Essays
8 essays since March 2025, each written after the work was done. Three to six minutes each, with the footnotes in the margin where you can see them.
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Sharpen First
Every woodworking teacher says it, and every beginner skips it. A long morning with a chisel and a stone, and why the first hour of any job belongs to the tool.
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Bread Without a Timer
A year of baking one loaf a week taught me that dough is not a recipe but a conversation, and that the clock on the oven is the least informative thing in the kitchen.
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Imposition, by Script
Printing a small booklet at home means putting the pages in a strange order. A dozen lines of code can do it, and the exercise explains why a folded book reads the way it does.
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Casing In
Glue, board and cloth, a night under a weight, and the moment a pile of thread and paper becomes a book.
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Sewing the Text Block
Linen thread, a needle, and the quiet discovery that every stitch has to be right before the next one can begin.
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Folding the Signatures
Grain, folds and a bone folder, and the discovery that a crease is a decision you make once.
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The Weight of a Line
A guest essay from a letterpress printer on why setting a sentence in metal type makes you write it differently, and what a line of lead knows that a screen does not.
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Mending in Plain Sight
A guest essay from a textile mender on why visible repair is not a trend but a plain statement of fact, and how to darn a hole in a wool sock in four honest steps.
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