In this age of digital books and virtual worlds, it may seem a bit strange for someone to build a site in Second Life that showcases how books are made by hand. Well, someone has, and the site has been getting a couple of hundred visitors a year. Trilby Minotaur founded Trilby's Mill shortly after she was rezzed in July 2008. A book artist in real life, she says she felt compelled to do it. "I created an avatar to attend a 'Stepping Into Literature Conference' that I heard about at work, and knew I had to build a bookarts studio." Her first shop was on the mainland, and she photographed her own equipment to use as textures. "I had no idea what I was doing, but it was a lot of fun." At a friend's urging, she took building lessons from SL artist, Spiral Walcher. "Then I had to go back and rebuild everything correctly." She rebuilt a few things yet again after moving to the steampunk Victorian state of Caledon.
Trilby's Mill is housed in a two story watermill. The paper mill occupies the bottom floor, and the papermaking process is laid out clockwise from the two vats. In the first vat, the mill wheel turns the blades of the Hollander beater, used to reduce cotton rags to fiber. The second vat holds a mold and deckle used to form sheets of paper. A tesla coil powered press squeezes out the excess water. There is also a display of marbled paper, and some slides of how paper is made in Tibet and Nepal.
One can teleport upstairs by clicking on a panel on the floor that says "Up". Upstairs is a steam powered printing press, based on Trilby's real life press, a Vandercook 4. "My press was made in the 1950s, so it was too modern for Caledon. I made up a version of what a Vandercook 4 might have looked like if it had been produced 100 years earlier." A short video on the wall shows the real life Vandercook in action.
There are also type cabinets showing pieces of type that were set by hand, letter by letter, as well as other equipment used in printing.
In the bindery section one can sit down and sew a book while looking at all the presses and tools associated with binding a book by hand. A door leads to a balcony where one can see the waterfall that provides the power to the large waterwheel.
Outside, there is a paper making fiber garden in a small greenhouse. While there, a little hummingbird flew up to greet me.
Trilby plans to add more explanations about what each piece of equipment is used for. Trilby's Mill has moved since this blog was written, so the configuration is slightly different now, but all the major components are still there. To visit, use the following SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20SouthEnd/18/55/24
