I have been mentored by some amazing artists and am always updating my studio.

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Airport Art Followup

I’ve spent much of the last few weeks finishing four books for my recent exhibit at the Humboldt County Airport Gallery. While I had books that I could have put in the exhibit, it became clear to me that I wanted them all to involve wood. So, making the last books was a real stretch given the other things happening in my life at the moment. I didn’t even have time to photograph them in my photo cube before taking them to the gallery! So what follows is a really informal photo session with four books that were my companions for several weeks.

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This book is a favorite because of it’s construction and title: Margarete Finds Her BuJo is named after a dear friend who has been such an inspiration to me; she introduced me to Bullet Journals (BuJo) and her middle name is Margarete. I loved making this—the red handmade paper was chosen at the last minute and I absolutely love it. I used goat leather, mahogany for the spine, waxed Irish linen thread, and BFK printmaking paper for the three sections. I think the binding looks like barbed wire but it’s called a rope binding.

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This book called Sticks and Stones uses spalted maple, redwood branches, local beach rock, waxed Irish linen thread, and Hahnemuhle Ingres paper for the sections.

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Burl Journal  is just that. It has a Bradel binding with leather and the cover paper is handmade flax paper from Cave Papers in Minnesota.

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Barn Journal was created using old growth redwood (repurposed from a early 20th century carriage house) and walnut. Hahnemuhle Ingres papers were used for the sections and heavyweight linen thread for the binding. The binding came from Keith Smith’s Exposed Spine Sewings, Volume III; two pairs of double needle Coptic stitches were sewn on the ends of the spine and serve as a pre-set tension sewing frame for the remaining four solid pack raised supports. I truly loved sewing this. This books is chunky, earthy, tactile, and filled with historical significance.

So now I need to take a break. I lie. I’m already working on a new structure on saw on the Internet. Thanks for visiting.

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Wooden Books at the Humboldt County Airport

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Did you know that the Humboldt County airport is also an art gallery? I’ve always enjoyed the work I’ve seen there when I’m leaving, arriving, or picking someone up. Nine of my wooden books were just installed in the three cases outside of the fabulously delectable Ramone’s cafe. I wanted the books to have that “Humboldt” feel so most incorporate wood on the spine or covers: spalted maple, old growth redwood, walnut, lacewood, burl, cherry. I’ve also incorporated a variety of sewn bindings: coptic, packed cord, rope, caterpillar, French link, Japanese stab binding, Bradel binding. There are three cases:

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After the installation, my husband, Rollie Lamberson, and art director, Natalie Craig, and I decided to have an impromptu opening reception and enjoyed cappuccinos and cookies from Ramone’s while we sat and looked at the books. In the background were three Alan Sanborn watercolors. It all seemed to work together and celebrate Humboldt’s beautiful environment and art scene.

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Terry Tempest Williams Special Edition

It was my sincere honor to be part of a reception for Terry Tempest Williams, June 6th, 2016, to celebrate the publication of her new book The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks and the debut of the special limited edition, Canyonlands National Park. I’ve been a fan of Terry’s since reading Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place in the 1990’s; I don’t know how many copies I’ve given away but the most recent gift was given in February. Little did Terry know that she was about to receive a handmade book with black walnut covers and Eco dyed endpapers using sagebrush from her beloved Castle Valley, Utah. I was blessed enough to be the book artist who designed and assembled the book. I will devote another post to the creation of this book – a story in itself. For now, enjoy some of the photos from this event and then run to your nearest bookstore and buy a book, any book, by this remarkable woman.


Terry’s first look at the handmade book. Bill  Hedden, on the left, provided the black walnut covers. Andy Nettell, on the right, is the owner of Back of Beyond Books, Moab, Utah. Andy organized the reception and readings that evening. He also commissioned the three handmade books. One is for Terry, one Andy’s collection, and one for the Yale University Library that holds Terry’s papers.


Two true book lovers. One makes books and one writes them.


After many email messages over the last months I finally get to meet Bill Hedden who created the beautiful black walnut covers. The story of this wood will be included in the next post. Bill is the executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust.


Andy Nettell, owner of the my favorite bookstore in the West, Back of Beyond Books. He is an antiquarian book dealer who specializes in regional and natural history titles of the Colorado Plateau. Want a first edition of Edward Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang? He’s got it.


These special people were also at the reception. My husband, Rollie Lamberson, is on the left and he provided the finish for the covers. Our daughter and son-in-law, Laurie and Brian Evans, are in the center; they were the plant collectors for the vegetation I used for dyeing endpapers. Jen Jones is on the right and best friend of Laurie. Jen is a graduate of Humboldt State University!

Hour of Land and Canyonlands.

Commissioned book: Bradel binding, black walnut covers, black goatskin spine, Eco dyed papers with black walnut leaves and sagebrush on Japanese Nishinouchi handmade paper.

Next Post: Evolution of a Book

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Caterpillars, Sewn Headbands, Coptic!

Caterpillar

 

My Fall stay in Nebraska was very productive in terms of reading books (seven!) and making books (four!). Two of my books were created for future OLLI workshops so you will see those at the end of January. The book I enjoyed the most was created from lacewood boards (a gift from my woodworking husband). All of the sewing was done with waxed Irish linen thread. The section wraps were made with handmade papers. The interior pages were made a year ago from rose petals and various leaves. Folios were bundled together with the plant materials in a kind of “sandwich” and boiled for 1.5 hours in a solution of water, vinegar, and alum. All of the holes were drilled with a vintage Dremel rotary tool purchased several years ago at an antique store in Eastern Colorado. Except for the electric drill, I felt like I was working in a medieval bookbinding studio. I really do like older materials and techniques. I suppose I should start looking for a vintage hand drill.

