summer bookmaking workshop

Last week was an absolute blur. Between filing paperwork then running from the pool to the school, if you had asked me what day of the week it was I would probably have responded with "accordion book day." During summer workshops, my days of the week are distinguished by what the project is for the day. Our week's schedule was:

• Monday: mini paper bag books & baby oil and oil pastel on paper bags for our altered book covers
• Tuesday: Mini accordion watercolor books & start the altered book project
• Wednesday: Coptic binding basics
• Thursday: Black/white nature print book with rubber band/paper clip binding
• Friday: finished altered books

Every day we worked on their altered books a little more too. This group was really great and super eager to learn new things! What really surprised me was how much they enjoyed the altered book project. In some other classes that I introduced this project, it was like pulling teeth to get them to even write their name in the book. With this group, everyday they couldn't wait to break out their books, even going so far as printing out photos and bringing in their own supplies to add to their books. It was so much fun to walk around and see them playing and experimenting with their books!

I did a lot of these projects for last year's workshop, and others are from classes I taught during the school year. I didn't really get a chance to take any photos during the actual process of making them. I might do some in-depth posts about how to make some of the new projects but here are some photos from my week of bookmaking! Psst...this week is printmaking!!!

Monday: mixing baby oil and oil pastels on paper bag panels

Monday: mini paper bag notebooks

Tuesday: mini accordion watercolor books

Wednesday: Coptic binding basics

Thursday: nature printing and rubber band/paper clip binding

This day was the most messy!

Friday: altered books! This girl's altered book was really fun! She had pages of paper cut out scenes

Curren's book

Day two of being on the Blog Every Day challenge and I already screwed it up. Well, I'm technically still blogging but I wanted to dedicated a whole days post to my latest little project. I love how this commission turned out so be ready for a bunch of photos! 

This book was commissioned by my friend Tina. She wanted a big blank book with a nautical/ocean theme to use as a photo album for her little son Curren. I love how this book turned out! It was my first big book commission that wasn't filled with large illustrations or stories on every page, so it was a little different compared to other projects. I did sneak in little ocean related illustrations every other page in the book, and the wave wreath on the front is my absolute favorite part of the whole book! 

oof!

This past week I've felt like I was back in college. Late nights and early mornings, running out of supplies then being rescued by glue saviors, cutting and folding and sewing and painting, then mailing and delivering and now...OOF! The sweet satisfaction of being done! 

In about an hour my family and I head to the airport, where we will catch a red eye to Florida! We'll be spending the holidays visiting Disney World! And Harry Potter World on Christmas Day! The inner nerd rejoices! I definitely need a break after this madness... I'll elaborate more on all the week's craziness when I return but here are some peeks of all the makings this week...

With the help of some munchkins, I painted the backdrop for my sister's school's Winter performance

One of my little books this week, Brave Brody

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from the lovely and amazing Amy Komar! I loved receiving some love from Alaska! As usual, Zena loved them too and photo-bombed...

I was commissioned to make three blank sketchbooks too! Each with a sketch of mine in the beginning...

The 2nd book I just finished this morning, Every Star! 

Happy Holidays everyone! I'll be back right after Christmas, then more busyness commences...

 

the next Italia sketchbook

I made a sketchbook. From scratch. It's so fat and glorious and makes me oh so happy. It might even need a name...what sort of name is befitting a sketchbook made specifically for Italy, filled with 5 different kinds of paper, and covered in black and bits of color??

I'm actually kind of surprised I've never made my own sketchbook before. I missed binding a lot. I did not miss cutting and folding every page to size though. This beast has 7 signatures, each with 4 folios, hand bound with purple embroidery thread in a faux black leather and lime green threaded cover. Making for about 56 pages (112 front and back) of paper bag, old faded black, lithography, drawing and watercolor papers. JOY! 

It's likely a bit ambitious of me to have that many pages but this trip I want to treat my sketchbook differently. I'm planning on doing more collage work this time, as well as more note taking. Last time around I had mini notebooks for different things, this time I want all my notes, directions, places to eat, artworks discovered, maps, recipes, museum stubs, receipts and more all in one place. 

