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: Kate Black
Websites:
Kate Black
Flickr album
I fell in love with book arts in the mid 1990s, when I started self- publishing zines. My projects then were text heavy and bound in a simple saddle stitch or pamphlet binding style. Five or six years later, I started to make one-off books with experimental bindings that often included bolts and interesting hardware. One can only make so many of those books with dangerous spines before storage becomes an issue.

During college, I learned more practical & lasting binding methods, like coptic sewings. These were perfect for my sketchbooks –I often trashpicked half-used pads of …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

Artist: Ray Bliss Rich
Website: Sumi Art

I make my hand bound books and journals from scratch… first making the paper by recycling old cotton denim blue jeans and plant fiber. I use some non-traditional materials as inclusions in my paper to make a more interesting sheet; including feather filaments, iridescent mylar threads, and ground up bits of mica. I also under beat some fibers for an organic look and feel. My unusual papers give my books and journals a very distinctive look.
My books and journals are bound in Japanese styles including stab bindings, hanging journals, and fanfold designs. …read more

Technique Tuesday!

I decided that I wanted to make a little accordian-style books with some of my background papers.  In particular, I wanted to use what was left from the pink and fushia monoprinted paper.  My first experiment didn’t work out too well, as you’ll see.  I used a 1/2 inch paper punch and crocheted the pages together with an oversized hook.  The crocheting went fine, but the holes were way too big!
My second attempt resorted to a standard office-style paper punch and a smaller hook.  Much better!  I trimmed the rectangles to get rid of the large holes, and cut …read more

Make Art Monday!

In the spirit of all the book arts we’ve been looking at this month, I thought I’d experiment with a new way to join pages together.  New to me, anyway!  Tomorrow for Technique Tuesday, I’ll share the method that I used to make this little booklet