. The work which developed turns out to […]

Categories: Biography, My Work

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When the Asteroid Passes, What is Left Behind? Journals, Sketchbooks, and More

May 22, 2020 by telyhardware

Strange, strange times indeed. Historically we have had hundreds of pandemics but never before have we been so tuned in, as Marshall McLuhan suggested, to the world —electronically and, perhaps, psychically. In any event, I am able to know, as soon as a response comes in, how my friends are holding up in Norway, Australia and Israel. Yet I recall that John Adams did not know the Revolutionary War had concluded for some months. In the midst of this time […]

Categories: My Work, Working & Methods

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Timothy Ely’s Five Essential Bookbinding Tools

May 8, 2020 by telyhardware

This morning a guest post I’d written about my Five Essential Bookbinding Tools went up on Jeff Peachey’s blog. Just follow this link to “Timothy Ely’s Five Essential Bookbinding Tools”. Enjoy my list — which starts with Randall Hankins’ superb weights (Randy is a blog co-conspirator). If you aren’t familiar with Jeff, he makes outstanding knives and other tools for bookbinders. As an active bookbinder, he was dissatisfied with the tools available for his use. So he started making his own. […]

Categories: My Work

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SCALE

February 24, 2020 by telyhardware

It began with a question of ‘’How large should I make my book?’’ My student felt the question absurd but really there are no absurd questions. I told her of many successful experiences and missteps with scale. What does it mean to make something of any size? We were specifically referring to sketchbooks and I have reasons for why my preferred size works. Many are practical while not a few are eccentric… like how mine all are designed to fit a […]

Categories: Mastery, My Work, Working & Methods