Mini movie about my bookbinding

linenlaid&felt: A Story about Bookbinding by Brent Nelson.

I'm excited to share this profile video shot last year in my bookbinding studio. Local film student Brent Nelson, who is now at the Art Institute of Seattle, sought me out as part of a series featuring local artists and musicians.

Although I'm now in my new studio, this provides a window into my work space and captures some of my thoughts about bookbinding. The soundtrack is "Easy Lemon," by Kevin MacLeod.

PULP paper goods shop opens in East Nashville

When your awesome new store brings out all your friends and a bunch of local book artists and printmakers for an opening night party — and your store is 200 square feet — it makes for a shoulder-to-shoulder party where almost everyone knows everybody's name.

That's how Jessica Maloan opened PULP on Friday, the first paper goods, prints, cards, and handmade books shop in East Nashville. Jessica, who prints as Pine Street Makery and helps organize Porter Flea shows, has become a close friend. Her knew store, about a mile from my home, shows her eclectic tastes and curator's eye. The opening is the latest good news for the neighborhood, and a nice complement to other new openings nearby, like Hey Rooster General Store.

Leading up to the opening, my own excitement grew as I shuttled some of my books, prints, and paper scrap packs to Jessica during the week. I got to see the final touches come together. Bright paint on the wall, followed by prints hung with care. There's great work here by Little Things Studio (recent transplant to Nashville), Camp Nevernice, and Sawtooth Printhouse.

For PULP updates, visit the shop on Facebook and then stop by at 729 Porter Road.

The Sketchbook Collective at Watkins College

Nashville's one and only festival for the book arts keeps on evolving. In its third year, I was proud to participate in the Handmade & Bound artists' market, and to take part in a bigger way in its annual gallery show.

The gallery show went in a fresh direction this year, showcasing the sketchbooks of local artists, architects, fashion designers, puppeteers, and children. I was also among local book artists who created interactive sketchbooks that attendees responded to, filling in with writings and drawings. Here's a look at some of the dozens of sketchbooks in the show, and you can see another 200 photos in an event photo album here.

The show, The Sketchbook Collective, actually got underway a few months in advance of its opening, with a series of art workshops all across Nashville.

With a mission of bringing art to underserved communities, myself and other book artists led classes teaching simple book structures and encouraging participants to fill them as sketchbooks and memory books. We taught children, senior citizens, and recent immigrants to Nashville. Our goal was to bring art to those who don't have access to art materials or the chance to explore the arts in their daily lives.

I taught several classes, including for children in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and at the Looby Center in North Nashville.

In another class, at Casa Azafran, we got to know a few mostly Spanish-speaking families from the center's parenting and English classes. (My husband got to test out his Spanish, including creating a cheat sheet of bookbinding terms.) Together, we bound simple, two-signature pamphlet stitch books. The covers of the books were made with watercolor paper, and students got to personalize their books, inside and out. The families took them home to fill them with personal stories, photographs, and other clippings that I think really helped them to stand out in the gallery.

On the night of the opening, I loved the chance to see workshop participants standing proudly near their books. One senior citizen set up shop in a chair near hers and spoke with most every passer-by.

Hundreds came through the gallery during the weekend, including quite a few who invested real time and effort into the interactive sketchbooks that called for their participation. Those four books, arranged on pedestals, called for all sorts of expressions.

In my book, "A Collection of Lines," I encouraged people to experiment with line drawings and patterns, as well as trying blind contour drawings of their friends. Another book asked them to share childhood memories, another invited collage work with provided magazine and newspaper clippings. I noticed one couple dedicate more than 20 minutes to doodling in the book I had bound!

UGA alumni connections

I've recently had a few opportunities to reconnect with my alma mater, the University of Georgia, where I first took bookbinding classes, both on campus and while studying abroad in Cortona, Italy.

And, to my surprise, two brand new UGA connections that I've had, thanks to the UGA Alumni Association, prompted little blog posts about my work!

A couple weeks ago, I went to an alumni event at South, a restaurant owned by a UGA grad. I hit it off with Daryan, an energetic alum in the middle of a cross-country road trip. Having dabbled in bookbinding one time himself (while pursuing a girl) he took a lot of interest in my work. Later, he blogged about my work and Nashville, and you can read his post here.

This week, the alumni association followed up with a post too. Although I know other study abroad students have gone on to art careers, I don't know if many students or alumni know much about the Cortona program, so I'm always happy to talk about the impact it had on me.

