VT Book Arts Guild “Mail B.A.G.” July 2026
Next Meeting: Wednesday, July 8, 2026, 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
We meet at the Unitarian Universalist Society Church located at 152 Pearl Street in Burlington, VT. We will be in the Sophia Fahs Community Room, a large room located in the basement. Click here for more information on directions/parking.
We look forward to seeing you!
The B.A.G. Board
Announcing Our Theme for 2026!
In 2026, we’re returning to our tradition of choosing an annual theme for our meetings. The B.A.G. Board is happy to announce our theme for this year, Interaction.
Cornell University said it well in Wake the Form: Artists’ Books in Context: “An important characteristic of artists’ books is their interactivity. The artist often creates an experience for the reader that encourages performance, either in constructing or staging the piece, or in rehearsing parts of the text. A book can become a miniature stage set, unfolding to reveal sequences that can be extended, figures added, scenes reorganized.”
With artists’ books, the reader is invited to participate in the work – intimacy between the viewer and the book distinguishes our art form from other types of art.
Throughout the year, we’ll look at the ways one can interact with a book, whether it’s through form (structure, materials used), content (text, imagery), or a combination of both.
Get ready because it will be an exciting year!
Program: Fishbone Binding with Elissa Campbell
At July’s B.A.G. meeting, Elissa Campbell will teach you how to make the Fishbone Binding, a fascinating structure developed by Hedi Kyle.
You’ll also have the opportunity to create a cover for your text block. All materials will be provided to those attending the meeting in person.
If you wish, you can also bring your own papers using the measurements provided below.
For those at home, here are the tools and materials you’ll need to participate in making the project:
- Metal ruler
- Scissors
- X-Acto knife
- Cutting mat
- Awl
- Pencil
- Needle
- Linen thread (or embroidery thread if that’s all you have): 21”
- 1 piece of cover weight paper: 7.75” x 13.5” (grain short)
- 1 piece of cover weight paper: 1” x 1” (optional – this can be used for a button)
- 1 piece of text weight paper: 11.25” x 21.75” (grain short)
- Note: If you don’t have a piece of paper 21.75” long, there’s a workaround!
- Piece together two pieces measuring 11.25” x 10” and 11.25” x 12.25” (both grain short) by overlapping them by 0.5”.
- Attach the pieces with a glue stick and you’ll be all set.
- Note: If you don’t have a piece of paper 21.75” long, there’s a workaround!
If you’d like to attend the meeting over Zoom, please contact Elissa and she’ll send you the details.
June Meeting Reflections
Slow stitching and happy sewers!
At last month’s B.A.G. meeting, Vera Ryersbach led us into the bliss of the running stitch, complete with a bit of history and an informative zine.
After her lovely intro we were off and “running”. We used 8” x 6” heavyweight paper that Vera will collect and bind into a book. The calming effect of stitching was felt by all. Vera encouraged our creativity with the endless variations of the running stitch and the possible additions of paint or collage.
Thanks Vera! We’re going slow and it feels good.
B.A.G. Library Corner
Elissa here, tapping in for Sally!
When I think of the theme of interaction, I can’t help but think of the Jacob’s Ladder structure. I find the flip-flappiness and click-clackiness of it very satisfying.
Did you know that there’s also a way to create this structure in box form? The lid opens in both directions and offers you the opportunity to both conceal and reveal as you interact with it.
In Roger Green’s book, A Comprehensive Guide to Box Making for Bookbinders, Artists and Amateurs, you can construct your very own four-section Magic Box.
And it really is as magical as it sounds.
You can check out and download the selection here.
If you have ideas for books to feature or if you have a B.A.G. library book in your possession from which you’d like to share something, email Sally at salblanch@gmail.com.
B.A.G. News
*** The Book Arts Guild of Vermont Retrospective is still up! You still have through the end of July to see it for yourself.
There are plans in the works for book arts related events during the month of July that will pique interest in the show. One may be an event in which a limited number of interested community members would be given the opportunity to have a private viewing of books that were not included in the show – an exclusive look behind the curtain!
If you’re unable to make it to the exhibit in person, never fear! Elissa took pictures of all the pieces in the exhibition! You can check out the full exhibition here.
*** Congratulations to Karen Krieger for winning Best in Show at the Morgan Conservatory’s 14th Annual Juried Exhibition, A Hand of One’s Own. The exhibition highlighted paper as a creative medium and active substrate and featured 60 artworks from talented artists across Ohio and representing 30 states nationwide.
Ranging from fashion, sculptural works, book forms, ephemera, and other traditional methods, the show embodied the capabilities of the artistic hand and how paper has no limits.
Book Arts News
*** Helen Hiebert‘’s paper-loving community, The Paper Year, is open for enrollment now through July 12.
Each month, you’ll receive project instructions designed to spark ideas that keep you creating. You’ll explore creative paper techniques, including origami, pop-ups, paper weaving, book arts, paper cutting and more.
