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 set
Back Covers of Handmade in Alabama set
Back Covers of Handmade in Alabama setIn 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.
Handmade in Alabama is a box set of image books that feature
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.