Workshops

Looking for a workshop for your organziation, below is a sample of the classes I have taught in the past. I also teach private classes in my studio. Don’t see exactly what you are looking for, please contact me and we can dream up something unique for you!

 

Meditating on the Filled Page – Black out Journaling as meditation

Altering book pages has been around as an art practice for a very long time. Perhaps one of the most famous altered page books is A Humment created by Tom Phillips and it’s a long tradition still continued today by artists like Will Ashford. While my pages occasionally rise to being works of art, that’s not really why I make them.

I started doing these pages as a way to transition between my Real Life and my studio. Most days before I start work in my studio I meditate on a single book page, just letting my eyes wander until some of the words emerge from the sea of text. For me these page mediations have become a tool to trick my inner censor – I am not really doing any work, not being creative, just hanging out with this old page from a book. Now after more than a decade of using this process it has become a core part of how I approach my studio work.

In this workshop I will share my basic technique and talk about ways you can begin very simply to recycle and old book into a form of active meditation. This is work as play. You can’t do it “wrong” as there is no predetermined result. Any age level can do it – any person (self-defined creative or not) can do it. It requires only a few cheap materials and no experience or art training.

 

Recycled Journals – many versions!

I teach a variety of classes that use everyday materials, lunch bags, gift bags, cereal and candy boxes. These classes are perfect for beginners, as they don’t require any special tools and all the measuring is already done and students can focus on learning the sewing technique. They are also perfect for organisations with an environmental focus as they use recycled materials.

Creative Courage through Collage

A class for those interested in art journaling as a way to gain confidence in their decision making. This class uses recycled collage materials and a very simple binding technique. It also touches on mixed media techniques including painting and stamping.

Embroidery as Binding

These workshops  explore the intersection of sewn bindings with the possibilities contained in more traditional embroidery from many world traditions.

The term ’embroidered bookbinding’ usually describes a book bound in textile, decorated with a design made for the book and worked in coloured and metallic threads on both covers. But in these workshops participants will explore the possibilities of expanding embroidery techniques onto the exposed spine.

I offer many different levels of this technique which I designed in my own practice, featuring a variety of different patterns.

Previous experience with bookbinding is helpful but is not necessary

More Traditional Binding Classes

I also teach open and closed spine sewing techniques, including long stitch, coptic stitch, french link stitch, many styles of 1, 2 and 3 signature pamphlet bindings, islamic bindings, case binding and simplified binding. If you are interested in any of these classes please contact me for samples and information.