VT Book Arts Guild “Mail B.A.G.” January 2024
Next Meeting: Wednesday, January 10, 2024, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
This month’s meeting will be held IN PERSON!
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 are offering a Zoom option for those unable to attend in person. If you’d like to attend the meeting over Zoom, please contact Elissa and she’ll send you the link.
We hope to see you there!
The B.A.G. Board
In continuing with our tradition of choosing a theme for our meetings every year, the B.A.G. Board has selected the theme of It’s a Wrap! Classic Covers, Clever Closures, and Fabulous Finishes for 2024. We’ll focus on ways for you to amp up the presentation of your work.
The presentation of your work can absolutely make a difference in how your audience perceives it. Adding careful details and thoughtful treatments requires extra effort, but can bring extra appeal and personal satisfaction.
This year, we’ll explore many ways of finishing or adding to your work with covers, containers, and other detailed elements. We will discuss methods for creating elements that work with the structure and content of your book and give it extra polish.
Get ready, because it will be an exciting year!
Program: Diagonal Pocket Folder with Penne Tompkins
To kick off our 2024 theme of It’s a Wrap, B.A.G. member Penne Tompkins will demonstrate one of her favorite things to fold – the Hedi Kyle Diagonal Pocket Fold structure. It’s a simple and elegant form that can be used as an enclosure or wrap.
This structure is so simple, one only needs a piece of paper, however as we will be adding a small folio a few other bits are needed. A bone folder can be handy, but one’s thumbnail is okay too.
Tools and materials:
- Paper: One sheet of text weight or slightly heavier paper; magazine covers work well as the glossy finish holds a nice crease (I have a collection of The New Yorker covers that I use frequently). Gift wrapping paper is another good recycle option. In the finished product, only one side is visible so a decorative sheet with one plain side makes a lovely finished piece.
- Size: the ideal ratio for this shape is 3:4 although other ratios will work so long as the width to height ratio is close to 3:4.
- Using a letter size sheet of copy paper, you would trim it to be 8.25″ x 11″
- For a larger overall size, 9″ x 12″ or 12″ x 16″ will work
- For the folio insert:
- 3 sheets of text weight paper measuring 3.5″ h x 5″ w
- Punching tool (awl)
- Needle
- Thread
We are offering a Zoom option for those unable to attend in person. If you’d like to attend the meeting over Zoom, please contact Elissa and she’ll send you the link.
December Meeting Reflections
Our December B.A.G. meeting was full of card tricks and camaraderie. It was our second hybrid meeting and we continue to learn how to make this work for everyone. Some who met in person marveled at how long it had been and how great it was to be together again in real life.
Several members shared clever movable/pop-up card ideas. More of us are learning how to present through Zoom. For those who don’t know, the people meeting live at the church view the demonstrations on a screen so they are seeing the same thing that everyone at home sees on their computer or other device.
Still to learn is how to improve audio communication between the live meeting and the virtual meeting. As time goes on we will determine what seems best for Book Arts Guild of Vermont.
In the meantime we look forward to It’s a Wrap!, the first meeting for this year’s theme of containers, enclosures, and finishing touches. We look forward to seeing you then! And Happy New Year!
B.A.G. Library Corner
A new year is like a blank page to make your own, and in her book The Decorated Page, Gwen Diehn shows us how to customize a blank book for whatever ideas we have in mind. Try removing, adding, or dividing pages; changing the spine; or lamination. What other ideas do you have for your blank page?
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
*** Support the Book Arts Guild of Vermont by becoming a member!
The Book Arts Guild of Vermont is supported by its members and you have kept us going for more than fifteen years. Our organization is solely run by volunteers and we do what we do because we love the book arts and we love B.A.G.. We continue to be inspired by our community, and the enthusiasm and talents that you bring to our meetings.
Membership dues are our main source of income and we hope that you will show that you value what we have to offer – quality programming, future exhibits, and more – by becoming a member. You get so much value out of your $35.00 and attending just one meeting can give you your full money’s worth.
Just to give you an idea of where membership dues go, here’s a breakdown of B.A.G.’s annual expenses:
- Zoom subscription: $159.90 per year
- Vimeo subscription: $84.00 per year
- Rent: $50.00 per month when we can return to in-person attendance
- Presenter honorarium: $35.00 per meeting
- Website and email newsletter: $100.00 per year
- Presenter reimbursement for supplies: Varies
We hope that you will renew your membership to help us with our annual expenses. You can download our membership form and send it in with your payment by check of $35.00 made out to the Book Arts Guild of Vermont:
Book Arts Guild of Vermont
c/o Ann Joppe-Mercure
10 Brookwood Dr
South Burlington, VT 05403
You can also pay your dues using Venmo – our account is BAGofVT, listed under businesses.
Thank you so much for your continued support of the guild. We wouldn’t be here without you.
