May Workshops at The Morgan Conservatory

The Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio has just announced their Spring and Summer workshops for 2014. It is an incredible lineup, I think there are 28 different workshops this time around! You can check out the entire list on their website:
http://morganconservatory.org.

I'm excited to be part of the fun. I'm going to be in Cleveland in May, checking out the Morgan Conservatory in person. Then I'm going to teach a couple workshops for them! The first one is May 24th, 2014. I'll be doing a workshop on the Secret Belgian Binding. Details and registration information here: morganconservatory.org/event/secret-belgian-binding/.

Then on May 25th, I'll be teaching a Japanese Bookbinding workshop where we will cover two lesser-known Japanese structures. Details and registration info here: http://morganconservatory.org/event/japanese-bookbinding/

Red Things

Some red things from my Flickr photostream for Feb 14th.

My red photostream:
www.flickr.com/photos/myhandboundbooks/tags/red/

It's all in the details

I have known this for a long time. When I'm making books, I love the little details. I love them independently of the finished book. I think that is why I have always been drawn to structure, more than content. In fact, when I first started showing books that I had made and people asked what the book was for, I was baffled by the question. I didn't think about the book's future purpose when I was making it. I was only interested in the structural details. During the past decade, though, I have forced myself to be more aware of the book's future purpose.

It was an introduction to Japanese bookbinding that really captured me, way back when, and which I have explored in great depth over the years. Having recently been making some samples of various traditional Japanese techniques has reminded me about some of those little details that I fell in love with when I first started making books. Here are a few details that I noticed on my worktable this week and had to snap photos...

Like these twisted paper tackets and the texture of Japanese paper...

And perfect turn-ins and corners, or close enough!

And the best square knots ever, made with flat paper cords...