Workshop Days – Focus on Book Arts

Open Studio Sessions

Have you ever wanted half of a day during the conference to work at your own pace, relax, and embellish your previous day’s workshop creations? Or wanted some low-stress time to get input from an instructor (or your peers) on a project you’re working on? Join this Half-Day Hosted Studio Session for just $55, and enjoy a dedicated space to work alongside other like-minded attendees at your leisure. Then, spend the other half of the day exploring Monmouth, taking the trolley to Independence to visit the shops and galleries, visiting one of the local wineries, or joining the non-hosted open studio session after lunch.

Erin Fletcher: Variations on Single-Signature Bindings

Books come in all shapes and sizes. Some may span only a single signature, while others become a thick tome. In this workshop, we’ll explore the former as we create a multitude of models with both soft and hard covers.

To help us punch all of the signatures for our models, students will begin this workshop by making a collapsible punching cradle out of binder’s board covered in Lokta paper. Then students will make a series of simple softcover pamphlets using a variety of sewing patterns before moving on to hardcover structures. All of these structures allow the book to lay flat and are perfect for artist’s books, chapbooks, presentation pamphlets, or short stories.

Raluca Iancu: Japanese Stab Binding

During this one-day workshop, students will learn how to create traditional Japanese stab-bound books from beginning to finish, using traditional Japanese materials. The instructor will bring materials from Japan for this workshop (paper and covers). We will cover up to four basic bindings: Yotsume Toji (Four-Hole Binding), Kikko Toji (Tortoise Shell), Asa-no-ha Toji (Hemp Leaf), and Koki Toji (Noble Binding).

Rosemary Rae: Collage Boot Camp

In this Collage Boot Camp we will dive into the hands-on creation of mixed-media collages, integrating text using a variety of ephemera, papers, acrylic paint, and other markmaking tools. Discover your artistic voice and learn about color theory and how to create strong compositions.

Anne Sobbota: Curiously Organized—Conversations with Design and Flow

Emphasizing design and flow, this workshop is focused on book structure as a process to facilitate awareness of how artist’s marks, on paper and textiles, reflect their unique voice when shared. Through choices of arrangement (marks, color, cuts, folds, and embellishments), creativity becomes curiosity organized and each element that is carefully placed works to achieve impact and spark communication.

Anne Sobbota: Curious Visions—Illuminating Hidden Inspirations

Activities in this workshop include a range of techniques designed to engage the imagination through color and discovery of hidden imagery. Mediums used range from watercolor to alcohol, and acrylic inks on different paper surfaces, including unique eco-prints and Yupo papers.

Rosemary Rae: Festival Flag Book

Gather found type, numerals, tickets and random images! This book is an easy and fun flag book structure mounted between two hard covers. Paint the covers or cover with decorative paper. Use found typography to create a paper festival and add a bit of collage, stars, and miscellaneous ephemera and create a dynamic structure full of type and image.

Judilee Fitzhugh: Contact-Print Portfolio

This workshop will begin by using the contact method (also called eco-printing or botanical printing) of transferring natural plant pigment material to paper appropriate for book binding. Students will prepare contact-printed papers dyes with real leaves to create a custom portfolio to hold precious papers.

Pietro Accardi: Fabric, Paper, and Metallics Marbling

During these three days, students will learn and practice all the basics of paper and fabric marbling. They will learn how to prepare metallic paint and create beautiful overmarbled paper/fabrics.

Pietro Accardi: Advanced Paper Marbling—More Patterns and Metallics

This workshop is designed to provide students with a space to explore more of the marbling universe. Further complex patterns will be demonstrated. This workshop is designed to provide students with a space to explore more of the marbling universe. Further complex patterns will be demonstrated. Students will learn how to make and use metallic paint. Students will execute some overmarbled paper, which are papers “printed” two times, creating complex visual patterns.

Pietro Accardi: Intro to Paper Marbling

In this introductory class, students will gain a basic understanding of the history, techniques, tools, and styles of Western marbling. We will talk about the color wheel and color theory to guide students’ creativity. Pietro will demonstrate how to execute the most classic patterns and how to create simple harmonic color combinations.

