What could be better if you love book arts than a week spent making books? Well, perhaps a week spent making books with a terrific book artist and great teacher. I'm fortunate to live in book artist Dan Essig's home town and just as lucky to have access to BookWorks, a wonderful book arts center, where Dan taught a "Book-a-Day" workshop this past week. About half of the students came from out-of-town, and most of those from outside the state, fairly typical for Dan's workshops.
Dan is best known for his books in wood and for his sculptural works (see The Penland Book of Handmade Books -- that's Dan's book on the cover), but this class covered books made with paper, papyrus, leather and mica, employing various bindings.
Here are some pix from Day 1. The book's cover houses two text blocks. It's not a dos-a-dos (a book that contains two text blocks, each text block having its own cover and the two books sharing a back cover); instead, the two books face in the same direction, and fold over each other. Each text block is attached to the spine with a long-stitch binding. We used paper made by papermaker Anne Marie Kennedy. It's wonderful, strong paper that behaves very much like leather, which makes it perfect for this fold-around cover.
Dan has tools, such as awls, available for sale. Some he's made, others are made by book artists and master toolmakers such as Jim Croft.
Above and below: two "bonus" long-stitch books from Dan's collection.
9 comments:
Clara,
Thanks for posting about Dan's workshop and for including great pictures. It seems the week was well spent just as we were sure it would be. I'm looking forward to the next installment. CHERYL
Clara,
What a great thing to do in the middle of February. I hope you post pix of the other 4 books you made!
Great pictures - I need to get some posted on my blog!!
Thank you for posting about this workshop. I'm in Australia and one of my dreams is to get to one of Dan's workshops though I can't really see that happening. It's great to see what you made - I do hope you post the other books you made there. I enjoy your blog very much.
Wow, that double book is so neat. :) One of these days I'd like to give that a try!
You are one lucky girl to get to take Dan's class. Great pictures and info.
Wish I could take one of Dan's workshops--the side-by-side book looks intriguing. Thanks for showing us the books you made. They look great!
P.S., I was checking out the book list in your profile--looks like we both like a lot of the same books. I'll definitely check out some of the titles that I haven't read yet. It's always good to find out about new books!
How cool that you took classes from Dan Essig! I have taken from one of his friends and colleagues and former teachers, Dolph Smith, also in the Penland Book. I would have loved to have one of Dan's awls he made from those giant thorns.
Happy Booking! Dana
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