Jan Baker's BOOKS + WORDS! at Long Ridge Farm

BOOKS + WORDS!

with Jan Baker

Date/Time
Dates: Aug 17 - Aug 21 , 2016 - 5 day(s)
9:30 am - 4:30 pm each day.

Computers, tablets and e-books are capturing our attention, but how can we create our own handmade innovative books? Experimenting with different folded, glued and sewn book structures, participants will also explore stitching, weaving and layering book pages.

The interplay between materials, structure and content will be discovered. Personal words will be encouraged… to be incorporated into these innovative book structures.

Participants are encouraged to bring old books and interesting materials from their own collections to experiment with. Sample artists’ books and slides will be shared for inspiration.

We are not bound by convention.

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I was first introduced to Jan Baker's amazing work in 2013 during Sandra Brownlee's Tactile Notebooks and the Written Word workshop at Big Cat Textiles in Scotland. I fell head over heels in love with Jan's work...well, even more so, truth be told...last August while experiencing Sandra's workshop again, this time at Long Ridge Farm. 

The first assignment in Sandra's class is to cover your notebook in such a way that you want to hold it, touch it and work in it. I chose a fairly large one and, at the end of day 2, decided that it was jsut wrong for me because every exercise over the first 2 days had been a struggle.

Day 3 found me carrying a new, smaller notebook, indigo fabric, thread and my chair out into the field where 

I settled in front of Jan's section of the fence line to gain inspiration while creating a new cover. 

The whole class found Jan's work mesmerizing, inspiring and mysterious. In fact, Jan Baker, who are you? became a central theme that week.

Can you guess where I'll be August 17-21? I hear there are a few more spots open in the class. Click here if you're interested. Hope to see you there!

 

Sandra Brownlee at Long Ridge Farm - Day 4

Day 4 = words

Words on cars,

on bridges,

and on paper.

Sandra gave us the task of choosing 3 words from the previous day to write and hang on the fence line.

We viewed the words, seemingly disconnected yet related. Whispered words floated on the breeze as did the sound of pens against paper as some were jotted in notebooks, memories needing to be recorded. Bird song filled the air as we read the words aloud.

Then we set about organizing them into thoughts

like lines from a poem.

We took time to be thoughtful about the fence lines

and read them aloud before

editing and rearranging them

into whole new thoughts carrying deeper meaning.

Choose your favorite and stamp it over and over on this piece of cloth was our next assignment.

So we did.

As I stamped my choice, I set the just used stamp (red) on my notebook pages in random order. Once the ink dried, I stamped the full phrase atop the random marks. I don't remember whose words* these are, but they touched my soul and have become very dear to me.

trace 

words on body

on stone

on paper

on elephant

on cloth 

on stick

on skin 

words 

*Velma Bolyard
 

Our fence line prose was recorded on a larger cloth - each of us taking a section to stamp.

I am so delighted to be here

Yes. That says it all.

Sandra Brownlee at Long Ridge Farm - Day 3

Each morning of Sandra Brownlee's Tactile Notebooks and the Written Word workshop at Long Ridge Farm found us gathering by the fence line to observe the wonders that Sandra had hung as samples and inspiration of/for the day's teachings. Last Friday the line was hung with words - typed, printed, crocheted, painted, tatooed, stitched...the list is endless.

Day 3 = Words

We had time to look, to be awestruck,

to soak in the glory of words and letters

in whatever form or

or shape they took.

Letters from friends captured our hearts

with their creativity.

Taproot jumped out at me from this word laden elephant. 

And then we gathered to listen to our wise teacher's words

as Sandra began to share

her own work with us.

Her journals are exquisite.

Her reports even more so.

One last look before getting to work.

I had struggled on Day 2. Odd as we'd been working with paper - something I fall more and more in love with every day. Each exercise left me unhappy and wondering just what was wrong with me. Why couldn't I settle and find that creative pathway?

Toward the end of the day, it finally hit me - I didn't like the paper of the pages in my notebook. Too smooth and perhaps a bit too large. There was another in my bag though - smaller, more intimate with handmade pages. It would mean creating a whole new cover.

Jan Baker's wondrous work

On Day 1, or perhaps 2, Sandra had likened the classroom to taking a journey on a barge. Sometimes you want to stay on the barge and join in the activities on board or view the shoreline from there. Other times, you want to get off and explore or simply enjoy wandering alone. Either is okay to do.

So...with permission to get off the barge, I gathered indigo (from Glynnis Dolce of Shirbori Girl) pins, batting, thread, needle and departed the barge.

Settling myself in front of Jan Baker's glorious work, I took time to really look at it. Letter after stylish letter, the words and letters themselves flow together - they touch and dance along in a line that catches one up in the rhythm and has you whirling along before you realize your feet have left the ground.

The letters hint at words, at sentences, at stories that need telling yet are perhaps a bit shy about yelling out their story.

With those thoughts in mind, I set about stitching a word across the full width of my cover in a way that the letters merged just enough so that when the cover is closed, what is seen is curves and lines mingling together.

There is a word there. Can you guess it?

Sandra Brownlee at Long Ridge Farm - Day 2

This time last week, I was waking up in Brattleboro, VT and getting ready to begin Day 2 of Sandra Brownlee's Tactile Notebooks and the Written Word workshop at Long Ridge Farm, right across the border in Westmoreland, NH.

Nestled in the mountains amid trees and pastureland, Long Ridge Farm was an idyllic location for Sandra's teachings. Our classroom was as much the outside as it was inside a very open barn.

Day 2 = paper.

Beginning with Thich Nhat Hahn's If you are a poet you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper...

we made a list of paper's qualities (above left) and the techniques applicable to it (above right).

As I passed through the doorway to go outside and noticed again the texture of the mat, emboss popped into my mind. Would it be possible?

1 piece of handmade paper + water + the sun's warmth to dry it = embossed paper.  And that was only the beginning.

We lunched al fresco each day in Nancy's backyard -

all the while marvelling at the perfectness of the weather,

the easy camaraderie of those gathered,

and enjoying the thoughtful gifts shared - a burdock ball for Sandra from Velma

and wrapped hearts for us all from Sandra.