A bookbinder’s confession

I recently had an interesting conversation with Mimi, my CSA farmer. I went to the farm for some pick-your-own time and had just finished collecting an array of red flowers. I asked Mimi if she ever picked her own flowers and she replied that she rarely did. She said that whenever she looked at the [...]

Elissa’s Picks for Vermont Open Studio Weekend

As I mentioned in my last post, this time of year I’m usually busy prepping for Vermont’s upcoming Open Studio Weekend. As this weekend gets closer, I continue to feel bummed about not participating this year.
Meh.
In my last post, I listed the book arts studios I’d visit if I were touring this weekend. Of course, [...]

Break out the cheese – I just finished my inventory!

I’m not sure if I should be embarrassed or proud.
I just finished the inventory of my studio for the 2008 tax year. I’ve been working from home for 3 months now and it took me longer to do my inventory this year than it did last year – when I was working full-time out of [...]

Vermont North by Hand

I love Vermont this time of year. If there’s one thing that never ceases to amaze me, it’s the colors of autumn foliage. I am guilty of driving at an irritatingly slow pace, staring out of my car window like I’ve never seen trees before. Of course, I’m also guilty of cursing under my breath [...]

Open Studio Weekend – recap

I survived Open Studio Weekend! Well, most of me did. My feet have seceded from my body and are now hitchhiking down I-89, looking for a new place to live. I had so much fun meeting people – everyone who does the tour is so friendly. You never get people in a bad mood. I [...]

Open Studio Weekend update #2, AKA: The Value of Snacks

I’ve made some progress over the last few days with regards to my preparations for Open Studio Weekend. Here’s my revised to-do list:

Clean my studio (meh)
Choose item for visitor raffle
Purchase snacks for visitors (good snacks = happy visitors)
Make scrap bags Make more scrap bags
Make a whole bunch of accordion books (only 12 more to go)
Finish [...]

Open Studio Weekend update #1

Yesterday I had my first official “Oh crap!” moment with regards to Open Studio Weekend. I have one week left. My studio looks like a bookbinding bomb hit it. There is paper everywhere. I took a picture of my studio and asked my husband if I should include it in this post. He shook his [...]

Countdown to Open Studio Weekend

I woke up this morning and went down to my studio – in the image at left, you can see what greeted me. Ugh – Open Studio Weekend is less than two weeks away. I now admit the following – I am the Queen of the Traveling Pile. If I’m done with something, I’ll probably [...]

Studio Tour (again) – the library

A lot of the bookbinding skills I’ve developed over the years have come from reading books about bookbinding. Many of them feature the same bindings, but I can’t resist them. I need to have a big fat buffet at my disposal. So I have an ever-growing library of bookbinding and book/paper-related books. You can see [...]

Studio tour, continued

I decided to share a bit more about my bookbinding studio. At right you can see a picture of one of my studio closets (I have two). This closet is the primary storage area for my studio (not including paper – I use my flat files for that). As you can see, I am a [...]