Looking Back

I wish I were better at documenting my book arts journey.  In fact, the more important and meaningful experiences are the hardest for me to write about.  I struggle, often unsuccessfully, with a sort of fatal procrastination.  The new year has brought a spate of "looking back" pieces, giving me a plausible excuse to offer some posts that I should have blogged about at the time, but failed.

In October, I took a two-day class with Karen Hanmer, offered by the Potomac Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers (of which I am a member), on the springback binding.   The class was located in the conservation lab of the Folger Shakespeare Library and it was a privilege and a pleasure to work in that space.  The learning was intense! I had never pared leather before, and didn't know until I signed up that that was one of the requisite skills. It certainly was a challenge to get those edges pared while stretching my other skills to learn this complex structure. Still, I had great fun, mostly because Karen is such a good teacher and the group was pleasant and supportive. The book I made is far from perfect, but I’m pleased with my first effort.

The Thursday before the weekend class, Karen gave a wonderful presentation about her work at the Library of Congress.

Below:  Karen demonstrates a few of the steps.

And here is my finished book