In the early 2000s I began taking classes at Penland School of Crafts in Spruce Pine NC, focusing on book arts and Japanese woodblock printing in order to build my knowledge base and experience in crafts that I hoped to pursue following my retirement. As a research virologist with a faculty appointment at UNC-Chapel Hill (now retired), I had experience in designing, performing and trouble-shooting experiments. And so I found that the design and hands-on processes (and trouble-shooting!) of book sewing and print making suited me very well.
Initially sewing simple utilitarian Coptic-stitch blank books, through a class with Dan Essig at Penland, gave me the confidence to pursue more artistic ways of creating both artist books and boxes. Recently this process has continued with workshops at Penland with Lisa Blackburn and in Raleigh with Kathy Steinsberger, and has been immeasurably strengthened my involvement with a local interest group, Triangle Book Arts. More recently I’ve begun exploring decorative box making through additional classes with Kathy Steinsberger. Embarking on a project in my home studio, I usually have the intention of making a limited series of books or boxes that are structurally related to one another but also differ in design elements. I often use marbled papers to decorate covers; book board, heavy stock artists paper or wood boards for book covers; and papers suitable for journaling, drawing or water coloring for the text blocks. My goal is to produce well-made and attractive objects.
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