Being in London forces one to learn their directions quickly. Also, undergrounds at 8:30-9am are nuts. This morning JD and I, my Scotland travel mate for the mini holiday, needed to purchase our unlimited passes. In doing so, we left at 8:30 promptly, purchased them at Waterloo, bought coffee/bagel, and were waiting at our respective crosswalk(the one facing the station) and began waiting by 8:50 for our group. Now, as I said before, there was tons of foot traffic and we were watching down the sidewalk, where we have always crossed at, for fifteen specific women. By 9:15, these women did not come. Beginning to grow frantic(it has been days since we went towards the British library so we didn't exactly remember how to get there) we doubled back to the courtyard to make sure no one was waiting for us. They were, in fact, gone. Luckily, JD has a data plan and can Google Maps like no tomorrow. We figured that we had to connect from Waterloo(walking there once more) and to Euston, then a brief walk. We did that, no problem and a few minutes before ten. When we got to the area for the British Conservation Library(the behind the scenes of the British Library) no one was there either. At this point I checked my phone, it has had shoddy reception/receiving abilities the whole trip(until seemingly this week) and I had a missed call from a classmate, telling me we had missed them in Waterloo. This evening, we discovered, they had crossed to Waterloo several crosswalks up, thereby blending into the foot traffic we had been ignoring on the far side. Like I said, quick moving.
Either way, we had made it and while people had no idea where were were suppose to meet our group, this was solved when we met them in the front entrance of the British Conversation Library. Here our tour guide was Robert Brodie, the leader of the team. He began by pointing out the architecture of the facility, north facing with much natural light, and no pipes. They have a display here with many type face tools of which are impressive to have since they originally were headed for America on the Titanic. Their photo center has a special water system that allows pure water- calcium and CO2 or something- and can hold many items at a time. To work on a piece, one must enter a bidding and estimating process, this allows 66% of the collection, and items won in bidding might contain a 350 hour project. There are teams used for this time, as they figure how long(estimate) and is sent to the head of the department where they give options that dictate the outcome of their proposals. There are minimum interventions, high profile phases, frequent requests, and digitization that affect these proposals. Typically they work in pairs. Robert over sees some people himself. Having taken a history of books and printing course, this was all fascinating to see up close. They have special boxes for different items, office records and geneological items make up the bulk of the collection, and then we saw examples. One such example was an office record with a decorative and practical look. It had a spring back, marble pages, and if you rip out a page it leaves an opening. Quite noticeable. Another example was of a leather bound book that was rebound but used the original leather pieces. Life the leather, reline the book, add new leather, put in the old, and set it. Here they left the original innards, some manuscript notes that were in both front and back covers, and the work was from 1649. If a work needed sewing, there are many different types of Japanese paper, including shusi and kuzu-shi.
 |
| A nice entrance. |
Our second guide was Chris of the PACCAR finishing department. It takes years to learn this skill, of which much patience is involved and much knowledge of heating elements, leather/cloth reaction, and type face mishaps. Their job is no freehand, but rather comes with specific instructions for typefact and gold from the others. They use a stone to heat the type and a souffle looking item to cool it, so that the type doesn't punch through the leather. Gold foil melts easiest but the spine must be washed first and then clamped down. Gold leaf is used for leather and gold foil for cloth, which is interesting. It has to be cut to size, the gold is cut on a cushion, and then pasted with an eggwhite glue to the area of the book. The tools used vary by style and as Chris has worked at more decorative places before, he is quite good here. Francis, a conservator, was very nice as well. I asked if the Illuminated Manuscripts with gold gilded pages come here and indeed they do. I am not sure what the process involves, but I imagine it is more time taking then other areas, however they told me that the works pretty much keep them selves up.
 |
| That's gold foil. On K's finger. |
And don't worry, I am doing research in here. I tried to see a document from the British Library(featured in their display Crime Fiction A-Z) today, but the readers card process was a little more technical then I anticipated. Turns out, my drivers license does not have my current house address and I need to return later this week if I am to learn nothing about the display. On the upside, I have an appointment scheduled with the Westminster Reference Library for tomorrow to discuss their huge Sherlock Holme s collection. I am very happy about this.
In the evening, I hopped on a tube to Euston, a train to Watford Junction, and a "knight" bus to the Warned Brothers Harry Potter J&K stages. Let me tell you, I haven't been able to afford going to Harry Potter World, but I know this was ten times better. I can't wait to upload photos, as there are at least a thousand, but it was fantastic. I went with a great bunch- thank you, you know who you are- and had the experience of a lifetime. I was able to sit in/on Hagrid's motorcycle, walk acrros the bridge of Lupin(my favourite character) and Harry in that touching scene,, pose with chess pices that were larger than me, see the special effects of the cratures(oh yes, Aragog too), and drink Butterbeert with a souvenir cup to boot! I think I will be reliving moments of this for a long time. If you can g, do so. Spend the money, it is highly worth it. Make sure to have some time, bring some friends and just take it all in. I did and it is the best night of the trip, I think this is safe to say. And, as you have read by now, I have done quite a bit.
 |
| LH & I, stealing a ride in Hagrid's motorcycle! |
No comments:
Post a Comment