I have recently filled the position of interim Secretary / Membership Officer for the southeastern chapter of the Guild of Book Workers. I have also been asked to contribute to the chapter's newsletter which takes the form of a blog. For information about book arts related events and opportunities in the southeastern U.S., check out the SEGBW's newsletter.

For information on how to join the Guild of Book Workers and membership privileges, visit the National Guild of Book Worker's website. www.guildofbookworkers.org

A Calming Grey Quiet

As a participant in the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory’s Snail Mail Paper Trail exhibit, I received two sheets of handmade paper in the mail. I carried these pieces of paper around with me for weeks. I took them with me to work, they rode around in my car, sat on my living room couch, my bedside table and even spent some time in the dining room before they made their way into the studio where they were to be transformed in some way. I thought about how these pieces of paper had become a part of my daily life as I carried them around, waiting to discover what they could become.

As I spent time each day thinking about these pieces of paper and imagining what they could become, they became a calming grey quiet for me. They gave me the space to think and imagine. By the time they were taking book form, they were full of moments of quiet. I figured the only suitable marking would be a reminder to myself of what the paper brought to my day, a moment of calming grey quiet.

Common Box

The Common Box Project was a collaborative project initiated by Denver musician and recording artist John Common and Abecedarian Gallery owner and book artist Alicia Bailey. Each invited artist was provided with a wooden box and access to demos and lyrics from John Common and the Blinding Flashes of Light's upcoming album "Beautiful Empty" (September 2009).

While reading John Common’s lyrics and listening to his music, I found myself wanting to know more about the people in his neighborhood. Where did they come from? Where were they going? With those questions in mind, I selected excerpts from his lyrics that made me want to know more, lyrics that made me want to find out whose experience was intertwined in his melody.

The excerpts were then imbedded in images. Each image is one quadrant of a larger photograph, creating a slide of text and image that doubles as a puzzle piece. Each of the photographs that I chose were images that I had taken of locations that roused a strong sense of place.

After creating the lyric slides, I decided that I wanted to answer some of these questions for the viewer of the collaborative box project. I thought about the relationships formed by this project - there is John Common, the musician, Alicia Bailey, the curator-gallerist, me, the creator of the box and you, the viewer of the box. I thought about how this project connected us and how we each have a story to tell. I asked John and Alicia to share four specific thoughts, facts or memories from different points in their lives while I also came up with four from my life. These story pieces were imbedded in one quadrant of a map. When put together, these slides reveal the home state of each contributor.

If you decide to enter into this collaborative project, then you also become part of this puzzle. Buying this box completes the cycle, connects the pieces and entitles you to four slides that represent your story. You become the final piece of the puzzle that connects us. As the owner of the box, send me four details of your life, history or memories. Include where you grew up and I will send your remaining slides. The final slide is a colophon slide which details the purpose and processes of the project. The colophon slide will reveal how we are all connected.

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For more images visit http://www.paintedbuntingbooks.com/

Marking Time Exhibition

Handmade in Alabama was chosen to be included in the National Guild of Bookworkers traveling juried exhibition Marking Time.

The book set was also featured in a gallery talk by the Guild of Bookworkers exhibitions chair and internationally known book artist Karen Hanmer.



Marking Time opened at The Minnesota Center for Book Arts on May 15, 2009. The exhibition will travel to nine venues across the US from May 2009 until March 2011.

The exhibit was recently reviewed by Mary Abbe in the Minneapolis Star Tribune : Fifty handmade books explore the theme of time with verve and cunning.

View the exhibition schedule or order the full color catalog at

Marking Time Exhibition.

Handmade in Alabama

Handmade in Alabama explores the way our crafts change over time. Through interviews with three generational artisans, the book set proposes that over time, our crafts have moved from the primarily utilitarian to the primarily aesthetic. What was once work to meet a need is now leisure to meet a desire.

Letterpress and archival ink jet printed on the artist’s handmade 100% cotton paper. Divided into four sections, the book consists of three hardcover pamphlets each highlighting one of the generational artisans and one soft cover pamphlet serving as the introduction, artist’s commentary and extended colophon. Housed in a handmade clamshell box.

