The Reading Room

That was fun!

The reception was this evening from 5-7 PM--at least, officially it ended at 7. People stayed until past 7:30, and that was wonderful.

It was much, much busier than I expected, sometimes quite crowded, and people were really looking at the books, filling the chairs as they read them, or standing by the shelves. It was great!

A couple of people made me very happy by walking out, looking back and saying, "Oh, I didn't see that one!" and reentering.

Thank you to everyone who came!

And if you couldn't make it to the reception, or if you made it but couldn't see everything, it's not too late: The show runs through the 21st.

I took the picture just at the beginning of the show, after that, it got very busy!

You are Invited

To The Reading Room:


From November 3 through November 21, the Orange Coast College student gallery will be turned into a library. It is full of work by students past and present. Come in, sit down, and page through any or all of over sixty handmade pieces.



Orange Coast College Project Gallery
(located in the OCC Fine Arts Center, Merrimac Rd., next to Starbucks)

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 6, 5-7pm

Gallery Hours: M,T,W,Th 10am-4pm, T 6-8pm

Setting Up the Show

I've mentioned earlier that Orange Coast College is doing a book arts show featuring books made by students over the last few years.

It's this month, from today til the 21st, and we had quite a bit to do to get ready for it.

First of all, we wanted the books to be accessible to people which meant making a space where the books could both be on display and within reach.

Second, we wanted an inviting place. So, last Tuesday, the class spent several hours browsing through the drama department's collection (everything from "Mouse poison" to "Old fashioned telephones" and man-eating plants was available on the shelves--I would have loved to stay longer just looking at the labels) and carrying our finds over to the room. There are some lovely pieces there now, an old-fashioned couch, a chaise lounge, some comfortable chairs, just waiting for people to come in and sit down.

Bookshelves proved to be in short supply, so several of us ended up coming back on Sunday to bring and/or set up shelves and an additional supply of tables, rugs, and plants (Guess who brought those last?). We spent a lot of time studying the room, carrying shelves back and forth and re-arranging the rugs to get the look we wanted.

It also took a while figuring out how to display some of the pieces. My own contribution is, I finally realized, thirteen feet long and *not* the easiest to find shelf space for when it is fully displayed. Someone else made a lovely book with images from Hawaian quilts--one I still need to look at in greater detail, the images are so complex--and an accompanying smaller book that needed extra

care. A small portion had to go behind glass.

The final results are, I think, well worth the time it took. I do hope plenty of people can come to the opening on Thursday night.


Pictures: Courtney, Kim, and Keri carefully hanging a piece; Keri arranging the tea things opposite an altered Alice in Wonderland book, me taking advantage of the chance to sit down and look at one of the books.

No Books Were Harmed in the Making of This Post

I've spent the last month working on "Watch Out for Whales," a rhyme book illustrated with collage images. It started out to be a stab stitch book and ended up an accordion book because I got to liking the bright illustrations and thought they looked well spread out on the table.I've had a lot of fun and, of course, some frustration. The fun is obvious: What's not to like about painting, cutting, and gluing?

The frustration? Well, gluing doesn't *always* work as well as one would like. I've had a hard time getting the back and front to lie flat together against the joining ribbons. I've been working on is an accordion book & a fairly big one. I've been saying all along that what I really need is somewhere to spread it out flat, but I just didn't have one. Today, by co-opting the kitchen table, four tray tables, and about half the books on that shelf you see back there--the entire gardening section, several phonebooks, most of the hardcover science fiction and fantasy, numerous mysteries, plus a few "assorted," and by taking up the entire room, I managed.

I think it worked, too, and just in time, as the book goes off to the show tomorrow. There, I am afraid, it will have to go on the "Do Not Touch" shelf. I wanted people to be able to handle it, but with so many layers of paper involved, the glue just doesn't dry quite fast enough and I do not think I quite trust it in people's hands. Not yet, anyway.

This is also the anxious mama speaking: The other two books I have in the show, stab stitch books I do want people to hold, are older and I've had the chance to let go a bit. "Whales" is still new, still my baby, unsupplanted as yet by other projects.

Oh: And thanks to the careful use of the paintbrush and miles of wax paper, no books were harmed in the process. Everyone is back on the shelves and glue-free. In fact, the books may be better off than they were before: I dusted them a bit as I took them down and put them back.

Paste Paper

I'm finally taking that Book Arts class I've been eyeing for the last several years.

The room smells of pastels and paste and paper and we all have bags full of scissors, crayons, colored pencils, and an assortment of other Grown Up art materials.

There's a little time for lecture, some time for demonstration, and a long spell of quite happily making stuff.

We've made books from single sheets of paper, several folds, and one cut, books from boxes, and accordion books. This week the focus is on paper, so today we learned paste paper painting, which is a sort of grown up version of finger painting, very messy, and a lot of fun. Tomorrow we'll make paper and bleach already made colored paper.

Oh, and I own an awl now. I've always wanted to own an awl.