Artist
It was a gift to be able to work with students every day for five weeks this past summer, and introduce them to the book arts as well as other media. As a teaching artist, we often only see students once a week, so to be able to watch them learn and grow on a daily basis was a thrill!
Surrounded by scads of art supplies, tools and materials, 5-6 year old students in our “Fairy Tales” and “Make Your own Books” classes had an ideal situation for creating!
This outstandingly creative young student in “Make Your Own Books” certainly did just that, using her flag book to try out all kinds of drawing and painting media while exploring color, shape, line and texture.
Each flag page held a different combination of media, including acrylic and watercolor paints, pastels, crayons and markers.
Students created books large and small, including tiny ones that would fit in a (albeit rather large) matchbox!
Mixed media reigned supreme, such as combining letter stickers with markers and paint pens.
Oops! Markers on the project, not on your fingers!
Making and embellishing file folder portfolios was our first project. Some students created so many books they made a second portfolio to hold them!
A brilliantly bookish and imaginatively magical time was had by all!
Goodbye summer program, until next year!
It was a gift to be able to work with students every day for five weeks this past summer, and introduce them to the book arts as well as other media. As a teaching artist, we often only see students once a week, so to be able to watch them learn and grow on a daily basis was a thrill!
In our “Creating Unique Handmade Books” class, students aged 6-8 learned and created a variety of book structures while exploring all sorts of materials. They learned about folding, gluing, sewing, and book structures including accordion, single signature, flag book, and side binding.
At the end of our time together, parents were invited to celebrate their bookish achievements, and a good time was had by all!
We used a wide variety of materials to create our books, including all sorts of papers, ribbon, stickers, washi tapes, feathers, glues, drawing and writing tools and more!
The accordion or concertina fold is primary in many bookmaking structures. Students learned this process then applied it to several projects.
Our wonderful TA wrote personal notes to all the students!
Single signature (a gathering of pages sewn together through the fold) structures were fun for the students to create, because they looked to them like “real” books.
We invited families to join us the second to last day of class to see all the students had created.
This student adores pattern and collage and had an impressive array of books featuring these by the end of our class session.
Mother and daughter peruse her handmade books together.
A young student shines as she shares her accordion-folded and flag books with her parents.
Sharing books with Dad…this student created so many books he made a second portfolio to hold them all!
It was hard to say goodbye after such storied adventures this summer, but it is my hope that these students will continue to exercise their imaginations as they make books and develop their skills and creativity.
They are well on their way!
It was a rich and fascinating experience to work with 11-14 year olds in creating books this summer…in our class, “The Art of the Book“.
I had the opportunity to work with students every day for an hour, for 5 weeks straight, and it was joy!
Our 14 year old maker…loves PINK!
Flag book extraordinaire!
Pink accents painted on illustrations taken from book being altered.
Beautiful marbling work done on watercolor paper cover of this 11 year old maker’s side-bound book.
This same 11 year old (going into 6th grade) is an amazing painter, self-taught to some extent.
She spontaneously decided she would create this astounding painting on her multi-colored accordion fold book with terrific results.
Students created their own “book cloths” through painting with acrylic on canvas, and using it as a binding for their single signature books, done with real book board.
CHAPTERS I: “Chromatic Interactions”
The wonderful Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” through May 7, 2017.
I had the opportunity of creating an interactive book for the show, one that potentially 8000 viewers/participants could become co-creators of by adding and subtracting color, pattern, graphics and text as they so chose.
I created the flag book structure from book board (covers),
watercolor paper (accordion spine), rice paper (covering the spine),
repurposed file folders (torn into pieces to “cover the covers” and folded to form the flag page pockets), linen thread (to stitch the flag pages/pockets), Lineco Neutral pH Adhesive (for gluing) ,
and colored file cards (to write and draw upon, and insert into the pockets in varied arrangements), to create “Chromatic Interactions”.
I aligned the ‘windows” in the covers, with the windows cut out of the flag book pockets,
so that the file cards would read through the front and back cover apertures.
The results of offering the public the opportunity to express themselves through interacting with the book were fascinating.
I was moved that participants were expressing their feelings about current events, and the “state of the nation”. 
Some just got silly and had fun.
Some asked profound questions…reflecting what is on the collective mind.
Some waxed poetic.
And one young artist expressed her feelings through creating a bookmark, as all the windows were filled!
Perhaps the greatest treasure of all…
Thank you Inez!
And thank you to the wonderful Holly Jerger, curator, for this amazing opportunity to give CAFAM viewers a voice..I am looking forward to seeing what else they have to say.