Book One: Miller Pottery Since 1865

Book Two: Estella Jackson, Split Oak Basketmaker

Book Three: Maxwell Banjo Company

Besides honoring the tradition of craft in Alabama, one of the intentions of this book project was to offer a glimpse of this culture to a wider audience, in the hope that someone unfamiliar with Alabama could have a real experience with the words of these traditional crafts people and see their process and environment...

I wanted the books to be a portal for these generational crafts people to speak directly to the reader. I chose excerpts from the interviews that I felt illustrated a change in craft over time through the generations of these three families.

In many cases, the decision to stay and carry on a family tradition is a decision made because of an awareness of the importance of doing so and not just a passive set of circumstances.

Front Covers of Handmade in Alabama setBack Covers of Handmade in Alabama set

In my eyes, these three people are beacons of the need to preserve culture and familial identity in an increasingly homogenized manufactured world.

Inside detail of books

letterpress and archival ink jet printing

*Handmade in Alabama was made possible by the goodwill and generosity of family and friends, especially Randy Arnold of Maxwell Banjo Company, Jude of Art By JulesMarie and Geoffrey, Amy Pirkle of Perkolator Press, Jessica Peterson of Paper Souvenir, Glenn House & Kathy Fetters, Eric Miller, Estella Jackson, Rick Olson of Coosa Creek Cinema, Word Way Press, The Alabama Folklife Association and New College.

New Website

Howdy from Painted Bunting Books!

Just wanted to let you all know that we have been coding for the last couple of months and are launching our new website this week.

It is being updated daily as we finish the design so be sure to check back for more content & images.

You can also continue to find us here on blogger.

Check us out at www.paintedbuntingbooks.com

We would love to hear constructive feedback as we finalize the design.

In fact, we'll send a custom handbound blank journal to whoever gives us the most constructive feedback! We've been looking at it way too long and need an outsiders point of view!

Thanks for your interest in Painted Bunting Books!

Linsey-Woolsey

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Linsey-Woolsey was created in the summer of 2008. Printed on my handmade linen/wool blend paper, the text was set in Adobe Garamond and Bickley Script. All of the images are my original intaglio prints and were printed on an etching press in Daniel Smith sepia etching ink. The binding is a modified link stitch sewn with linen thread. The closing tie is my handcarded and handspun linsey-woolsey yarn. Edition of 2.

Linsey-Woolsey was on display at The Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado for the juried shows Forces Unseen and Interweavings and was purchased by the Special Collections of Topeka County Public Library in Topeka, Kansas.

Paper Marbling in Santa Fe

Tom Leech - Palace Jewels - Acrylic on Handmade Paper (detail image of marbled paper)

While in New Mexico this summer, I had the opportunity to attend a paper marbling demonstration by Tom Leech at The Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe.

Tom is a papermaker, paper marbler and letterpress printer (among many other talents). He is the director of Palace Press located in the courtyard of the New Mexico History Museum. He recently curated the marbled paper exhibit Album Amicorum which is on display in the governor's office at The Round House in downtown Santa Fe.

We had a beautiful afternoon for paper marbling in the courtyard. Many thanks to Tom Leech for answering all my enthusiastic questions!

Linsey-Woolsey

Linsey-Woolsey, a book of intaglio prints on handmade Linen/Wool paper will be on display at The Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado from June 20 - September 13.

Linsey-Woolsey was chosen to be included in the juried show Forces Unseen as well as the upcoming show Interweavings at The Abecedarian Gallery

For the past eleven months, I have been experimenting with the blending of linen and wool fibers. As a yarn spinner, I began working with linen and wool by mixing the two raw fibers with wool hand cards and then spinning the blended fiber on my spinning wheel, producing Linsey-Woolsey yarn. I was fascinated with the idea of using one fiber from a plant and one from an animal. It produced such a strong and beautiful yarn, the fibers really seemed to compliment each other. I wondered why animal fibers were not more commonly used in papermaking. After questioning every papermaker I knew, I finally found someone who was also interested in this question. This paper is the product of a collaborative (Heidi Atwood - Might Could Press) experiment with linen rag and wool roving.