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Margo Klass at Newport 2015

Margo Klass is one of my favorite books artsts because of the way she works with wood, the care she takes with detail and bookbinding  principles, and the  Japanese feel of a lot of her work.  I’ve been lucky to have taken three of her classes at the Newport Paper Arts Festival in Newport, Oregon. She is an exceptionally good teacher: patient, well organized, so very talented. She spends her time in Alaska and Maine and makes books as well as altar pieces and box constructions. I’m hoping she will teach at Newport again this April!

I made the book below during her April workshop;  it uses sticks from Maine and wood from Alaska. The text block was created with torn Hannemuhle papers. Attaching the sticks was challenging but practice makes perfect and I managed to complete the book. The closure loops were made from fine leather from a  repurposed woman’s glove and a fossil is embedded in the cover. The tie  is braided waxed linen thread. I love workshops that are a cross between an art class and shop class—love those electric
drills.


 My daughter is a serious surfer and beach lover. The following book was a gift for her. Most items are from the Redwood Coast where she grew up. The covers are redwood, sticks are driftwood from Clam Beach, stones are from Stone Lagoon. This book combines ideas from two workshop of Margo’s. The books I love the most are tactile, made of natural materials, and uusually have a rustic look. This is certainly one of them.


This has been a very busy year because of the number of workshops I’ve taken. I’ve neglected my blog. I’m going to catch up! Next: my 10 days in May at  Ox Bow, Saugatuck, MIchigan

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Boiled Books

With heavy winds and lots of rain on our North Coast we have enough fallen leaves to use for hundreds of boiled books. Sandy, Michele (the Younger), and I converged on Michele’s backyard to make a sandwich out of leaves and Bristol paper sheets. Michele had a great selection of dried leaves in a homemade press.


We had a big container for the boiling and could do all three of our books at once—this is the final bundle.


This is quite the setup with propane and everything. Boil, Boil, Toil,and Trouble.

We used white vinegar as the mordant and after 7 minutes of boiling added Ritz Navy Blue powered dye. This is not eco printing but the results are beautiful.  The second boiling was 1.5 hours. These are Michele K’s prints after the rinse.

 These are mine (Michele the Older)


Sandy’s are particularly interesting because she overdyed pages done with another method in the hopes that they pages would brighten up. She certainly did that, they are beautiful!


Eucalyptus, alder, bamboo (bright yellow), and maple leaves  all worked well but are best when they have dried up a bit and hit the ground. The dry outer part of a yellow onion, swordfern, and some grasses worked well also.

I already have books in mind and the artist’s work that really  inspires me is that of Annywyn Dean. Wouldn’t these pages be beautiful in one of her structures?

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Two Spring Classes, Two New Books

I will be teaching two more book arts classes for Osher Life Long Learning Institute this Spring (more on that in a later post). The wonderful people who take these classes are so much fun to “work” with that I’m always looking for new and interesting techniques and book structures that give them some room for artist license. Here is a preview of two very different themes for two very different books that I’ve been creating as models for the courses. I will post photos of the finished books after the OLLI Open House this Saturday, 1-3pm at HBAC (Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center) in Eureka. Hope to see you there.

The first book has an accordion spine and will feature The Fly.

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The second book will use a double needle coptic stitch to sew pages and covers. We will be exploring the use of different alphabets. This is a favorite called The Miro Alphabet.

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I will post more details and photos of the completed books next week!

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Peace in the Studio

My first real day in the studio since early September AND I’m still in my pajamas! Heaven. The task is pretty pedestrian—making envelopes out of recycled calendars for our late (again) holiday cards. It has been a meditation to fold, cut, and tape these business sized envelopes. An unexpected treat is reading the other sides of the pages—seeing the calendar entries of those activities that kept me so busy this last year or so.

The envelopes are sitting on my massive paper cutter (30″ x 36″), located for me by my dear brother-in-law at an auction somewhere in the Great Plains. I will have to squeeze myself into the back corner to use the giant cutting blade but it is happy to be sitting on a secure surface and back at work. I have used it so much already that I’m wondering what I ever did without it. I’m not losing much table surface space since I can place my cutting mat on the top.

My next project is to create the books and materials list for the two OLLI classes this Spring. More on that later…..

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Paper Cutter!

Yipee! I just got this today. My brother-in-law is always going to auctions and he spotted this 30″ x 36″ paper cutter. It will be a vast improvement over the 8″ x 8″ when it comes to cutting my art papers. It is NOT portable and it will be “interesting” to see where is ends up in my little studio. I’ve been eyeing my husband’s workspace in our garage, but that is another story. It fills the entire back of the car for the long ride back to California. Bring on the paper!

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Car Workstation 2

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We had to make an “emergency” stop at Raley’s in Winnemucca, Nevada, to purchase small plastic dental floss feeders (see light blue loop on the inside of the left cover). While sewing the Coptic Stitch for this book I realized that the holes that are drilled diagonally from the edge into the first vertical hole (cannot see in the photo) were crooked enough that I couldn’t pass the needle and thread through. After trying to straighten the path, use a small needle, and threading with no needle, I remembered those little handy floss feeders I use to keep openings of my tiny glue bottle sealed. They worked! So, these little things are now a permanent part of my tool box. I have finished the Coptic and tomorrow it’s on to the headbands. The wood is black acacia (thanks to Rollie) and the blue paper is handmade flax paper from Minneapolis. The other holes in the front cover are for a surprise.
PS. Somewhere on the floor of the car are two size 22 tapestry needles, toasted almonds, and three dental floss feeders.

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