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Bedside Reading
Periodically, I post a list of what I'm reading. Sometimes the books are piled up by the bed and I have to sort through them to see what's actually there. I generally graze from book to book. The...
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Single Flag Postcard Book
We took a little trip to San Francisco last Sunday to catch the end of the special Jewel City: Panama-Pacific exhibit at the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park as well as a powerful exhibit of Robert...
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If We're Still Talking about It…
Oh, how critics love to proclaim the death of something! What is that morbid fascination with dying that we must apply it to inanimate objects, places, activities? I am both irritated and weary at the...
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These Small Steps (with a Nod to a Bone Folder)
As I was in production making a little keepsake for my upcoming talk at the College Book Art Conference, I noticed that when I creased one white cover, my bone folder left a mark. I hadn't really...
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Shortcuts to Kintsugi: Golden Mending
In Japanese pottery, there is the term, kintsugi for the repair of a vessel that has been damaged by enhancing the damage through application of powdered gold, (and sometimes silver, or platinum) and...
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A Dreamed 3-D Tableau Page
I dreamed a book that had a tableau at the end: a recessed page with a three-dimensional scene. The scene was certainly a banquet table (table/tableau, same root), possibly a version of the Last...
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After the CBAA Conference 2016
As I checked in at the hotel in Nashville, the woman behind the desk finished up, got me my key card, and said, "Have a good conference," with a twinge of suspicion. "Thanks!" I said, "I will." She...
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Dressing up a Single Signature
As I was preparing my presentation for the College Book Art Association conference I realized I was going to be talking about tactile materials but showing only pixels and light. I ended up making a...
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Let Us Reach for the Edges: Art Quilt #2
I like the activity of sewing. Seems reasonable, right? I make books. But many of my books end up being constructions in which I must fold and glue rather than sew. I'm stymied by this, why it happens....
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Classics Uncovered
Growing up I was only interested in 20th century literature. I read "the classics" only when I had to, which in my case was in junior high, perhaps once in an English class in college. The only ones I...
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Found Zine
You can go in search of adventures, change your scenery intentionally, travel from place to unfamiliar place, or you can cover the same territory day by day, watching for changes in the familiar. I...
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Meet Me at First and Third
Slipped between the selected stories in Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women is an essay on the value of writing from a third person's "Point of View," which is the name of the piece (51). She...
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Summer: Letterpress Printing & Handwritten Text
Like letterforms? I'll be teaching an intense, six-week course at California College of the Arts this summer. If you are interested in using words in your work and learning letterpress printing, this...
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Rocks in My Head
Calling attention to something overlooked. Magnifying a small detail and presenting its importance. Finding the universal in the specific. These are some concerns I bring with me when I write and make...
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Spotlight on Tools: Waxed Paper
Wax paper used to be a more common household items decades ago, but it is still available in a roll in grocery stores for just a few dollars. I've used it forever as a barrier paper to place between...
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Finding Your Creative Voice
A body of work. A creative voice. How does one develop such a thing? One of my professors used to say that everyone already has a voice. That you can't change who you are. But what happens when you are...
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Star 82 Review Spring Issue 4.1 Is Live!
Now in its fourth year, Star 82 Review (also written as *82) is the online and print literary and art magazine that I produce at each equinox and solstice, or thereabouts. The Spring 4.1 issue was...
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"Pennies and Velvet" in Dead Housekeeping
When you go to the website, you find that the intention of the online magazine Dead Housekeeping is a loving one. For writers, these stories/essays are ways to share your memories of someone who has...
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Spotlight on Materials: Mulberry Paper
If you are interested in making your own book cloth, mulberry paper is an essential backing paper. It is thin and flexible and has long fibers, which makes it strong. It may seem strange that a thin...
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HOUSEWORK: Handmade Books & Boxes
Way back in November, on an airplane coming home from a family Thanksgiving celebration, I said to myself, "Now, what am I going to do?" I was not assigned a class for the first time in ten years for...
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