North Redwoods Book Arts Guild

If you are interested in more info or joining, please email to no.redwoods.bag@gmail.com

Sunday, April 27, 2025

MANDALAS

Our May workshop will feature Barbara Clark teaching us how to make a mandala. Just what is a mandala? "According to a Google search, "a mandala is a geometric design or pattern that represents the cosmos or deities in various heavenly worlds." "In their most basic form, mandalas are circles contained within a square and arranged into sections that are all organized around a single, central point. They're typically produced on paper or cloth, drawn on a surface with threads, fashioned in bronze, or built in stone."

Here are two beautiful mandala examples from Barbara.




Tools Needed:

  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Waterproof black pen with a fine point like Micron or Sharpie
  • Drawing compass
  • Protractor
  • Colors of any kind: watercolors, colored pencils, or markers
  • 6-8 inch square piece of watercolor paper, mixed media paper or cardstock
Barbara explained that "you can ink a mandala with anything you'd like. One of the ones I enjoyed the most was inking it with a dip pen in some acrylic ink. You can also color in sections with any kind of colors. And, you can embellish and continue adding marks and colors on top of whatever you choose by using a Jelly Roll pen, especially the Moonlight series, or Stickies or any other mixed media."

Basic Structure:

  • Find the center of your square piece by measuring corner to corner and making a light mark across.
  • Lightly mark your north, south, east and west lines.
  • Use your compass to draw concentric circles, and use the protractor to find specific degrees along the circles to draw different lines across your circles.
Barbara made a video of making a mandala on her YouTube site at:

When:    Saturday, May 10 at 10 a.m. PDT
Where:   On your computer, tablet or smartphone via Zoom
RSVP:    To  Dolores Guffey by May 5 to receive the password
Workshop Questions:  Barbara Clark barbclark63@gmail.com
Zoom Questions:  Bobbie Hayes
Contact information is in the newsletter

Sherrill Story's circular flag birthday card
from the April workshop.




Monday, April 14, 2025

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.