I'm in! Artclectic 2013 art show at University School of Nashville, Oct. 24-27

Good news! I've recently learned that I've been accepted into the Artclectic art show, Oct. 24 - 27, at the University School of Nashville. This unique four-day show begins with preview parties the first two nights, and then general admission showings over a weekend.

I participated last year for the first time, and I found every aspect of the experience rewarding. Because the show is hosted at a K-12 school, organizers emphasize art education. Last fall, I taught a bookbinding workshop to a class. And then I answered many questions from inquisitive students when they got their advanced showing of the entire show.

As you can see below, the show has an interesting look and feel. Every artist gets assistance from carpenters to build hanging displays. I'd never shown my work in quite this way.

I'll share more information about Artclectic as the show approaches. In the meantime, you can learn about the show at these two sites: on the web and on Facebook.

And I want to share photos from last fall. I was just too busy to get them posted at the time, but three favorites follow below, and you can find dozens more at this Facebook album: Artclectic 2012 Photos

Genie Maples | website

Melodie Grace | website

Lesley Patterson-Marx | website

Instagram photo albums — they're leather and they fit Polaroids too!

Are you on Instagram? Of course. Do you ever print your 'grams? I bet not.

But you should.

And I'm here to help. I've hinted at it recently, but now it's official: my leather Instagram photo albums are in my Etsy shop, and I know from personal experience how rewarding it has been to make prints of Instagrams and to preserve and display them in albums.

After researching the most common sizes for square prints, I settled on two standard sizes for my leather albums. Both hold 48 images. The larger fits 6 x 6 prints (as well as traditional 4 x 6 photos and Polaroids) and the smaller fits 2.5 x 2.5 images. No matter the size, the photos are easily mounted in with photo corners, scrapbooking adhesive, or double-sided tape. And the pages are made of an especially thick and sturdy watercolor paper.

I'd love to hear what you think about these albums. If you have any questions at all, please let me know. And to learn more about them and see more photos, please follow these links:

Etsy: Instagram photo albums page

Blog: How to print Instagrams

Facebook: Photo album

I've mentioned often how I put my own handmade books to use, and these Instagram albums have been no exception. I've already made one for my husband and one for myself and plan to create more in the future.

From sketching to screenprinting: A unique Coptic bookbinding project

It's no secret that I'm enamored with decorative and handmade papers. After all, the name of my studio, linenlaid&felt, is all about paper textures: linen, which is embossed with distinctive weaves; laid, which features impressed lines; and felt, with its mottled texture.

However, even with all of the gorgeous papers that are available, some patterns do surface often in bookbinding. That's why I'm so excited to share one of my recent projects.

I wanted to create something really unique, that no other book artist would have. I wanted to create my own patterned papers. This would allow me to bind books with all of the materials purposefully chosen, right down to patterns that I illustrated and printed by hand.

Inspired by a recent exhibit at The Frist Center in Nashville, I completed a series of sketches, followed by inked illustrations, then screenprinting onto papers and leathers, and finally books bound with those materials. A handful of these unique books are now available in my Etsy shop.

Here's a look at the process, step by step.

Step One: Sketching

Inspiration first struck during a visit to the Frist's Art of the Ancient Americas exhibit. I think I've always enjoyed ancient art more than most friends my age, perhaps because of the incredible collection that I grew up visiting at the Art Institute of Chicago.

After seeing the exhibit and a guided tour one time, I returned with my sketchbook (yes, one that I made by hand) and got to work on some sketches. I captured some shapes from Peru, took interest in a ceramic llama, and took a few turns drawing some Mexican homes. Ultimately, an Aztec pottery pattern was among many inspirations blended into patterns.

Step Two: Ink illustrations

On the day I pulled out my India Ink it didn't take long for every surface in my studio to become filled with illustrations that needed to dry. For some, I worked meticulously with a pencil grid, but for others, I worked very quickly, making slashes, dotted and dashed lines, and vaguely organic shapes.

Step Three: Screenprinting

If you've never screenprinted before, I can briefly describe the process. First, I turned my inked illustrations into transparencies using a photocopier. The transparency is then placed onto one of the fine mesh screens used by printers, which has been treated with light-sensitive emulsion. The screen is then exposed to light, which burns the pattern into the screen. When it comes time to print, ink can only pass through the areas you've chosen based on your pattern.

