My Studio at Medici University

Medici provides studio space, and mine is Camilla 1-2. My background is in book arts and I have a paper mill that includes a printing studio and a bookbinding space. At Medici, I wanted to build a Hammermill to show another way that paper is made to supplement the information at Trilby's Mill. I believe this to be the first hammermill built in Second Life. My other project is a monument to a rectangle of text. I wanted trace the development of the book from scroll to Codex to E reader and in so doing realized that what they all had in common was a rectangle of text. We have changed the packaging and what seems like a revolutionary way yet what we read has remained the same for thousands of years.

Here is a photo of the hammermill:

This installation depicts a working hammer or stamping mill. Its purpose is to pulp plant fiber such as cotton or linen, so that it is fine enough to be made into paper. A hammermill pounds rather than cuts the fibers, which results in a longer fibered, stronger sheet. These fibers are renewable and make lovely paper that does not turn brown like paper made from tree pulp. Water powered stamping mills have been in use since the 12th C. 

See a stamping mill in action at the link below, as well as how paper is made by hand (2:15). When they say stirrers, they are talking about the hammers. The sieve is a paper mold. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lltkdyE1OG0

Here is a photo of the Monument to a Rectangle of Text: 

Ways of packaging text

Scrolls: (a long sheet, rolled) were the predominate book form.

Palm leaf manuscripts: (inscribed leaves, often bound with a string though a hole in the leaf)

Codices: (pages bound on one end) becomes more popular than the scroll.

Accordion books: (basically a folded scroll) 

E-Readers: (text produced electronically on a screen) 

And how should the rectangle of text look? It varies a bit depending on the format but most tend be a vertical rectangle. Palm leaf manuscripts use a horizontal rectangle, probably due to the nature of the material. At the following link you can see how to determine the ideal proportions of the western book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Tschichold

For more information on papermaking and book arts in general, visit Trilby's Mill at the following SLURL: 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Mayfair/217/129/24