WORDS AS ART

 Australian book artist and paper engineer, Jean Kropper, will be teaching our July workshop. How exciting!! Thanks to Zoom this workshop will likely include participants from three continents! Jean writes, "When talking to people in my book arts group, I realized most of us had made many beautifully bound books that were blank. I had too. I wondered, why? I realized we had not had a process, the design skills, or confidence to put our own stories in them. I wanted to help change this by creating exercises to build skills to use our own stories in book art, art journals and artwork. As a first exercise, I will show you techniques to create your own unique handwriting styles to use Words as Art. These styles can be used for different creative projects: as patterns for book covers, artwork, and in art journals to tell your stories."

Whether your handwriting is messy or neat, whether you like your handwriting or not, Jean will show you creative ways to play with it. View a two minute video about Jean's business, Paper and Pixel, at youtube.com/watch?v=_x6MosS5ZqY. Jean explains that the video "shows some of my history in book and paper art and some of the commercial work I do as a paper engineer--that is designing pop-up print promotions for event invitations and direct mail." For more information about Jean and her work visit her website at paperandpixel.com.au.

Materials Needed:

• Pencil
• Fine and medium point black markers
• Two (2) sheets of white paper
• Jean's worksheet - When you RSVP for this workshop, Dolores will send you the pdf of Jean's worksheet. Please print it out in advance.

When:  Saturday, July 10 at 12 Noon, Pacific Time 

Where: On your computer, tablet or smartphone via Zoom

RSVP:   YES to Dolores Guffey by July 5 to receive password and Jean's workshop

Workshop questions: ideas@paperandpixel.com.au

Zoom questions: Bobbie Hayes

Contact information for Dolores and Bobbie is in the newsletter.

CLOSURE & BINDING STITCH RECAP

Our Medieval Closure and Back Stitch Twist Binding workshop was well attended by more than 45 NORBAG members. Dolores Guffey taught us a wonderful medieval style closure that she learned at a workshop taught by Lori Sauer while traveling in England. Lori graciously gave her permission for Dolores to teach this to NORBAG members. This closure worked perfectly with the soft cover book that we bound using a stitch found in Keith Smith's book, 1, 2, & 3 Section Sewings, that Dolores adapted. The Back Stitch Twist Binding has what looks like a bead at each station, but it is actually the thread wound around the straight stitch. We discovered that the more times you wind around the thread; the more pronounced the "bead" becomes. Thank you Dolores for sharing these techniques with us. If you missed the workshop but would like to see the recording, send Dolores an email and she will send you the link.

 

Here are a few examples of some of the books that were made.

Carol DuBosch
Carol used her lovely eco-dyed paper.

Michele Kamprath

Donna LaVallee

Margaret Beech

Margaret modified her stitch by wrapping

four times to enhance the look of the "bead".

Bonnie Julien

Mary Elizabeth Nelson

Mary Elizabeth also wrapped her stitches
 four times to achieve this larger bead on
her beautiful cyanotype cover.

Margaret tried another version of the closure
using two straps and a longer woven vertical piece.

Two straps instead of just one. She used
Dylusion spray inks to color the cover.

Donna-Lynne Miller

Donna made her own closure tab that goes
very well with her cover paper.