For World Book Day

For World Book Day—an image created from a photo of a palm leaf book in my collection.

A Book for St. George's Day

St. George's Day is April 23rd. He is the patron saint of several countries including Catalonia in Spain, England, Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia. St. George's Day in Catalonia is especially rich as it celebrates three things: St. George who fought and slayed the dragon and the day of the deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare (April 23, 1616). Boys and men give their girlfriends and wives roses; girls and women give their boyfriends and husbands books.

Here's a simple book to make and share:

You'll need two pieces of paper (it's okay if they have writing on one side), a piece of ribbon or yarn (mine was left over from an chocolate Easter bunny package), a glue stick, a piece of scrap paper, and assorted decorative paper scraps for collage. A piece of candy wrapper foil or a bead for the end of the bookmark is an optional extra.

Follow the directions to make two hot dog booklets.



Insert a piece of scrap paper under the first page of one booklet. Cover the entire surface with glue. Place a piece of ribbon on the top of the book near the spine with the ribbon extending up beyond the book. This will be the bookmark.

Place the other booklet on top lining up the spines. Rub your hand over the surface to help the glue adhere.

Glue assorted pieces of cut and torn paper to the front and the back to make covers. Start with a not too small piece and wrap it around the spine.

Continue gluing on pieces until the front and back are covered.

As an extra touch, wrap a piece of foil from candy around the end of the ribbon or tie a bead to the end. It is helpful but not necessary to place the book under a heavy book or other weight for a few hours.

Book Arts Tuesday-Artists' Book Cornucopia V

I'm thrilled that Spirit Book #67: Emerging Enlightenment is part of the wonderful company of books in Cornucopia V at Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, CO. The exhibit runs through June 7. The gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays 1-6pm, Saturdays noon-4pm. You can view the online catalog here.

Happy Easter

Studio Sunday-Bookmarks XII

100 bookmarks signed and ready to ship to Sarah Bodman at the Centre for Fine Print Research in the UK for Bookmarks XII. Here's what the website says about the bookmarks project:

The Bookmarks projects series aims to encourage appreciation of work in the format of the artist's book. Participating artists each produce an edition of 100 signed and numbered bookmarks to give away through distribution boxes at venues around the world. Each bookmark has the website address which brings visitors to the gallery of artworks online.

Over the last ten years, the Bookmarks series of free artwork distribution has visited 105 galleries, bookstores, workshops, centres, schools and libraries in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and USA.

423 artists have contributed 42,300 bookmarks to the eleven projects to date. Editioned bookmarks are collated into sets; one full set being sent to each of the contributing artists and the rest divided and sent in distribution boxes to participating host venues around the world, for visitors to take.

I wrote the words on my bookmark shortly after I began to make books and they still hold true for me today.

Books are intimate; 
they welcome personal encounters. 

Books are humble; 
they fulfill their potential closed 
as well as open. 

Books have depth; 
even the simplest forms are rich 
with the possibilities of endless variation. 

Books have spirit; 
they are dwelling places for our thoughts and dreams.

Morning Play-A rose is a rose

A few days ago I tackled the piles of paper on my desk so this morning a clean desk and my new glass pen, which I purchased at Papier Plume when I was in New Orleans, were an invitation to play. I recently reviewed my slides for my upcoming talk on the Gardens of Paris (Tues, April 22, 7 PM at the Newburyport Public Library) and one of a white rose was in my mind. I printed the photo, put tracing paper over it, and filled the rose with Gertrude Stein's famous words.

Manuscript for Passover from the British Library

The British Library has digitized MS 27210, the Hagadah for Passover (the 'Golden Hagadah'). The date is 1200-1699. Click on the images and then zoom in for wonderfully detailed views.

And of course there is much more to explore from the British Library. Thanks to Cynthia Garinther of Cynscribe for sharing this on facebook.