Rhiannon Alpers: Boxmaking Fundamentals

Boxes can be both elegant and deeply personal—beautiful containers for books, sculptures, or collections. But for many book artists, boxmaking can feel intimidating. This two-day workshop is designed to demystify the process and build confidence through hands-on practice with one of the most essential forms: the clamshell box.

Rhiannon Alpers: Miniature Specimen Enclosure

In this one-day beginner’s workshop, students will create a miniature hardcover book (3″ x 4½″ x ½″) designed to house a personal assemblage of natural curiosities. Using found objects, historic illustrations, altered book parts, and natural artifacts, participants will build a narrative through collage and layered materials.

Rhiannon Alpers: Layer by Layer—Stacked Boxes with Magnetic Closure

This two-day workshop is designed for intermediate boxmakers looking to deepen their skills and explore creative possibilities in structure and design. We will construct a multi-tiered interlocking tray system housed within a wrapped enclosure featuring a hidden magnetic closure, utilizing pre-cut components to streamline the build process.

Celeste Chalasani: Embroidery on Paper

Students will learn the basics of embroidering on paper as they work 10 embroidery stitches. Celeste will walk students through the stitches and share examples of how she has used them in her book art practice. At the end of class, students will assemble their embroidered pages to make their own “Little Book of Embroidery Stitches,” which can serve as a reference tool for years to come. Left-handed instructions available upon request.

Kit Davey: Pop-Up Tunnel Book

When the tab is lifted and the door is opened, the reader is treated to a multi-layered tunnel adorned with floating objects. Kit will guide students through making the tunnel frames, installing the floating images, and attaching the flattened tunnel to a backing page. Students will end up with an unusual, interactive, four-tunnel book, invented by Kit and shared with her students.

Kit Davey: Button Collection Book

In this workshop, participants will combine their favorite buttons with coordinating papers to make a colorful, one-of-a-kind, five-page book. We will use foam core for the pages and cut niches into them. We’ll then cover the pages with our favorite papers (which coordinate with the style and color of our buttons). Then we’ll stitch our buttons onto a backing and install them into the niches. To protect the stitching holes we’ll use metal eyelets. Kit will teach the slip knot stitch so students can bind their pages together. Students will end up with a five-page book of buttons, preserved and displayed in a fun and unusual way.

Kristen Doty: Watercolor Explorations

Explore watercolor techniques and experiment with different papers/surfaces that will spark creativity and improve watercolor skills. We will delve into color theory and color mixing using a double split primary palette, also learning how to avoid “mud.” Techniques will be added together for illustration and painterly or abstract effects. Students’ exercises will be bound together in a unique but simple no-sew book for future reference.

Robin Feinman: The Art 101 Teaching Album

This workshop will focus on constructing a concertina-bound book with pairs of pages meant to illustrate or demonstrate a basic art technique or concept. The workshop is designed for participants who want to teach a book arts project to their basic art class, who would like a teaching product to show basic art concepts, or to anybody new to or familiar with the concertina binding and the basics of visual arts.

Selene Fisher: Playful Patterns in a Leporello Portfolio

This class is all about creating colorful patterned paper (with a gel-printing plate) that can be used in other mixed-media projects. We’ll start off making a Leporello case to store smaller papers. This folder combines origami and bookbinding techniques to create a simple and effective structure. Then we will swing into color and pattern, using acrylic paint, gel plates, Play-Doh (seriously), foam stamps, stencils, different papers, and lots of textures! This is a chance to play with different methods of creating colorful papers for use in other projects. Students will leave with a collection of papers housed in their case, Play-Doh for future fun, and any stencils or stamps they create in class.

Selene Fisher: Whimsical Little Houses All in a Row

Are you charmed by the repeating shapes you see in lines of hillside houses? Are you intrigued by urban sketching? We’ll explore new neighborhoods by constructing our own little wonky row houses bound into a quirky accordion book.

Selene Fisher: Ekphrastic Postcards in a Blizzard (Book)

This class combines mixed-media collage, creative writing, an origami-inspired case, and a collaborative interchange with classmates.

