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labricoleuseThis is a topic which comes up over and over on the email lists and discussion groups frequented by professional costumers--what single textbook could replace the out-of-print "industry bible" of Deborah Dryden's Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre?
And, yes, there are a lot of dye books out there to consider--comprehensive ones that cover a lot of different aspects of surface design, working with various classes of dye, etc. That might even be part of the problem: the fact that there are a LOT of good books to consider. This book is better in terms of surface design technique overviews, that book is better for specifically fiber reactive dye use. Book A's fantastic for covering different classes of dyes but Book B is better when it comes to safe work practices. Et cetera.
For someone like me that does run a dye facility (with an attendant library of numerous reference books), who also teaches a course specifically tailored to, well, how dyeing and surface design must be tailored to theatrical production demands, I've yet to find a single book I like as well as hers. Sure, i provide a lot of supplementary material from other texts, but when i consider what's the one book i'd like my graduate students to take with them into the workplace, the core beginning of their own future theatrical dye shop's library? Dryden's is the one. And, judging by the number of times this comes up, i'm not alone.
But, Dryden's book is long out-of-print and her former publisher, Heinemann, has no plans to bring the book back even as a digital release, nor to produce a new, updated edition despite the clear demand for such a thing. The market would indicate that this is true as well, the demand for the text--used copies of the Dryden book are listed on Amazon and Alibris for several hundred dollars. As such, no college bookstores can source any used copies for a theatrical dye class these days. But, there's one other option...
At my school, we do have a print shop arm of the campus bookstore, and they WILL create an educational reprint of an out-of-print book, provided the rights-holder grants permission. Here's what that looks like:
Top: Actual copy of the Dryden text
Bottom: Educational reprint test copy of same
As you can see, the volume our print shop produced is in the interior an exact copy of the original--largely black and white with the full-color photographic insert in the middle of the volume. The reprint copy is a perfect-bound standard sized ("workbook sized") textbook, with the Dryden pages centered in the larger format same as you see with the cover art. In fact, i actually like this size better than the original for a textbook, since it gives my students wider margins all around in which to make notes. After seeing this test copy, i think I'd also like future volumes to be spiral-bound, so that students can open it to the relevant pages and lay it flat on the table while working on dye labs.
I asked the bookstore about exactly how other professors and students might take advantage of this resource. The print specialist i've been working with advised that, if other teachers wish to use the Dryden text, that it's probably easiest and most expeditious to consult the bookstores at their own specific universities, rather than attempting to mail-order copies like mine from the UNC-CH print shop. She did say that our store could easily provide the book to others within the NC state university system, so if you happen to be a student or teacher at one of the many other North Carolina universities, i've already done all the legwork on setting up the reprint capabilities with our bookstore so you can piggyback onto this deal by having your bookstore call ours. (Or, drop by the UNC student stores if you're in the Chapel Hill area.)
So, it's not a new book tailored to the specifics of theatrical dyework, but it's an option to pursue if, like me, you really just want to keep using the Dryden text as the foundation for your class.
And, yes, there are a lot of dye books out there to consider--comprehensive ones that cover a lot of different aspects of surface design, working with various classes of dye, etc. That might even be part of the problem: the fact that there are a LOT of good books to consider. This book is better in terms of surface design technique overviews, that book is better for specifically fiber reactive dye use. Book A's fantastic for covering different classes of dyes but Book B is better when it comes to safe work practices. Et cetera.
For someone like me that does run a dye facility (with an attendant library of numerous reference books), who also teaches a course specifically tailored to, well, how dyeing and surface design must be tailored to theatrical production demands, I've yet to find a single book I like as well as hers. Sure, i provide a lot of supplementary material from other texts, but when i consider what's the one book i'd like my graduate students to take with them into the workplace, the core beginning of their own future theatrical dye shop's library? Dryden's is the one. And, judging by the number of times this comes up, i'm not alone.
But, Dryden's book is long out-of-print and her former publisher, Heinemann, has no plans to bring the book back even as a digital release, nor to produce a new, updated edition despite the clear demand for such a thing. The market would indicate that this is true as well, the demand for the text--used copies of the Dryden book are listed on Amazon and Alibris for several hundred dollars. As such, no college bookstores can source any used copies for a theatrical dye class these days. But, there's one other option...
At my school, we do have a print shop arm of the campus bookstore, and they WILL create an educational reprint of an out-of-print book, provided the rights-holder grants permission. Here's what that looks like:
Top: Actual copy of the Dryden text
Bottom: Educational reprint test copy of same
As you can see, the volume our print shop produced is in the interior an exact copy of the original--largely black and white with the full-color photographic insert in the middle of the volume. The reprint copy is a perfect-bound standard sized ("workbook sized") textbook, with the Dryden pages centered in the larger format same as you see with the cover art. In fact, i actually like this size better than the original for a textbook, since it gives my students wider margins all around in which to make notes. After seeing this test copy, i think I'd also like future volumes to be spiral-bound, so that students can open it to the relevant pages and lay it flat on the table while working on dye labs.
I asked the bookstore about exactly how other professors and students might take advantage of this resource. The print specialist i've been working with advised that, if other teachers wish to use the Dryden text, that it's probably easiest and most expeditious to consult the bookstores at their own specific universities, rather than attempting to mail-order copies like mine from the UNC-CH print shop. She did say that our store could easily provide the book to others within the NC state university system, so if you happen to be a student or teacher at one of the many other North Carolina universities, i've already done all the legwork on setting up the reprint capabilities with our bookstore so you can piggyback onto this deal by having your bookstore call ours. (Or, drop by the UNC student stores if you're in the Chapel Hill area.)
So, it's not a new book tailored to the specifics of theatrical dyework, but it's an option to pursue if, like me, you really just want to keep using the Dryden text as the foundation for your class.
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Thank you!
Date: 2015-02-13 06:10 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2015-02-13 06:14 pm (UTC)