Shelly has published one of the most detailed and complete tutorials that I’ve ever seen on chain stitch binding.  I’m not sure if this would be considered a Coptic binding style or not (I think it is), but Shelly has photographed and stepped through each stage so clearly that I’m totally convinced that I can do this!

While you’re there, you also need to visit Shelly’s gallery, where you will spend some happy time drooling over her collages, altered books, doodles, and artist trading cards.  This is a mixed media artist with wide and varied skills!
Image: Cat Sidh

The newest issue of the bookbinding and book artist online journal, The Bonefolder, is now available for downloading.   This spring issue has several articles on bookbinding tools, including how to make some of your own.  There’s also a special feature on doing gold tooling and several reviews of exhibits and publications.

Artist: Miriam Schaer
Website: Miriam Schaer
As I became involved with books, I began to study their history and forms. I discovered an ancient structure called the girdle book: prayer books worn by medieval monks, lashed to their belts, their girdles, so their prayers would always be at hand. I had a different vision. My girdle books would contain new objects of devotion, new prayers, contemplations. Girdles are binders, like notebooks, places to hold and keep stories, house ideas in structures that are used to push and mold the female figure into idealized and often unreal shapes. Working with …read more

Artist: Pete Ippel
Project: 100 Things to Enjoy
100 Things to Enjoy is a 50 page accordion book drawn in pencil and colored with Prismacolor on 150 lb. cold press paper. The total length when displayed is 50′. Each drawing represents essence of a particular moment or concept.

I love Pete’s bright and whimsical style!

Artist: Mychal Mitchell
Website: Iona Handcrafted Books
My story is one of blessings in disguise…back in 1992, upon graduating from Arizona State University School of Architecture and Design, I took off on an adventure through Europe…5 months into the journey I had my backpack stolen in the train station in Rome. My friend, Cristiano chased the young boy through the crowd to no avail! Gone were my camera, walkman, passport, money, plane ticket and several rolls of film I’d shot along the way…but most devastating was the loss of my journal!

Days later, in Venice, I was talking with a street …read more

Artist: Jennifer Star
Website: CreativeJournalWorks
Art and creativity have always been a presence in Jennifer Star’s life. The very foundation of her creativity and artistic expression is based on a spiritual relationship with the earth and universe, and a desire to share this with others.   She has found that healing of the body/mind/ spirit occurs every time she fills herself up with ‘creative food for the soul.’

Bookmaking has been creative food for Star’s soul for as long as she can remember. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that she was introduced to the technical side of bookmaking. From …read more

We’re crazy about books here…we love everything from altered books to handmade journals. We love making them, decorating them, filling them, and even reading them! I have gathered up a load of links from our archives that cover every aspect of books that we’ve examined over the years. And I’ll be adding more to this list as we go on.

Book Arts Links

Artist: Randi Parkhurst
Website: Parkhurst Paper Arts

My experience as an artist has led me to this ever-evolving journey into the world of magical books and mysterious boxes. I create artists’ books that are sometimes sculptures, sometimes puzzles and other times found object art. I like to take the viewer on on a journey full of twists and turns. My books may contain boxes with tinier books inside or be filled with cubbyholes that hold secret, oddly shaped, miniature books. My style is intricate and finely crafted, with a touch of whimsy. I use my own handmade or handpainted papers exclusively in …read more

Artist: Lesley Riley
Website: LaLasLand
Blog: LesleyRiley
After years of putting down a book to pick up my art, or setting aside my art to lose myself in the pages of a book, I finally found peace by making the book my art. I use fabric, my primary medium of expression, to create tactile and textured hand-made and altered books.
Fabric is the key ingredient in my hand-made books for a variety of reasons. Fabric not only adds texture, color and pattern, but evokes memory and meaning. It is a familiar medium that everyone can relate to. The fabrics I use in my books …read more

Artist: Tamar Stone
Website: Art of Tamar Stone
My artist books that tell the stories of women’s lives that have been constricted by their various situations throughout history. As an artist bookmaker, the stories unfold in a non-traditional way via pages that are pieces of corsets, or layers of a bed. However, I consider these non-traditional forms of the book, still a book that tells a story in a narrative way with the viewer having the opportunity interact with the pages of the books, a hands-on tactile experience with the embroidered words and printed images on vintage materials.
The definition of a book …read more