Erin Fletcher: Envelope Binding

In this workshop, students will create three variations of the Envelope Binding structure. The first two will utilize handmade paper for the covers while showing solutions for binding a thin versus a thick text block. For the third model, students will explore Clara’s layering technique using dyed Tengucho and undyed Kozo tissues to create a more translucent and dynamic cover.

Brenda Gallagher: Wood-Burned Cover Flat-Back Case Binding

We will begin with discussing design and how to plan the space for the cover’s wood panel. Designs will be transferred to pieces of wood veneer in cherry, oak, or maple. Then we will move on to woodburning the veneer to create our cover images. Students will practice how to make designs with the heated tool and learn tips for working over wood grain and best techniques. Color can be added by painting the finished woodburned design with wood dyes. Students will receive several pieces of wood veneer to work on, choosing the best finished design to be the cover of the book.

Brenda Gallagher: Mini Pencil Sketchbook

Bind your very own miniature sketchbook with leather covers. This little gem holds your mini colored pencils and fits in your pocket!

Brenda Gallagher: Decorating with the Heat Foil Pen

Create beautiful designs for your books with the heat foil pen. Each student will receive a brand-new heated foil pen with multiple nibs that they can take home at the end of class. Brenda will provide a rainbow of foil options for students to use in class. Students will also be invited to cut a length of each color to take home for future projects.

Helen Hiebert: Paper Weaving Explorations with Reverse Piano Hinge Album

Come explore elegant weaving structures and beautiful papers that can be integrated into the stories of your life. Incorporate unique papers and imagery as you weave paper strips and shapes in a variety of ways. Cut windows into your weavings to reveal and illuminate between the layers. Learn to create a reverse piano hinge album to house a sampling of your weavings.

Helen Hiebert: Fundamentals of Paper Weaving

Learn the basics of paper weaving while creating a woven-paper notecard and a cylindrical lantern with a woven hinge. Learn what papers are best for weaving, how to use a paper loom, how to weave with or without a weaving tool, and how to cut windows in your weavings to reveal and illuminate between the layers. Students will incorporate unique papers and imagery as they weave paper strips and shapes in a variety of ways.

Helen Hiebert: Half-Day Hosted Studio Session

Raluca Iancu: Japanese Scroll Books

Students will learn the Japanese Urauchi technique, which enables them to back any cloth with paper for making the scroll book covers.

Genevieve Kaplan: Altered Pages and Blackout Poems—Working with Text

In this hands-on creative workshop, we will find our inspiration by excavating texts already written. Using pages torn from discarded books as our starting point, we will explore various physical and intellectual approaches to altering pages. From strike-through to pattern-making, black-out to collage, we’ll cover up, obscure, and reveal existing language to forge new ways of creating, experiencing, and reading. In this class, we will view and consider exciting examples of altered books and erasure poetry, getting inspiration from published works while we try our own hands at the techniques shown.

Genevieve Kaplan: Creative Writing for Book Artists

During this generative writing workshop, we will brainstorm ideas, experiment with language, and tap into students’ linguistic creativity. We will consider contemporary examples of short literary works (poetry and short prose), and examine these texts from a writer’s (rather than just a reader’s) point of view. We will pay special attention to elements of craft—what these authors do, and how they do it—and use our observations to guide us in making our own creative authorial choices.

Genevieve Kaplan: Altered Texts—Obscuring to Reveal

In this one-day workshop, perfect for all levels, students will follow a step-by-step process to create their own small book of engaging visual-literary erasure.

Roberta Lavadour: Handmade Books in the Classroom

Teaching artists draw on a skill set that is distinctly different from day-to-day studio work. In this fast-paced session, we will look at tips and tricks for choosing grade-appropriate projects, preparing materials, and working with large groups of students who bring different learning styles to the classroom.

Susan Lowdermilk: Tunnel Books—Perspective and the Author’s Voice

In this immersive workshop, participants will explore the sculptural and narrative potential of tunnel books: dimensional, layered book forms that create visual depth and storytelling through space. Each participant will create two books: a sample tunnel book to learn the mechanics of the structure, followed by a fully developed tunnel book incorporating photographic and/or photocopied imagery.

