Fall 2016 Classes at Two Hands Paperie

As usual, Two Hands Paperie currently has a stellar class lineup. I'm teaching two classes this round. 

Light It Up! Paper Fireflies, September 11, 12:30-4:30 

Sewable electronics combine with paper collage in this beautiful and nostalgic project.

Here's a few pics from the last class:

And here's a video of the fireflies in action:

Lap Link Binding, September 25, 11-4:30

This type of book structure is so satisfying to complete - the stitch pattern is utilitarian AND good-looking! I break the technique down into digestible sections using sewing templates for practice, and pre-cut materials for ease of learning. One of my favorite classes to teach, for sure!

Check out the complete Two Hands Paperie Class Schedule - classes where you can learn:

Paper Making, Book Arts, Drawing, Letterpress, Zentangle, Paper Flowers, Encaustic Painting, Mixed Media, Calligraphy, Woodblock Printing, Paper Arts, Art Technique, Visual Journaling, and Image Transfer Technique

...to name a few!

Exposed Spine Stitching

Digging how this promo shot turned out. I love teaching these exposed spine bindings and hope to offer classes featuring this technique for as long as there is interest.

Woodland Creatures Pajaki

I was keen to make another nursery pajaki, and my friend's baby shower was right in the line of fire! She decided on a gender-neutral woodland theme including turquoise, orange, and gray. I used little green leaf sequins in addition to dresden trim stars from Two Hands Paperie and paper leaves I hand cut. I found some cross-cut discs from branches, and involved lots of paper punched circles and stars. The real feature was the super-cute bottlebrush animals I assembled from two import shops on Amazon. To get the animals to hang on the same level, I needed to compare their height. Mini woodland creature lineup for the measurements! Squirrel was tall, mouse was small. Skunk, rabbit, and fox fell in between. Love all the woodsy details in this one.

Light It Up! Shadowbox Class - Feb 20, 2016

This class was a really neat iteration of the Light It Up! series I've been teaching at Two Hands Paperie.  The project combined a simple image transfer technique on transparency, with sewable electronic LED lights from SparkFun. We used a pre-made stretched painter's canvases as a base, stitched the electrical components to the canvas, and overlaid the transparencies and other collage material. This class offered a lot of opportunity for creative variance, and I was impressed with the unique qualities in everyone's projects. This class was extra-fun, I hope to offer it again sometime!

Memory Books

Two projects in a row - both memory books. Memory books surely are my most poignant commission work. I so deeply appreciate the connection I get to make to the person bring remembered, in addition to connecting with their loved ones (for whom the book is really for). I never would have guessed that a simple act like bookbinding could impart this level of emotional involvement but creating memory books continues to truly be my honor. Every time. 

I never fail to be amazed by the breadth of diversity among commission work. These two memory books are shining examples of such.

 The first book shown here features pages which were given out to loved ones to fill with content. Friends and family decorated the pages with writing, drawing, and photos. The completed pages were bound together with ribbon. Bright and cheerful colors pay homage to a young man who died at 22. I poured love for a stranger into the binding of this book for his parents. 

The other memory book was in honor of a loving father and outstanding husband. He finally succumbed to ALS after a long campaign. His wife told me all about the celebrations his life-long friends were able to have in his name - gatherings all over the country, including a magical outdoor festival with music and fireflies. He was an accomplished woodworker and his wife was really hoping to incorporate some aspect of wood into the book. I had been saving some special wood veneer for just the right project, and was enthused to put it to use in this extra large album. She asked that I bind the blank book in time for her trip to visit her daughter and son. They were going to spend their time together filling the album with content they had been gathering in his memory. I've obscured the nameplate in this photo for privacy, but the plate read his name and dates of life. The emotional involvement I had with this one really inspired the execution of using unconventional materials with the extra large format. His widow really wanted this book to be special, and I am so pleased and honored that it turned out beautifully. Sometimes, I really do feel like books make themselves - this definitely was the case with this one.

Amazing Commission Project

In the early 1980s, an artist father lovingly illustrated the paper lunch sacks he sent with his 3 kids to school everyday. They kept many of them (especially the really great ones!) and all these years later, his daughter wanted to have them bound together as an artist book to gift to him, and also display as part of a 2016 retrospective show honoring his life's work.

I customized archival sleeves to fit the bags exactly, with a few conjoined bi-folds and tri-folds to keep diptychs and triptychs in order. Containing about 150 bags, the structure necessitated two large ring binders, and hefty magnets to latch everything together. I could hardly believe how much bookcloth this thing consumed!

The cover image is a composite of one of the original images, and a handwritten "Lunch" which is what the client chose to title the book. I really enjoyed the collaborative process while executing this project, and am proud of the (literal) size of this achievement!

Coptic Stitch - Simplified! Oct 11, 2015

This class was offered last October. I've been teaching these stitch-focused classes using practice templates and pre-torn/pre-folded textblock signatures. It has really improved the participant's stitching quality, especially for those who have never tried something like this before.

I used to teach this class over two class sessions, but we made these beautiful books in one afternoon!

I hope to keep offering classes based on this exposed-spine technique. They are beautiful, satisfying to make, and the books they yield are incredibly versatile and useful.

Kid's Pajaki

Warning... Pajaki are addicting. You may find yourself attempting to incorporate them into your life as much as possible. Case in point - the kid's pajaki kit I brought with me when visiting my 5 and 7 year old nieces!

This kit included: white paper straws, washi tape, XL star sequins, embroidery hoop, waxed linen thread, paper scraps, and paper punches.

Quality-time quote (in reference to the waxed linen thread): "Is this real earwax, or just regular wax?"