January's Workshop - Meander Books

Take a single piece of paper, fold it in sections, open it up and then cut along certain fold lines, re-fold and you have a book. Meander refers to the pathway the cuts take to allow the page to fold back into a book. In this workshop we will made a number of little prototype books using different meander patterns. Once you see the technique, you will be able to invent meanders of your own. Meander books are also referred to as "fold books" or "no-sew books." We'll be meeting in our usual room, BSS-166. 

Materials to bring:

• 12 or 18” ruler
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Craft knife
• Rubber stamps & stamp pad(s)
• Glue stick
• Bone folder

There is no need to RSVP. There is a $0.50 material fee to cover printed instruction sheets and paper to make the books.

Holiday Cards at Humboldt County Library

This is a bit late, but if you have time over the holidays, pop into the Humboldt County Library to see the kiosk featuring holiday cards from past NORBAG exchanges. If not, please enjoy the slideshow below. Click on the image to see them in full screen. Thanks again to Bonnie for the display and the photos.

Have a wonderful holiday. May you stay warm and dry.

2010 Holiday Card Exchange Event

Blessed with a warm but drippy day over 30 members of the Guild gathered for our 16th annual holiday card exchange—our most popular. Unlike other exchanges, members must sign up ahead of time to participate, then each participant makes enough cards for all of the participating artists. The first year (1995) 17 cards were made, 29 were made this year. The fewest made were 15 (1996) and the most were 36 (1998). The Guild has a set of all 440 cards made over these 16 years. In recent years, a set for each year has been saved for the library and members may check those out. Look for photos of this year's cards in the next newsletter and on Flickr.

The collection of cards is arranged on the table, ready to picked up by participants. 

This is another favorite table arrangement. Not all members attending the exchange made cards but they did bring delicious goodies.

 So start thinking about joining this exchange in 2011! We would love to have you, your cards, and your cookies.

Our Holiday Gathering

Our next meeting is Saturday December 11 at noon. We will not be meeting at our usual place. This is the one meeting of the year that is held at someone’s house and does not include a workshop. This is a time to enjoy our friends with our holiday card exchange and good food. Sandy has once again most generously offered us the use of her home in Arcata for our festive event (thanks once again Sandy!). For directions, see the December newsletter or contact Sandy V.

 30 people will be contributing handmade cards for our annual holiday card exchange this year, but you do not have to be in the card exchange to come! Everyone is invited. If you do decide to join us, please consider bringing a finger food to share. We hope to see you there. 

Highland Art Center Invitation

NORBAG members have been invited to participate in an exhibition, The Book as Art, at Highland Art Center in Weaverville. Please note that this is not a NORBAG project, but rather an opportunity for you, as an individual, to exhibit your book art in a gallery situation. If you have questions, please contact the gallery directly. 

When: January 8–January 30, 2011

Where: Highland Art Center, 691 Main St., Weaverville

Deadline: January 4 or earlier.

Books: Handmade or altered. For sale or not.

Details: No fee to exhibit. 

Contact: 

Highland Art Center 

PO Box 1270

Weaverville, CA 96093

info@highlandartcenter.org

www.highlandartcenter.org

530.623.5111

November Workshop

Grace B. will be leading our November workshop, a four-way magic folding picture on a single sheet of paper. She says this paper trick was taught to her in 1996 by Betz Salmont. Each person will make one prototype without decoration or pictures, one with pictures, and a third using decorated  papers or using rubber stamp art (using last month's techniques, if desired).

Patterns, papers and pictures will be provided to make the books. There will be a $.50 materials fee. We'll be meeting in our usual spot, 166 BSS at HSU at noon, Saturday November 13. 

Please bring:

• X-acto knife and cutting mat
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil and eraser
• Bone folder
• Glue stick (or PVA)
• A weight or book
• 4 rubber stamps and ink pad with theme (cats, flowers, designs, letters, etc.)
• 4 pieces of decorative paper 4 x 4'' with theme or color
• Waxed paper
• Paper to cover work area
• 2 or 3 paper towels

Optional, if desired:

• Embossing stuff 

Autumn at the Humboldt County Library Kiosk

The library kiosk is ready for autumn with Halloween books and cards as well as books with seasonal colors. Here is a preview (click each photo for a larger view):

Note: the editor is posting these photos from a famous coffee shop in Grand Island, Nebraska, and they make me want to rush back to the cabin to make some books! Thank you Bonnie, Grace, Peggy, and Dolores, for locating and loaning us most of these books for the kiosk.

Rubber Stamp Extravaganza

Credits: Zip code stamp is from wcp-nm.com.
Egyptian cat on block is from 100 Proof Press.

Come play and learn about the endless variety possible with rubber stamps! We'll cover materials and techniques including masking, heat embossing, and resist methods. Our workshop leader Becky M. has lots of rubber stamps to share from cute to elegant to just, well, odd.

There will be Halloween and holiday stamps galore. You can make your Christmas cards! 


We'll be meeting in BSS 166 at HSU (our usual room) at noon on Sat. Oct 9th. There will be a $.50 materials fee.

Please bring:

Credit: Cat and book press are from Humboldt County's Meer Image.

• A sense of adventure—we're going to play!
• Cutting mat or other surface protector.
• Brown paper or newspaper for additional protection.
• Craft knife and/or scissors.
• A variety of papers to stamp on—matte to glossy, and scraps are great.
• Scratch paper for practice and cleaning ink off stamps.
• Rags for cleaning.
• Colored markers (preferably water based) and colored pencils.   