*** Elissa Campbell will be teaching the Peek-a-Book Journal at CraftStudies in White River Junction on Sunday, January 21.
Create a journal with a double-needle Coptic binding, an intricate stitch that is visible on the spine of the book. Not only is the Coptic binding beautiful, but it also allows books to remain flat when opened. The book covers will include a cut-out window, which offers many opportunities for personalization – photos, pressed flowers, theater tickets, you name it!
All materials and tools will be provided.
For more information or to register, please visit the CraftStudies website.
Book Arts News
*** Helen Hiebert‘s membership program, The Paper Year, is open for enrollment now through January 9. Not only will you get to work on a new paper project each month, but you’ll also get access to all past projects from previous years (going back to 2021!). If you’re interested in learning more, visit Helen’s website.
Helen is also holding her annual Weaving Through Winter during the month for February. From February 1 – 28, you’ll be creating a weaving each day as you explore a variety of papers and weaving techniques. Helen describes the experience as a Daily Practice/Challenge/Adventure/Meditation.
For more information or to register, please visit Helen’s website.
*** Registration is open now through April 15 for the Paper and Book Intensive, an annual working sabbatical in the book arts, papermaking, and conservation for seasoned practitioners and motivated beginners.
For more than thirty years, participants have gathered together from around the world for two weeks of daily workshops to promote unusual levels of exchange, knowledge and inspiration. This year’s instructors include Ben Blount, Jeff Peachey, Mary Sullivan, and Erin Sweeney.
For more information or to apply, please visit the PBI website.
*** Save the date! The Focus on Book Arts conference is taking place June 26 – 30, 2024 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR. Registration will open in March.
Offering a diverse and exciting series of hands-on workshops – along with a Trade Show, Artists’ Fair, Keynote Speaker, Faculty-Staff Exhibit, and several evening receptions – the FOBA conference will offer a variety of enjoyable, interactive, in-person opportunities for networking and learning new skills in book arts.
For more information about this year’s workshops, check out the FOBA website.
*** Abecedarian Gallery is accepting submissions for Printed Page IV, an exhibition to be held at Spark Gallery in Denver’s Art District from March 28 – April 21, 2024.
This is a national juried exhibition, open to artists at least 18 years of age. Eligible are any hand-crafted book-works (editioned or unique) that utilize a form of traditional hand printed media as primary element. The deadline for submissions is February 12, 2024.
For more information, please visit the Abecedarian Gallery’s website.
*** Artists using books as a medium are invited to enter Books Undone 2: The Art of Altered Books. They anticipate a diverse exhibition of book forms that stretch the idea of the altered book. With books as a medium, artists may deconstruct, paint, stitch, photograph, bend, roll, collage, knit, digitally rework, gouge, or use other methods to create their works.
The exhibition will take place at the Gallery at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, PA and the juror is Scott McCarney.
Entries will be accepted from February 1 – 29, 2024. The exhibition dates are May 30 – July 21, 2024, with a public reception on June 2.
For more information, please visit the Gallery at Penn College website.
Stay-at-Home Fun
*** The Center for Book Arts is offering the Drum Leaf Binding and its Precedents with Scott McCarney on 3 Tuesdays, January 23, 30, and February 6.
Drum leaf binding and its various precedents all create a lay-flat structure ideal for displaying photographs and prints. This workshop will explore three techniques – a Japanese Album, a Japanese Butterfly book, and a Drum-Leaf binding – which all have similarly easy and ingenious modes of assembly.
After learning these structures, participants will then case their Drum-Leaf books into easily assembled quarter-cloth covers with throw-back spines. Since each page spread is a single folded folio, participants can print their images across the gutter with no interruption, making these techniques very popular with printmakers and photographers. Once completed, these books lie flat when opened, making them easy and comfortable to view. No previous bookbinding experience required!
Fun Fact: Drum leaf binding is a structure developed by artist and bookbinder Timothy Ely. He was inspired by his studio of vellum binding in England, where he observed how vellum was drummed to boards to minimize pulling.
For more information or to register, please visit the CBA website.
*** The Minnesota Center for Book Arts is offering the Illuminated Tunnel Book with Elaine Chu on January 31.
The tunnel book is a paper book structure based on an accordion fold. A set of paper panels – which can be decorated in infinite ways including collage, cut paper, found images, rubber stamps, and drawings – are layered to create a sense of depth, drama, and perspective.
LED lights may be added to increase the sense of depth and drama. Instruction for this virtual workshop will include examples and step-by-step instructions for creating the tunnel book structure.
For more information or to register, please visit the MCBA website.
The October meeting will be our annual visit to 
Our September meeting was full to the brim. We first shared our postcard challenge books as each book artist explained their inspiration and techniques. The time we set aside to examine the books was rich with conversation and admiration. Well done B.A.G. members!
The second part of our meeting was the tag team of 
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Our meeting will have two parts this month!
Hand lettering experts 
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