When you join, you’ll gain access to all past projects in The Paper Year Library.
For more information, please visit Helen’s website.
*** The American Bookbinders Museum is presenting a virtual lecture, Buried Alive! Books Unearthed in Our Time, with Michael Burke on July 18. This lecture tells the story of three ancient books that were buried underground, lost for centuries and then found again.
The Nag Hammadi Codices were discovered in Egypt in 1945 a clay pot. These books, written in the Coptic language, contain the infamous Gnostic Gospels. Within a short time some had been smuggled and sold, and sent all over the world to various libraries. They have now been reunited and live in the library at Cairo. Michael will tell the story of their discovery, which involves murder, cannibalism and international scholarly squabbling.
St. Cuthbert’s Gospel was made by the monks of Lindisfarne in 692, buried with Cuthbert when he died, and discovered in his coffin in the year 1104 in exceptionally good condition. It is the earliest known decorated European binding, and was acquired for the nation in 2005 for £9 million. It is now on permanent exhibition in the treasures room of the British Library. You’ll learn about St Cuthbert’s extraordinary life, the monks of Lindisfarne, why they had to move on to new houses over the years, and how the book was made and decorated.
The Fadden More Psalter is one of the earliest surviving British manuscripts. It was found in a peat bog in Tipperary in 2005, an appalling mess of squashed and crumpled parchment and leather. You’ll learn the story of how it took over four years of painstaking work to unpick the damaged pages, removing 1,300 years of soil, moss and seed pods, before the book could be studied by the scholars.
For more information or to register, please visit the ABA website.
*** Every graduating class from the full-time Bookbinding Department at North Bennet Street School completes a design binding, in their own unique style, of an assigned text. This is referred to as the set book.
Since graduating from NBBS in 2012, Erin Fletcher of Herringbone Bindery has been conducting annual interviews of each student about their binding, discussing the concept and the process.
The text selected for 2026 was Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Erin’s interviews of this year’s graduating class can be read on her website.
Stay-at-Home Fun
*** The Center for Book Arts is offering Camera-less Eco-Photography: From Plant to Print for Book Artists with Iviva Olenick on July 16 & 23.
Learn how to use household materials and plants to make camera-less eco-photographs in this two-part workshop. Transform food waste (purple cabbage leaves, turmeric spice, water from soaking black rice, spinach leaves) into photographic emulsions to make anthotypes, or plant-based sun-prints, similar to cyanotypes.
Learn how to take plant cuttings and use them to make a safe developer for printing plants on B&W photo paper, known as phytograms. Add embroidery to your phytograms, crafting unique, mixed media artworks, and begin to plan new book arts projects incorporating these techniques.
For more information or to register, please visit the CBA website.
*** The Frederick Book Arts Center is offering Pop-Up Mini Creatures with Shawn Sheehy on July 22.
Pop-ups are all about the “wow” factor. Building pop-ups in miniature maximizes the “wow” factor, as dramatic structures emerge from tiny spaces. In this workshop, you’ll build three miniature pop-up cards featuring charming woodland creatures.
Using just card stock, glue and a handful of simple tools, you will build three miniature pop-up cards that feature a snail, a snake, and a robin (plus a sneaky little worm).
All levels are welcome.
For more information or to register, please visit the FBAC website.
*** Erin Fletcher of Herringbone Bindery is teaching the Box with Telescoping Lid on August 4, 6, & 11.
In contrast to the clamshell box, this style of enclosure has a completely separate lid that slides off the base. In this workshop, students will construct an inner tray set within a frame for the object to rest. A ribbon will be added for easy retrieval of the object.
Students will be able to customize the inner tray to fit an object from their own library. Your object should be no larger than 145 x 100 x 20mm (h x w x d).
For more information or to register, please visit the Erin’s website.
*** The Minnesota Center for Book Arts is offering Make Your Own Binding Tools with Rachel Payne on Tuesdays August 4, 11, & 18.
Many bindery tools are specialized, making them difficult to find or expensive to purchase. In this virtual workshop, you’ll make a few tools and discuss how to make more.
Through live demonstration and guided discussion, you will discuss the construction of tools such as a laying press, press boards (wood and plexi), bone folders, and box corner jigs. You will make a punching cradle, corner trimming jigs, faux brass edged boards, bent needles, and soft weights.
There will be ample time for questions, troubleshooting, and discussion of alternative materials and methods. By the end of the workshop, you’ll understand how to construct your own bindery tools and adapt designs to suit your workspace and needs.
For more information or to register, please visit the MCBA website.
Join us for our always-popular annual November tradition: Member-led mini demonstrations in the form of a card or mini-book that we call Book Blitz and Card Tricks. Unfortunately, we’ll have our celebration of ideas without the hands-on making.
We’re getting good at Zooming!
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