Intaglio Print on Linen/Wool Handmade Paper

Linum usitatissimum

After taking the fibers through several different mediums - spinning, papermaking, weaving - and representations - drawings, photographs, intaglio prints - and speaking to people as a living history demonstrator of spinning & weaving, I became very interested in the history and social use/interaction/reaction to these fibers. I was puzzled by the ideas that have been attached to the blending of these two fibers. Inspired by the varied facts and feelings associated with the blending of Linen and Wool, I set out to learn more about the social history of Linsey-Woolsey and to then blend these two disctinctly different stories together into book form.

Some of the elements of interest:

Linsey-Woolsey is a strong durable fabric made of two distinctly different fibers, one from a plant cellulose fiber and one from an animal protein fiber.

As a living history demonstrator, I found that children shared my fascination with spinning the plant and animal fibers together. The children loved touching the two raw fibers and feeling the differences in texture. They thought that the linen looked like human hair or horse hair and had a hard time believing that it came from the inside of a plant.

Twice, the Bible specifically prohibits fabric blended of linen and wool - Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11.

Colonial American quilts were typically backed with linsey-woolsey fabric. Many textile historians believe that "the linen and woolen quilts which we see today survived because the cloth was stronger than other weaves in use at the same time. " Dian Crayne Patches from the Past: Scraps of Fabric, Sewing & Quilting History

"The colonists were manufacturing serge, worsted, kersey, and linsey-woolsey fabrics and later woolen stockings. English industries suffering from the East India Company's import of cheap fabrics were not prepared to brook further competition from America. A flourishing ship building industry would enable the colonists to export manufactured woolen goods to Europe and other foreign markets to the detriment of English producers." Taxation in Colonial America: 1607-1775 by Alvin Rabushka

In Norman Yetman's Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives, James Lucas, age 104, describes the "clean rough clothes" that he wore "around at de Big House and to town". "I wore rough clothes. De pants was white Linsey-Woolsey... De womens wore linsey-woolsey dresses and long leggin's like de soldiers wear."

"I have a vivid recollection of the linsey-woolsey dress given to me every winter by Mrs. Flint. How I hated it! It was one of the badges of slavery." Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Autobiography by Harriet Jacobs

Linsey-Woolsey blends not only linen and wool fibers but also the social fabric of history and memory, fact and feelings.

Beyond Reading: Books As Art

Two of my books were included in the Beyond Reading: Books As Art Exhibit at the Suffolk Museum in Suffolk, Virginia. Unknown Ancestry and Miller Pottery Since 1865 were among 70 books from book artists in the U.S. and Canada. The exhibit runs from April 25 - June 7.

For more info, check out http://www.suffolkartleague.org/

Press for Beyond Reading: Books As Art:

"At a Glance" - By: Mark St. John Erickson - May 11 2008

A book is just a book is just a book; if you think about it like most people. Read a little more into these contemporary sculptures.

http://www.dailypress.com/features/dp-gl_mark_0511may11,0,5742998.column

"Suffolk flips for books" - By: Tracy Agnew - April 19, 2008

Some have words, and some don't. Some resemble conventional books, but most don't. The common thread is that all the books in the "Beyond Reading: Books as Art" exhibit at the Suffolk Museum are handmade.

Forty artists from all over the country submitted works for the exhibit. The Suffolk Museum exhibit runs in conjunction with "The Art of Printmaking" at the Red Thread Studio and "Letter Carriers: The Written Word in Art" at Shooting Star Gallery.

For more of this story:

http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/articles/2008/04/20/news/local/news4.txt

Handmade in Alabama - Book One - Miller Pottery Since 1865

Handmade in Alabama is a box set of image books that feature

Alabamians who spend their lives producing handmade treasures.

Miller Pottery Since 1865, Book One of the set, is a hardcover pamphlet binding printed on my handmade bleached abaca paper. The cover images are printed on faux vellum. All of the photographs are my original photography and were taken with a Pentax K1000 (35mm).

In December of 2004, Randy Arnold and I traveled to Brent, Alabama to interview and photograph Eric Miller of Miller Pottery. Eric, a fifth generation Alabama potter, welcomed us into his studio, an old brick structure with few interior walls. At one end of the building, there is a walk-in sunken kiln that is big enough to fire over a ton of clay. During the first afternoon that we spent with Eric, he shared many stories about what it was like growing up in the oldest pottery family in Alabama. Eric’s distinctive raspy laugh peppered his stories of traveling around the southeast in the 1960s with his father, selling stoneware pottery to Mom and Pop shops. Although the family owned and operated shops that once sold Miller pottery have been boarded up in favor of big box stores, the Millers still dig their own Alabama clay. Their craft is one of Alabama’s treasures. The Artist's Handmade Bleached Abaca was crafted in the Lost Arch Papermill in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in December 2007. Binding for Miller Pottery Since 1865 was completed in April 2008. Other materials include faux vellum, linen thread and binder's board.

