The finished product of "Bookbinding: in the Beginning" at the Haliburton School of the Arts - Summer 2007.
An Historical Hybrid that shows features from the Carolingian and Byzantine periods, the handmade paper bookblock was sewn on split thongs of alum tawed pigskin and bound in full goatskin with gold leaf showing through cut away pieces of the cover leather. Double boards lined with papyrus sandwich bone pegs which secure brass clasps with braided straps. Blind lines were tooled into the leather after covering. Size about 6" tall x 4 1/4" wide

electronic bento box

"Electronic Bento Box" was created in 2006 for an exhibition sponsored by the Japanese Paper Place called "The Power of Two". 14 artists were given sheets of hand-made Japanese paper and asked to decorate them in the medium of their choice. These papers were then distributed by lottery to 14 other artists who were asked to turn the sheet into an object in their own chosen medium. The results ranged from pieces of furniture to a delicate little hanging mobile.

I chose a paper that had been printed by Susan Low Beer, who remarked in passing that it reminded her of an "electric hedge". To me it suggested a kind of light-up sushi but I liked the "electric" reference, hence the title.

Ossian

This one has just been sent off to the Society of Bookbinders competition in England. "Ossian" purported to be a translation from the Gaelic of ancient epic poetry of the Scottish Highlands, brought to light by the researches of its "translator" James MacPherson. The collection, which romanticized the distant past of the Highlands, was a great critical and popular success.

After MacPherson's death a committee established that in fact the work was an elaborate fabrication. The poet Ossian never existed and MacPherson had written the verse following the style of Gaelic poems that he had liberally edited and into which he had inserted passages of his own.

This is a millimetre binding with goatskin at the head and tail edges and the spine and sides covered in one of my decorated papers that I thought suggested mist-enshrouded Highland castles. There is even an anachronistic hint of plaid on the spine if you care to look for it.

Geldhaus

Geldhaus was created for a fundraising auction to benefit Dixon Hall's "Out of the Cold" program in Winter 2006. The theme for the auction pieces was housing so a combination of the ideas of money and shelter seemed appropriate. Geldhaus is a piggy bank with an architectural look and name.

Babel Brand Patented Library Flakes appeared in "Labyrint" a Borgesian book arts exhibition in Stockholm from Nov 06 - Jan 07