All Levels – 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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: 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: 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.

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.