The complete box set Handmade in Alabama is currently under construction.

Unknown Ancestry

Unknown Ancestry is an image driven narrative about family history. This hardcover pamphlet style book was chosen to be included in the upcoming exhibit "BEYOND READING: BOOKS AS ART" at the Suffolk Museum in Suffolk, Virginia. The exhibit will run from 4/25 - 6/6/08.

Suffolk Museum Information: http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/1162770

Antique Family Photographs

Antique Family Photographs and Letters

Family Documents and Letters Collage

Unknown Ancestry was also included in the PhotoWorks National Juried show at The Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado during the month of March 2008.

Printed on 100% cotton fiber paper with Fabriano Ingres end sheets, covered with printed faux vellum in an edition of 25.

Available from Painted Bunting Books or at The Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado.

Gallery Website - http://www.abecedariangallery.com/

Fiber / Book - A Handmade Paper Exhibit

I am co-curating a group exhibit of work created with handmade paper.

The show opens on Art Night - April 3rd at the One Night Only Artique in downtown Tuscaloosa.

I will also have work exhibited in the show -

1) An intaglio print of an image of my spinning wheel flyer with Linsey-Woolsey yarn (Linen/Wool blend) on the bobbin printed on Linen/Wool paper.

2) A series of photographs (traditionally printed on photo paper) of the papermaking process with a Handmade Paper Narrative printed on Linen/Wool paper.

3) I also hope to have finished a box set called Handmade in Alabama which is a set of 4 image books, each featuring a different traditional artisan - Book One is Miller Pottery Since 1865 which features my original photography of Eric Miller working in his studio. Book Two features split-oak basket maker Estella Jackson working with her grandchildren in her studio which was built by the Auburn Architecture Rural Studio. Books Three and Four are still in the planning stages - more info and images to follow soon. Printed on handmade bleached Abaca paper.

If you are in T-town next Thursday night, come by and enjoy handmade paper and all of it’s uses, live music and tasty treats! :)

Handmade Paper Narrative:

2/17/08

Making handmade paper in a communal paper mill reminds me that none of us are islands onto ourselves. We bleed into each other. The traces we leave behind imprint other people’s paper, hearts, experiences, lives. The paper that we made today was a linen/wool blend - Linsey-Woolsey. The finished formed sheets had little bits and pieces, little tiny fibers of the last several papermakers’ work. Tiny turquoise and blue fibers of cotton/linen among the oatmeal colored linen/wool paper. Unseen during the process, hidden somewhere in the pulp, they make their impression and are recognizable in the end. Maybe these unnoticed fibers are like the people in our lives – people we take for granted – don’t notice until the end. I wonder if there are people like that in my life. Are there people who I am taking for granted? I try hard to show my appreciation for people - that is certainly very important to me. But I wonder if I am forgetting someone or overlooking someone…

I am beginning to sense that I know more about papermaking than I thought I did. Today, I found myself able to diagnose things without much hesitation. I pay close attention to the characteristics of the paper and the papermaking process. Still I know that there are things that I miss. I know that in my finished paper the alignment of the fibers will reveal exactly where I am in my papermaking and in my life. With the inconsistencies in the finished sheets, my inexperience and the tiny flecks of previously made papers, my linsey-woolsey paper turned out beautifully.

Amy C. LeePard

PhotoWorks - A National Juried Show

Two of my books were chosen for the National Juried Show - PhotoWorks which is taking place at the Abecedarian Gallery in Denver during the month of March. New Mexico and Unknown Ancestry were included in this exhibit of Artists' Books and Prints. The exhibit was co-juried by printmaker/photographer Greg Cradick (Denver, CO) and photographer/book artist Karen Hanmer (Chicago, IL) (http://www.karenhanmer.com/).