I'm going to keep playing with it and add some pockets and folders to it before I leave in 43 days (but who's counting...) This beast is going to be even more beastlier once I'm done with it! 

And Xena approves of it. I swear this cat has a radar that goes off every time I want to take pictures outside. 

bookmaking workshop: kiddo version!

This week I taught a bookmaking workshop with Arts Outreach to nine little kiddos, from 7 years old to 12. Overall, it went really well! The kids were really enthusiastic about all the projects and making books! I wish they were all a little older though so I could teach them some more complicated binding techniques. Because teaching binding to little guys can be hard! 


I tried to take more photos this workshop too. My other two workshops, weaving and printmaking, were pretty poorly documented. There may not be many photos of this past week, (if a workshop is never photographed, did it ever really happen?) but at least there are some!


My favorite bits are all the titles they came up with, and all their spelling errors. I'm an obsessive speller but I'm so entertained by little guys spelling mistakes. 


I started off the week with making my little paper bag notebooks. Great way to introduce them to binding, especially since it's a really easy one and requires very few complicated or expensive materials. Just some paper bags, scissors, glue and clamps! And little fingers to smear the glue into all the cracks along the spine. 


We also bound some abstract books. I had the kids cover pieces of paper, front and back, with random collages of papers and drawing. Then we cut them up into pages, leaving the final result of the book a surprise until it was fully bound up. This was another easy binding, the good 'ol rubberband and paperclip technique! 

I wanted them a learn a really easy real binding method as well, so I taught them a basic 5 hole bind on another day. They loved it! (after a few knots and tangles of course) Most of the kids made more than one book this day, including mini books. These were probably their favorite to learn. One girl make a second one and started embroidering the cover. 

The big project for the week, and my favorite, was the altered book project. Like other times I've taught this, I first had the kids use baby oil and pastels on a big panel from a paper bag and just cover it in color. Once it soaks in a bit and I spray it with some sealer, the paper takes on a colorful leathery look. We used a bunch of old books of my sister's collection and used those as our canvases to rip/destroy/draw/paint/collage/sew etc! These were my favorite products from the class. I think the kids enjoyed it too, having the opportunity to freely destroy and alter a book to their liking. It took them a little bit to get used to the idea that they could draw on any and every page and it was allowed! 

bookbinding workshop

Yesterday I taught my first adult workshop on bookbinding. It was a nice contrast to the weaving class I taught all week. I love teaching small kiddos and all, but it was nice to be able to give an instruction and have the student actually listen and execute the step without whining that it was too hard (or refusing to try entirely! che palle...)


I had to two lovely ladies in my Fat Mini Book workshop at the C Gallery in Los Alamos. I couldn't have asked for better ladies to work with! As soon as they saw my Vino Book, they wanted to try it! So we spent some time dying their pages with wine and coffee for a bit. Unfortunately, the pages became too brittle to sew with the coptic stitch so we had to improvise and use plain white pages. I definitely want to experiment with both wine and coffee in a book of my own sometime soon. 

During the class, I started making a mini book of my own to demonstrate all the bookbinding steps. I was able to finish binding it that afternoon at my other job. It was so nice to bind a book again, it has probably been a couple months since I made an artist book just for the hell of it. I love this little one, especially the sea glass wrapping cord! I put this little lovely in my Etsy shop already too! Hooray!

In other news, I will be posting about my kiddo workshops sometime this week. I taught a weaving workshop last week and this week it's printmaking! YESSSSSSS! 


And, I finally caved and got an Iphone. I love it. I knew I would tho. Aaaaannd subsequently, I got an Instagram account. Just like the Iphone, I knew I would love it. That app has always irked me a bit but I really do enjoy using it. It will never replace a good 'ol film camera for me but it is a fun little toy on my new tool! The one here is a peek at my weaving class (if you're curious to see the rest of my photos, my name is: sketchynotions)