Enclosure and Design: the Book Arts Intensive … returns!

Friday, September 10th, 2021 - Sunday, September 12th, 2021

with Cynthia McGuirl, Abbie Read, Joelle Webber and Sandy Weisman

at 26 Split Rock Cove

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September 6, 2021: The Book Arts Intensive is fully enrolled! Thank you for your interest.

Three chockfull days of designing papers, making books, and constructing boxes to enclose them. We could go on for days and days, but we hope this offering will entice you back to 26 Split Rock Cove in person, post-pandemic. Sign up for just one day or all three!

Friday is all about surface design. Paste papers taught by Abbie Read, who has been perfecting the art of the paste paper for several years. Mark-making, color mixing and layering, textures and tools – these are the hallmarks of paste paper design. Use your papers in the days to come, or take them home for your own projects this fall.

Saturday is design and structure. Through two very unique structures, you will leave the day with books that present the content through their sculptural focus. In the morning, Cindy McGuirl will teach pyramid books.  As you can see from the photos, there are many possibilities inside and out for your own exploration of content. In the afternoon, Sandy Weisman will teach the flag book structure, both two and three tiers of flags in two different structures. This book design will give you a few new tricks and both simple and more complex ways to think about the flag book. We will use yesterday’s papers (among others), preparing to box them on Sunday. This day is the perfect intersection between design and enclosure, or it’s design and enclosure all in one day!

Sunday.  Boxing your books is another category, indeed. Joelle Webber, owner of Mermaid Bindery, is the master! She will lead us through a lidded box project you will want to learn (I want to know !!). Demystifying the process for us, we’ll enclose our newly made books in a beautiful box.

We will work from 9:30 am until 5:00 pm each day. Please bring a bag lunch. There is a $15.00 materials fee for each day. NOTE: You may sign up for any single day or sign up for all three. Please register accordingly in the signup section below (if you have any problems with this on my website, please contact me at sandy@26splitrockcove.com).

About the Artists: 

CYNTHIA MCGUIRL works with fiber, metal, and paper using the techniques of stitching, hammering, and bookbinding, discovering a back and forth exchange between creating narrative images and creating objects. Cindy states, “I try to work in an intuitive way when creating books. One image or word leads to another, and when I feel it has come together completely, the book is done. I hope people find the narrative informative and entertaining, but that it also inspires them to think about their own stories.”

ABBIE READ works in collage, book arts, and mixed media sculpture, which usually incorporates old and discarded books as well as found objects. She has taught art in high school and college; she now teaches workshops relating to Book Arts in the mid-coast Maine area. She lives and works in Appleton, in her studio on Appleton Ridge.

JOELLE WEBBER creates artist books that combine her almost forty years of collecting binding techniques with her love of philosophy, nature, writing and sculpture. She is the owner of Mermaid Bindery.

SANDY WEISMAN is a poet and visual artist, creating artist books and collages that use both word and image. Her poetry has been included in two anthologies and several other journals, including Off the Coast, the Aurorean, and Muddy River Review. Her artist books and mixed media collages have been exhibited in the Boston area and in Maine.

Workshop Location