              

To bring if you already own them (but don't run out and buy them):

• Favorite rubber stamps.
• Clear acrylic stamp blocks.
• Stamp ink pads.Embossing powders.
• Embossing heat tool.  

September Workshop: Activities

September finds us back in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Building with dimmer lighting than we would like but with lots of room for a larger number of participants. (All desks have outlets, so if you have a portable light, feel free to plug in!). We always start the meetings with our book exchange and members enjoy seeing the artists present their books.

Michele reads her book on bugs

Connie uses pink Valentine papers to create a photo album

Pat shows a book of her photos of Palm Springs botanicals

Bobbie shows off pivoting panels of her 10 cats

Dolores Guffey gave another great workshop—this time on an accordion structures with faux-woven spines. All pages were pre-cut (thank you Dolores) but workshop participants got to choose the style of the spine and then figure out how to adapt the general instructions to meet their needs.

 

A demo of accurate accordion folding

The accordion completed

Cutting initial slots

 

Weaving the pages

 

Different styles of weaving

 

Careful cutting

Final Results!

The book structure and its instructions should be included in the Project Page for next month's newsletter. Now that members have completed their prototypes, we'll see many creative variations of this structure in the months to come.

NORBAG's New Website Address

www.norbag.net

North Redwoods Books Arts Guild has expanded our website and changed the address. Many thanks to member, John Anderson, for constructing the site. Please visit and bookmark the page. http://www.norbag.net/ and note the following pages:

• Home: The sidebar will highlight current book art news.
• Workshop: The sidebar will maintain a running list of workshops held in the current year, complete with a link to photos taken during the actual workshop. The bottom of the sidebar includes a link to the list of workshops taught since 1995.
• Exchange: The sidebar lists the exchange themes for the current year. This will be really handy if you cannot find your newsletter! If we have the photos of the exchange books, you will see an active link on that theme. The main text describes how we run the exchanges.
• About Us: The sidebar lists officers and has a contact. The main text describes a bit about our guild community.
• Join Us: The sidebar contains a link to a pdf file of all of the books in the Guild library. If you're thinking about buying a book, check the list as we may have it. There is also a link to a printable membership form. The main text lists the benefits of becoming a member.
• Blog: This directs you to our blog. 

Arts Alive, 2010

Our third annual Book Arts exhibition with Eureka Books was wonderful in so many ways. The redesigned cabinetry and floor space made it very easy for the crowds to move around and view all of the books and the 1000 Books hanging from the mezzanine railings added to the festive atmosphere. The great variety of book structures and the fact that these art objects could be picked up and enjoyed resulted in the audience receiving quite an education in the book arts. People were fascinated with Dolores Guffey's demonstration of sewing an exposed spine binding called "Bow Tie" and people enjoyed refreshments provided by Scott, Jack, Amy, and Peggy of Eureka Books.

 One of the main tables in back of the store.

View from the mezzanine. 

View of the front of the store.

This great shot shows most of the display space with the 1000 Books.

Dolores demonstrating a sewing frame and book cradle.

Michele "wearing" her Differential Equations pocketBook.

Sandy rearranging what remained of 1000 Books.

Many thanks to NORBAG participating artists, the Exhibition Committee, volunteers who helped construct 1000 Books, our member photographers, and Scott Brown of Eureka Books for being such a great, supportive partner in this event.
You'll enjoy seeing all of the books on Flickr:
Eureka Books Exhibition 2010
*Mouse over photos to identify artists and you can click on Slideshow.

September Workshop: Accordion with a Faux-Woven Spine

This relatively simple structure has a number of variations. All paper materials needed to make this book will be provided; you will need to bring the following:

• Notebook
• Pencil
• Good eraser
• Metal ruler
• Bone folder
• Scissors
• Craft knife (X-Acto or otherwise) with a fresh blade
• Cutting mat (or an old magazine on which to cut)
• Double sticky tape and/or glue stick
• Material fee: $1.00

RSVP is essential, as Dolores needs to precut all of the materials prior to the class. Please let her know no later than Wednesday, September 8th. Her contact information is in the newsletter on the first page as well as the sidebar on p. 2.


Please also note that we'll be returning to our old room, Behavioral and Social Sciences 166 on the HSU Campus. We'll be meeting Saturday, September 11 at noon.

1000 Books Reception

Last night Eureka Books held a reception for The Humboldt Literacy Project. We are hoping to sell 1000 of our handmade books to support this project. Thank you all NORBAG members for your hard work on this project. If you are interested in purchasing any of these books, please call Eureka Books at: (707) 444-9593.

Houses and boxes made from publicity postcards.

Sandy Vrem coordinated the effort.

Sandy explains how NORBAG members made 1000 books.

People enjoying the 1000 Books and getting a sneak preview of our upcoming exhibition.

Scott Brown of Eureka Books; Michele Olsen, president of NORBAG; Sandy Vrem, coordinator of the project; Bonnie Julien, board member; Katy Yanke, member

Sneak Preview

A group of guild members spent most of Thursday setting up for our Friday night event (1000 Books) and our Saturday evening exhibition (Arts Alive). Thank you book ladies! (Michele is behind the camera)

 Marie (look for Sandy's face above the railing)

Ilene assembling strings of books

Sandy hanging strings of books in the window

Bonnie unpacking books for the exhibition

Dolores setting books in the display case

Books, Books, and More Books