VT Book Arts Guild “MailB.A.G.” September 2011
Next Meeting
Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
We meet at the B.C.A. Center (formerly known as the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts), located to the right of City Hall on Church Street in Burlington, VT.
Program: State of the B.A.G. and Tips and Tricks for Bookbinding Basics
Join us for a two part presentation and interactive demonstration. Book Arts Guild president, Elizabeth Rideout, will introduce the Board and share a few words about Guild’s continuing mission, goals, news, and member benefits in the light of our growing organization. Board members will also present updates on topics including the calendar of events and the Book Arts Guild Spring Exhibit.
The pace of the evening will quicken with part two; time to get out your hand tools, or at least take a good look inside the toolbox of a professional bookbinder. Our very own North Bennet Street graduate Elizabeth Rideout will teach some tips and tricks for bookbinding basics. Come prepared to sharpen your cutting, folding, and gluing skills – materials will be provided. Please bring the following tools if you have them:
- Metal ruler
- Cutting mat
- Blade or X-Acto knife
- Bone folder
- Glue brush in a ziploc bag
Reflections on September’s Meeting
September’s BAG meeting on constructing piano hinge bindings was attended by a large crowd of over twenty-five enthusiastic participants. Jill Abilock came organized to inspire and teach. First she wowed us all with her own book arts creations using the piano hinge binding. From tiny story dolls to larger books that opened to circular visions, Jill’s books were inventive and imaginative.
The structure looked complex but with Jill’s step by step directions, prepared materials and encouragement everyone mastered the binding. Participants left with a new piano hinge bound book in hand and looking forward to this year’s Book Arts Guild’s meetings.
You can view images from the meeting on the B.A.G. blog.
B.A.G. News
*** B.A.G. members Marianna Holzer and Elissa Campbell are opening their studios as part of the state-wide Open Studio Weekend sponsored by the Vermont Crafts Council.
Marianna’s studio is in Hinesburg and is #79 on the map. She’ll be talking about her family’s history as bookbinders in the late 1800’s. She will talk about book restoration and will demonstrate gold stamping & tooling. If you have a book that needs some care, bring it along to get an estimate. Her husband, musician Rik Palieri will be playing some of his music on banjo, guitar, and the many other instruments that he plays. Ask to see his Polish Bagpipes and taste some of his Gypsy soup.
Elissa’s studio is in Montpelier and is #139 on the map. She’ll have a selection of bookbinding supplies for sale, including PVA, paper, and ginormous sheets of bookboard (30″ x 41″). In addition, she’ll be demonstrating and selling her work. As a self-professed bookbinding book addict, she’s purchased a number of new books in the past several months. If you come by the studio, feel free to stay a while and go through the library.
The event takes place on October 1 & 2. You can find maps and directions to studios on the VT Crafts Council website. You can also download a pdf of the Vermont Foliage Open Studio Tour Guide. Please note that this is a really big file – 13.5 MB.
*** B.A.G. member Lorraine Reynolds has work in The Art of Horror, a juried group show at the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery and The Backspace Gallery in Burlington, VT. The show features the beautiful side of decay, the finer points of blood letting, and that special something inside a depraved mind.The opening reception will be held on Friday, October 7, 2011, from 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. You’ll be able to meet the artists, hear ghost stories from the Queen of Halloween, Thea Lewis, and have your future told by a local fortune teller.
Book Arts Classes
*** Lydia Batten is teaching a calligraphy class at the Emile Gruppe Gallery in Jericho, VT on Wednesdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. on October 12, 19, 26, and November 2, 9, 16.
Come learn the fundamentals of beautiful writing! The focus will be on the Italic hand and on how to use and work with various writing tools, media, papers. One or two small projects, along with lots of guidance and support will tie in tools with basic layout and design.
Class fee: $125.00
Materials fee: $20 (includes various writing tools, nibs and holder ink, handouts, and paper samples)
To register, please call the Emile Gruppe Gallery at (802) 899-3211.
*** Elissa Campbell is teaching a Book Arts Open Studio at Studio Place Arts in Barre, VT on October 12, 19, and 26 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
This experimental workshop is like a mini retreat, where students who have taken some book arts classes in the past can explore taking their artist books to a new level. A wide range of tools and materials will be available for you to try, including collage, carved block stamps, image transfer, Dremel, and paper cutting. Different binding techniques will also be explored.
This workshop is best-suited to someone with previous book arts experience. To register, contact SPA via phone (802) 479-7069 or Email.
Book Arts News
*** From October 5 – 29, 2011, the Bromfield Gallery in Boston, MA will host deFINEd BINDINGS, an exhibition of 26 bindings of the Pictorial Webster’s Dictionary by members of the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers. The juried exhibition features an array of interpretations of the set book, Pictorial Webster’s: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities.
Exhibitors include: Eric Alstrom, Patty Bruce, Lesa Dowd, Mark Esser, Madelyn Garret, Deborah Howe, Abigail Jones, Rachel Kadel-Garcia, Nancy Leavitt and Joelle Webber, Celine Lombardi, Athena Moore, Sabina Nies, Nancy Nitzberg, John Nove, Patricia Owen, Todd Pattison, Patricia Rosen, George Sargent, Patricia Sargent, Judy Sgantas, Sonya Sheats, Julie Stackpole, Andrew Thompson, Gerrit VanDerwerker, Katherine Westermann, and Stephanie Wolff.
An opening reception will be held on Friday, October 7, 2011, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. The reception takes place immediately following the annual meeting at the GBW Standards of Excellence Conference and there will be transportation to the gallery from the Park Plaza Hotel.
*** The Boston Athenæum is hosting the exhibit Artists’ Books: Books by Artists, featuring remarkable and unexpected artists’ books from their outstanding collection. Featured artists include book artists Russell Maret, Laura Davidson, Ryoko Adachi, Stephen Dupont, Harriet Bart, Xu Bing, Iliazd, and more than two dozen others.
The exhibit runs October 12, 2011 – March 3, 2012. The opening reception will be held on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
*** The Friends of Dard Hunter is trying something new this year – they’ve created a number of smaller, more intimate conferences which draw both existing members and recruit new, potential members from the local area who otherwise might find it too expensive or inconvenient to travel to a distant conference.
The Northeast Regional Conference will be held in Pittsfield, MA in October. The preconference will take place from October 18 – 19, 2011 and will feature papermaking at the Crane Museum of Papermaking using some historic moulds, carving linoleum blocks for steam-roller prints and creating books for a local book bomb. All the activities at Crane are free.
The conference will take place from October 20 – 22, 2011 and is designed to be less formal and less structured than regular annual meetings. One main focus of the meeting is to broaden the awareness of the paper and book arts among area educators, as well as to broaden exposure of the Friends of Dard Hunter.
To view the conference schedule, please visit the Friends of Dard Hunter website.
*** The CIAO Gallery, a non-profit artist cooperative gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is calling for artwork for the Rocky Mountain Art Book Collection Exhibition. Participants will receive a blank sketch pad to do whatever they please artistically during several months. All mediums are welcome. Notebooks must arrive at the gallery for submission by 5:00 p.m., December 1, 2011.
The participation fee is $25.00. The exhibition will run from December 15, 2011 – January 15, 2012. Download the prospectus for more information. If you have any questions, please contact Michele E. Walters at (307) 733-7833 or via Email at ciaogallery@yahoo.com.
- Book Arts Guild of VT blog: http://bookartsguildvt.wordpress.com
- Book Arts Guild of VT Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/bookartsguildvt
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