BEHIND EVERY STORY…
Last month I packed up my old truck with all the essentials for a long road trip I’ve done many times… only this time I found myself putting together a box of very sharp and lovely tools, nice papers, sketchbook, and one dark blue goat hide. Four days later I arrived in Telluride, Colorado excited to be studying with Don Glaister at the American Academy of Bookbinding.
I love books. I love to read them, I love to collect them, and I love to make them. My following two weeks with Don and ten other wonderful and interesting characters, were the perfect medicine for a little bit of digital overload. It was so great to get back into a studio full of presses and tools, similar to the spaces I inhabited growing up in my dad’s fine woodworking shop, and the years spent creating books, prints and drawings at Emily Carr. I settled right in.
Don Glaister learned how to bind books in Paris, then returned to the states and set up a bindery and art practice of fine binding. His work is highly sought after by collectors, and his attention to detail is absolutely inspiring. And he’s a funny, interesting, and very genuine man. He taught us how to work with leather, something I had not tried before, and I came home with a couple of beautiful treasures for my book shelf.
Being in AAB was such a good reminder of the “real” things – real connections with real people, learning how to make really lovely books. In an age of mass produced off-shored homogenization, it was an honor to spend some time creating a one of a kind, handmade, blood sweat and tears real kind of project.