The Book as Art Workshop

Bill and I both attended



February 12th and 13th, Dea Fisher instructed The Book as Art, a book binding workshop, in Canmore.  She gave willingly and selflessly of herself teaching four different book forms to fourteen keen students.



The spacious Raven's Loft


The 12-page Folded Book began as a flat piece of paper on which we painted, splattered and stamped.  Dea showed us the clever way to fold it and where to make two partial cuts before folding it again to its finished size.  More embellishments could now be added; I scribed Joyce Kilmer's poem Trees onto the pages in mine.


Bill's decorated flat sheet for the 12-page Folded Book


In the afternoon we made hard covers for Accordion Book with Pockets, then folded the paper for the pages and pockets.  Once the pages and covers were assembled we embellished little tags or cards to go into the eight pockets.  This was when we got to see individual creativity at it finest.  

 

Accordion Book with Pockets; Bill's on the left, mine on the right


In the morning of day two we made Side Stitch Books.  Again we created hard covers which sandwiched pages we had "torn" (decal edges) that could be fastened together in our choice of assorted ways.  I opted to sew mine as, in part, Bill did.  He came to the course with the intention of using leather rather than the abundant and beautiful papers that where made available to us.

Side Stitch Books, Bill's with the leather cover and conchos

Afternoon of day two was the Leather-bound Long-stitch Journal.  The stitching of this one exasperated me; I simply could not grasp the proper way to do the method.  Bill wisely decided he'd like to do it differently and brought the pieces home to work on at his leisure.  So, both are unfinished (mine may never be!) and if you want to see photos of them I invite you to go to the complete photo essay here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=614556&id=715295437&l=899a2bb58a

Annie Froese, workshop participant and owner of Art & Soul Studio Gallery in High River has prepared this delightful slide show about the workshop:
http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a4d774e6a67334e4456384e4449344d7a49354d44673d0d0a&sb=1