CIRCULAR FLAG BOOKS & OPEN STUDIO

Many thanks to Mary Conley for sharing her original circular flag book design at our April workshop. It looked much more complicated to make than it turned out to be. As usual, participants found new and creative ways to personalize the structure. I think we'll be seeing more variations of this structure in the months to come. Here are a few examples of the books that were made during the workshop.

Emmy Nelson

Annette Hansen

Stephanie Weigel

Sherrill Story

Donna LaVallee

Here is a photo of a beautiful birthday card made by Michele Kamprath. The design was from the March Project Page.

Check out Michele's beautiful eco-dyed paper in the background.

Open Studios

The past two weekends an Open Studio event was held that many of us wish we could have attended. Sadly for us it was in York, England and our local (to York) member, Margaret Beech, was a first-time participant. Apparently it was a huge success and Margaret had many very happy visitors who were new to the world of Artist Books and loved her work. Here are a few photos from her displays.

Thank you Mary, Margaret, and everyone else who sent

 photos to share their work with us.

CIRCULAR FLAG BOOK

Our April workshop will feature a circular book invented by Mary Conley. She said it is easy to make and the decorating will be at our own discretion. Mary will send us the patterns she used in making the birthday card just in case we want to duplicate it. After registration in the workshop the participants will be supplied with printouts of the circles, the lettering (Happy Birthday), and stars to cut out ahead of time. (The two circles should be cut out of light weight cardstock or similar material that is easy to fold.)

Supplies:

• Bone folder
• Scoring tool
• Ruler
• Glue stick
• X-Acto knife
• Scissors
• Cutting mat
• One (1) Velcro dot
• Three (3) different colored cardstock

Suggested Decoration: 

Circular paper punches: 3/4" and 1/2" diameter

NORBAG member projects:

Sherrill Story's versions of the
Telescoping mechanism from the March workshop. 

Cards laying flat.

Sherrill's card was inspired by Michele Kamprath's card
from the March Project Page.

 April Meeting Details:

What:    Circular Flag Book

When:   Saturday April 12 at 10 a.m. PDT

Where:  On your computer, tablet or smartphone via Zoom

RSVP:   Dolores Guffey by April 7 to receive the password etc.

Workshop Questions:  Mary Conley - sculptsster@gmail.com

Zoom Questions:  Bobbie Hayes

Contact information is in the newsletter.

 

 The March NORBAG workshop was a big hit! Margaret-Elaine Jinno taught us how to make a Telescoping Mechanism that can be used to make a book of any length. Once you have the basic principle down it is easy to keep adding "pages". While the structure does not need covers, they can be added. Some of our members also added little tabs to make it easier to move from page to page. Thank you Margaret-Elaine for teaching this workshop. Here are a few photographs of this very clever moveable structure.

Nancy Short
In this photo the pages are not extended all the way
like in the next photo. 

Nancy used calendar pages for her book.

Margaret Beech
Margaret added larger covers and a half-circle tab.

Stephanie Weigel
Stephanie used the cover of a University of Wisconsin
 Alumni magazine

Bonnie Julien
The book is closed and could be viewed page by page.

In this photo the book is fully extended.

Emmy Nelson

Front side spread out

Note that covers were added. This is the back side.

Margaret-Elaine Jinno

Margaret-Elaine added covers and tabs.

This book also has tabs added on each side.

TELESCOPING CARD/BOOK

 Our March 2025 workshop will be taught by Margaret-Elaine Jinno. She will guide us through the process of making a telescoping mechanism that can be used in making cards and books. Several pages of images are joined together, one on top of the other. When the top image is pulled out, the second image appears followed by the third, and so on. This is a fun and interesting structure to learn.

Supplies:

• Four rectangles 3" x 6 1/4" (cut from cardstock)
• Three strips 1/4" x 5" (cut from cardstock)
• glue stick or PVA
• scoring tool
• ruler
• scissors or craft knife
• cutting mat
• pencil

Further instructions will be sent to you after registration.

When:    Saturday, March 8, 10 a.m. PST

Where:   On your computer, tablet or smartphone via Zoom

RSVP:    Dolores Guffey by March 3 to receive the password

Workshop Questions: Margaret-Elaine Jinno mejinno@gmail.com

Zoom Questions: Bobbie Hayes

Contact information is in the newsletter.

Zoom Lunchtime Conversation 

The Puget Sound Book Artists Guild (PSBA) has been scheduling “Lunchtime Conversations” on Zoom for a few years. Their Thursday, March 27, 2025 Lunchtime Conversation will feature Laurel Moorhead who is also a member of NORBAG. “Laurel (Laurie) describes herself as a book artist, sketcher and wanderer. After retiring from a career in nonprofit management, Laurie studied painting, book arts, paper cutting, stamp carving, and more. Within these mediums she discovered her love of memoir and creating community by bringing artists together. Over the last eight years, she has combined these passions to lead seven collaborative projects that have included up to seven different book arts organizations across the country. Her journey as an artist is inspiring!” Registration is not limited to PSBA members so you can go to the following link to register. https://pugetsoundbookartists.wildapricot.org/event-6011856. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants two days before the day of the event, March 27, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm PDT.

EBEL PRESENTATION & NATURE & THE BOOK

 For those of you lucky to have attended our February Show & Tell by Michael Ebel I'm sure you were very impressed and motivated by his work. He shared photographs of many of his books and provided examples of various techniques as well as ideas for content. If you missed the presentation there is a recording available to watch. Check your newsletter on page 3 for the link to all the recordings. Thank you very much Michael for sharing your work with us. Hopefully there will be a workshop from you in the future. 

Nature and the Book 2025 is the title of an exhibition of work by artists from PSBA (Puget Sound Book Artists Guild) now being held at the Elisabeth Miller Library on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle. 

Below are photos of some of the books in the exhibition.

Laurie Radin

Alicia Bailey

Janet Reynolds

Valerie Carrigan

Bonnie Julien

John Arbuckle

Paige Pettibon

Patricia Chupa

Donna Letterese

Lucia Harrison & Deborah Greenwood

Belinda Hill

Jessica Spring & Yoshi Nakagawa

Mari Eckstein Gower

Suze Woolf

MalPina Chan

Elsi Vassdal Ellis

Judy Lynn

Jessica Greenfield

Abbie Birmingham

SHOW & TELL WITH MICHAEL EBEL

 Show & Tell workshops presented by our members are always fascinating. Our February workshop will feature long time member Michael Ebel who will share some of his books, techniques, and content ideas. Michael says he finds inspiration from looking at the works of fellow artists so I'm sure that will be the case for us when we see his work. Here are a few photographs to whet your appetite for the workshop.

Stamp Book

Panel Book

Panel Book

Tall Accordion inside

Cover of Tall Accordion

When:    Saturday, February 8 at 10 a.m. PST

Where:   On your computer, tablet or smartphone via Zoom

RSVP:     Dolores Guffey by Feb. 3 to receive the password

Workshop Questions:  Michael Ebel - Michael.ebel@gmail.com

Zoom Questions:  Bobbie Hayes

Contact information is in the newsletter

If you will be in the Seattle area between February 3-27 there will be an exhibit featuring work from Puget Sound Book Artists (PSBA) at the Elisabeth C. Miller Library, Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington. The title of the exhibit is The Nature and the Book 2025. For more details visit:  https://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/hours-and-contacts/

Admission is Free.