Abigail Merickel: Decorative Block Design

Learn about the seven simple design motifs found on all decorative arts in various world cultures. Students will use a pen and paper in a guided drawing exercise that will help them experiment freely with these motifs to create their own decorative design, which will be made into a block-print stamp.

Abigail Merickel: Solar Plate Etching and Monotype

Solar plate etching is a form of intaglio in which a photosensitive polymer plate is used. A drawing on trace film is placed on the plate, which is exposed to light and developed in water. Ink is rubbed into the etched lines and printed onto paper.

Casey Newman: Indigo Dyeing Fabric

In this workshop we will create and use an indigo dye vat, unlocking the mysteries of this blue pigment that has been used throughout the world for centuries. Students will learn the basics of Shibori dyeing, a Japanese technique of folding and binding fabric to create beautiful patterns with indigo dye. There are infinite ways to manipulate fabric to create unique designs.

Casey Newman: Indigo Dyeing Paper

In this workshop students will create and use an indigo dye vat to dye paper beautiful shades of blue. Students will learn how to create an indigo dye vat and see what depth of shade can be created through dip-dyeing paper. This technique can create both solid and layered/ombre designs. Students will learn ways to fold and bend paper to create different designs and will be able to try numerous techniques.

Casey Newman: Botanical Inks

Making one’s own natural ink not only yields beautiful and interesting colors with which to create, but provides a deep connection to the natural world. It’s also just really fun! In this workshop, students will learn to extract color from a variety of natural materials, many that are easy to find in the garden or even the kitchen. Students will learn which materials can be added to modify colors so they can create several colors from each dye source.

Rosemary Rae: Zhen Xian Bao Hardcover Sampler

Explore folding trays, collapsible boxes, a masu box, and small booklet assembly with this Zhen Xian Bao hardcover sampler project. This is a great way to mix and match papers and play with an adaptive and fun book structure.

Shawn Sheehy: Paper Engineering Boot Camp

In Paper Engineering Boot Camp, students will build a handful of foundational paper-engineering structures—some pop-ups, some movables—that will serve as physical warm-ups and creative building blocks. Following that, students will receive a series of problem-solving prompts that will help them apply their specific idea to the foundational structures. If a student doesn’t have a specific idea but would simply like to play with pop-ups, they will find the experience to be useful and engaging.

Shawn Sheehy: A Trio of No-Glue Structures

A bonefolder, a microspatula, and tweezers. Those three tools—and a little time—are all students will need to assemble this deceptively simple trio of no-glue, no-thread books. But despite their simplicity, these structures are elegant, flexible, and altogether ready for further play and experimentation.

Kris Stewart: Creating Longstitch Leather Journals

Students will learn to craft their own longstitch leather journals by hand. They will choose from a variety of precut leather from the instructor’s collection to create two beautiful longstitch journals, each highlighting different skills and techniques.

Jenn Woodward: Explorations in Hand Papermaking

Students will explore how to make pigmented paper pulp to create a full palette of colors, and how to use those wet fibers as a kind of paint. Students will learn the process for making both smooth and textured paper pulp, plus techniques for markmaking, creating shapes of color, building layered images, and retaining negative space within a composition. Students will create several wet pulp painting pieces that they will take away from the workshop to dry at home.

Roberta Lavadour: Winging it—Post-Consumer Freeform Journal

Sometimes a person just needs a book to toss into their bag to have available for notes. Sometimes they want to give someone a cool gift that isn’t too precious to actually use. This simple, sturdy structure fits the occasion and has a wide range of options for personalizing and stitching outside the lines. It’s a perfect vehicle for bringing together those fun bits of saved ephemera and for loosening up a bit between addressing more formal structures.

Roberta Lavadour: Link Stitch/Ethiopian Board Attachment

If a student is a fan of what’s commonly referred to as a Coptic binding, but doesn’t like the way covers tend to drift, this type of board attachment is a game changer. Historically used for wooden boards, the technique will be adapted to readily available binder board; then we will experiment with different design options. The finished book is both beautiful and structurally sound.