Those Piano Hinge Books

Well, I ain't quite got the hang of blogging back yet...can't figure out how to get the images and the text side by side...sigh...I WON'T be put off by small stuff! I continue:

I LOVE these books! I first saw a couple about 3 years ago, but didn't learn how to make them until this past spring. I took a class with Angela Finet at A Happy Stamper in Reston, VA, and instantly, I knew I had hit on a form that I wanted to repeat time and time again...so I instantly came home to the studio and made about 8 more! I made special books for my oldest daughter, Jessie's, birthday, for my extended family's 62nd anniversary (Congratulations Is and Lou Parker!) and so on...these I show are currently for sale in my Etsy store at : bessiebelleArt.etsy.com...I had a ball doing them.

I then, in June, went to Ohio to visit with my youngest daughter Caitlin, and met up with Diana Ryman (who, inexplicably, belongs to the same altered art group I do in NoVa) in Columbus at European Papers to learn how to make a quarter-bound medieval book of hours (wow! intense day!) This was a book that I also want and need to duplicate, but, as yet, haven't...I feel like I need our instructor, Lisa Ohmer, to stand over my shoulder and constantly remind me...anyway, we used traditional bookbinding technique and learned an exacting and exciting book. European Papers is a wonderful place to visit and learn...Lisa has created a very special world that is nourishing to the creative spirit, friendly in spirit and connection and full of very exciting products and projects. The gallery is an afternoon's inspiration...I digress...Diana and I took Lisa's class together and then went up to her town about 2 hours away and began an all-nighter teaching me to paint and dye silk...oh my! Diana does such incredibly beautiful work and is such a patient and talented teacher! Silk...another world to explore in a leisurely way! I have not duplicated our learning lesson as yet, but all is at the ready to do so when it all slows down a bit! Diana is also responsible for a great paper resource...Hollo's in Bruinswick, Ohio, where art papers, cardstock, envelopes, et al are sold for the absolutely best prices, bar none...by the pound!!! Perfect for bookmaking! Reason for a Road Trip! I will update to my adventures as a demo person and class instructor in my next installment. It's been quite the summer so far!

Piano Hinge Books

Long Past Time to Update!

It's difficult to believe that summer has just slid by, and updating this blog is embarrassingly overdue. I have been busy in the studio and in the classroom: both as a pupil and as an instructor! Let's see: About the time my friends were headed to Art & Soul in Virginia Beach, I had taken several days of classes with Beverly Seymour from B-Line Designs-too divine! I feel I can use truly retro words like that when you see the incredible book I made under her direction: "ladies'-going-to-church" gloves made into an exquisite book that just melts into a totally tactile experience in your hands...it feels like a prayer, no kidding! Of course, I have been on an antiquing tear buying up reasonably priced gloves in good shape in order to make many more of these wonderful books, which, by the way, are sewn with an exposed spine in the single needle Coptic stitch...too cool!