Gallery Website - http://www.abecedariangallery.com/

I had the opportunity to spend the weekend in Colorado to attend the opening reception and lecture on Contemporary Trends in Artists' Books by Bill & Vickie Stewart. I met lots of interesting and charming people. A few of the people that I really enjoyed meeting and spending time with were Alicia Bailey, gallery owner and book artist (http://www.aliciabailey.com/), Amy Soverow, glass artist and book artist (http://www.soverowglass.com/) and Bill & Vicky Stewart of Vamp & Tramp Booksellers (http://www.vampandtramp.com/html/home.html).

New Mexico, a one-of-a-kind book, was purchased by Colorado College in Colorado Springs.






Unknown Ancestry is an image driven narrative about family history.







Unknown Ancestry


This hardcover book tells the story of a family mystery through antique photographs and text as image. The only text that appears in the book is in the form of original documents from the late 1800s through the mid 1900s and personal correspondence from the early 1900s up until a month before the book was constructed in March of 2007.

The book begins with a photograph from the 1880s of the couple who give life to our story, Robert Charles LeePard and Carrie Liz Carle. Through letters, pages of a family Bible, Western Union telegrams and many other documents, the pieces of a puzzle are put together. In a family’s attempt to uncover their roots which are buried beneath a runaway orphan, this family history memory book shares marriages, births, deaths and resurrections as the LeePard descendants dig up answers to their questions. The book ends with a collage of excerpts from e-mails between two women who have never met but are united by their search. The book carries the reader on a 150 year journey beginning with the birth of Robert Charles LeePard on Christmas day in 1857 to unknown parents in an unknown place. In 2007, his descendants collaborate to solve the mystery of their unknown ancestry. Edition of 25.

Cased-In

This whimsical cased-in blank cowboy book is handmade using 100% cotton text blocks, Bugra (Butter) end sheets, Brillianta (Green) quarter cloth, decorative paper for covers, Mullberry paper (consolidated spine), Mohawk superfine paper (spine stiffener), end bands, linen thread and binder's board.

Hardcover Pamphlet

The hardcover pamphlet is one of my favorite binding styles. I have always been drawn to books with an exposed spine. I love seeing the sewing along the spine and having the glimpse of pastedown paper. In this book, I chose a contrasting ingres paper for the pastedowns which draws the eye toward the spine and accentuates the sewing. Depending on the project, I sometimes choose to have the tie off on the inside of the book and other times on the outside spine. In this case, the tie off is in the center of the book. I have made hardcover pamphlets with as few as 16 pages or as many as 48. It is best used for books with a small number of pages. I use the hardcover pamphlet, most often, for image books.

Soft Cover Link Stitch Journals

The sewing pattern for the soft-cover link stitch looks very similar to the ethiopian binding. However, on the soft-cover link stitch, the sewing is not visible on the covers. Also on the soft-cover link stitch the sewing stations at the head and tail of the book are kettle stitches while the middle sewing stations are link stitches. The ethiopian binding is sewn with four link stitches using two lengths of thread with four curved needles, so you have a needle on each end of the thread. The soft-cover link stitch is sewn with only one length of thread on one needle. So while the stitching looks very similar on the two different books, each process is distinct.

The soft cover link stitch makes a great little notebook for a travel bag or purse to jot down ideas, websites, book titles, band names, important dates or whatever fun things you come across and want to remember later.

Ethiopian Books

Sewn board binding is one of the oldest binding styles. This is the Ethiopian style of sewn board binding. The exposed spine and intricate sewing pattern intrigued me even before I began my adventure into handmade book making. When I began building books by hand, the ethiopian book was the binding style that I was most excited to learn.

New Mexico Image Books Set

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This set of four image books was hand-crafted during the Spring of 2007. The case is a fold-out flatbox which holds four hardcover books. The case decoration is an inlayed crescent moon & mountain silhouette with a waxed linen "rope" tie. The images are printed on Southworth 100% Cotton Fiber paper with Ingres Fabriano end sheets. The photos were taken with a Pentax K1000 (35mm), a Holga and a Zero Image Pinhole camera (120 Medium Format). The cover images are printed on faux vellum. The books feature details of New Mexico that have inspired me.








Locations of the images include Central Ave. (Route 66) in Albuquerque, Madrid, Acoma Pueblo and rural areas surrounding Taos.

Adventures into the Handmade