I took care to mix my own inks in colors to coordinate with all of the handmade Lokta papers that I brought into the print studio for this project.

I printed nearly 100 sheets and also dabbled with screenprinting onto leather.

Step Four: Binding

Once I had all of these materials at hand, I had a lot of momentum to begin binding. I also used this as an opportunity to sift through my paper collection to explore color combinations. I also decided to use the four-needle Coptic binding style, which allows for two thread colors along the spine, and a chance to go even further with color schemes while quite literally bringing everything together.

I'm excited to use these screenprinted papers in the future. For now, I've bound four Coptic books with the screenprinted papers, and four with screenprinted leather covers. I hope you'll take a look at each one in the shop and share them with friends!

A video glimpse of my latest books

Vimeo video: linenlaid&felt at Porter Flea AirCraft in Nashville

One of the best parts of attending art shows is having a reason to reflect on all the work that goes into each one, and to get to see all of my newest books in one place. Inevitably, I stay busy in the weeks before a show, and the recent Porter Flea was no different.

What was unique, as captured in the brief behind-the-scenes video above, was how many completely new styles of books I got to debut at the show. I'll be sharing more about those in the coming days here on the blog, as well as posting more books in my Etsy shop.

Until then, please let me know, in the comments, what you think about this video. It's a little different for the blog, I know, but my husband and I couldn't resist capturing some images at the show!

Porter Flea AirCraft in review

I have always loved the Porter Flea show in Nashville, even before I took part. In fact, the first ever Porter Flea took place on the first weekend we moved to the city. Since I have been participating, the show has gotten bigger and better, and this time around I was especially excited to debut a lot of fresh work. Most of what I showed was new, and after a very busy week, I got to display everything in a completely new booth setup, with new signage, shelving and tablecloths.

 

In my latest work, I've been incorporating screenprinting, including for my "Up, Up, and Away" line of travel journals. The idea for these little journals was jumpstarted by the show's organizers, who asked that each returning artist create an "exclusive" product for the show. A few of us chose aviation themes because the event was hosted in our neighborhood's former airport. My travel journals (above) were screenprinted with an original illustration of a Beechcraft airplane.

I also finished a few Coptic bound books with screenprinted covers. For these (see the magenta patterned book below), I began with sketches from a trip to the Frist Center, which inspired the repeating patterns that I screenprinted onto a variety of handmade lokta papers, and used to wrap the book covers. I'll share more about this process soon.

And I can't forget to mention my new Instagram photo albums. These square format leather books are perfect for Instagram and Polaroid prints. I've bound one for my husband's photos and one for mine, and I proudly displayed those as examples, garnering many excited responses. I was also happy to meet show-goers who also believe in printing out their digital photos, which really does make the images more special.

I've mentioned that the show took place at Cornelia Fort Airpark, a place with a very interesting history. I think the venue worked really well. Lots of space, wide aisles, and a playful setup allowed people to enjoy the art and have a chance to visit one of the most unusual, little-known places in the neighborhood. 

We did get some rain — two short downpours and a third lengthy one — but the hangars held up well, and people were able to flock indoors with plenty of space.

I enjoyed seeing some of my Porter Flea friends, including Simon & Ruby, 400 Moons, and Monday Mint, as well as a new art show friend, Allison, of Shutters and Shuttles, with whom I've been recently collaborating.

It was also great to see Dolan Geiman at the Flea for the first time. Lucky for us, we were positioned within sight of his work, including some of his latest monumental collages.

 

Finally, as always, there are tons of other great photos from the event. I've shared only a few of my own here, but you can see more at these links:

:: Facebook photo album
:: Porter Flea photo album
:: Photo booth video by Claudia Kay

Porter Flea AirCraft launches in East Nashville

Porter Flea AirCraft 2013, featuring 80 artists, began with a Friday night preview party, yielding tons of amazing photos. I'll post more about the show soon — I've still got the main show on Saturday to come — but for now, I've pulled together my favorite images by crowdsourcing from Instagram and Twitter in this Storify gallery. Enjoy!

Update: Saturday was a big success, with thousands of festival-goers descending on East Nashville for the market. I've enjoyed looking through the two most-used hashtags, #aircraft2013 and #porterflea, and have pulled together my absolute favorite photos from Instagram. Click through the slideshow below to see the best of the best from AirCraft 2013.