My Books – Handcrafted Books by Michele Olsen

Terry Tempest Williams Special Edition

It was my sincere honor to be part of a reception for Terry Tempest Williams, June 6th, 2016, to celebrate the publication of her new book The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks and the debut of the special limited edition, Canyonlands National Park. I’ve been a fan of Terry’s since reading Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place in the 1990’s; I don’t know how many copies I’ve given away but the most recent gift was given in February. Little did Terry know that she was about to receive a handmade book with black walnut covers and Eco dyed endpapers using sagebrush from her beloved Castle Valley, Utah. I was blessed enough to be the book artist who designed and assembled the book. I will devote another post to the creation of this book – a story in itself. For now, enjoy some of the photos from this event and then run to your nearest bookstore and buy a book, any book, by this remarkable woman.

Terry’s first look at the handmade book. Bill Hedden, on the left, provided the black walnut covers. Andy Nettell, on the right, is the owner of Back of Beyond Books, Moab, Utah. Andy organized the reception and readings that evening. He also commissioned the three handmade books. One is for Terry, one Andy’s collection, and one for the Yale University Library that holds Terry’s papers.

Two true book lovers. One makes books and one writes them.

After many email messages over the last months I finally get to meet Bill Hedden who created the beautiful black walnut covers. The story of this wood will be included in the next post. Bill is the executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust.

Andy Nettell, owner of the my favorite bookstore in the West, Back of Beyond Books. He is an antiquarian book dealer who specializes in regional and natural history titles of the Colorado Plateau. Want a first edition of Edward Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang? He’s got it.

These special people were also at the reception. My husband, Rollie Lamberson, is on the left and he provided the finish for the covers. Our daughter and son-in-law, Laurie and Brian Evans, are in the center; they were the plant collectors for the vegetation I used for dyeing endpapers. Jen Jones is on the right and best friend of Laurie. Jen is a graduate of Humboldt State University!

Hour of Land and Canyonlands.

Commissioned book: Bradel binding, black walnut covers, black goatskin spine, Eco dyed papers with black walnut leaves and sagebrush on Japanese Nishinouchi handmade paper.

Next Post: Evolution of a Book

June 9, 2016/2 Comments/by Michele

My Books, Sewn Spine

Caterpillars, Sewn Headbands, Coptic!

My Fall stay in Nebraska was very productive in terms of reading books (seven!) and making books (four!). Two of my books were created for future OLLI workshops so you will see those at the end of January. The book I enjoyed the most was created from lacewood boards (a gift from my woodworking husband). All of the sewing was done with waxed Irish linen thread. The section wraps were made with handmade papers. The interior pages were made a year ago from rose petals and various leaves. Folios were bundled together with the plant materials in a kind of “sandwich” and boiled for 1.5 hours in a solution of water, vinegar, and alum. All of the holes were drilled with a vintage Dremel rotary tool purchased several years ago at an antique store in Eastern Colorado. Except for the electric drill, I felt like I was working in a medieval bookbinding studio. I really do like older materials and techniques. I suppose I should start looking for a vintage hand drill.

December 17, 2015/2 Comments/by Michele

Mentors, My Books, Sewn Spine

Margo Klass at Newport 2015

Margo Klass is one of my favorite books artsts because of the way she works with wood, the care she takes with detail and bookbinding principles, and the Japanese feel of a lot of her work. I’ve been lucky to have taken three of her classes at the Newport Paper Arts Festival in Newport, Oregon. She is an exceptionally good teacher: patient, well organized, so very talented. She spends her time in Alaska and Maine and makes books as well as altar pieces and box constructions. I’m hoping she will teach at Newport again this April!

I made the book below during her April workshop; it uses sticks from Maine and wood from Alaska. The text block was created with torn Hannemuhle papers. Attaching the sticks was challenging but practice makes perfect and I managed to complete the book. The closure loops were made from fine leather from a repurposed woman’s glove and a fossil is embedded in the cover. The tie is braided waxed linen thread. I love workshops that are a cross between an art class and shop class—love those electric
drills.

My daughter is a serious surfer and beach lover. The following book was a gift for her. Most items are from the Redwood Coast where she grew up. The covers are redwood, sticks are driftwood from Clam Beach, stones are from Stone Lagoon. This book combines ideas from two workshop of Margo’s. The books I love the most are tactile, made of natural materials, and uusually have a rustic look. This is certainly one of them.

This has been a very busy year because of the number of workshops I’ve taken. I’ve neglected my blog. I’m going to catch up! Next: my 10 days in May at Ox Bow, Saugatuck, MIchigan

November 19, 2015/4 Comments/by Michele

My Books

Two Spring Classes, Two New Books

I will be teaching two more book arts classes for Osher Life Long Learning Institute this Spring (more on that in a later post). The wonderful people who take these classes are so much fun to “work” with that I’m always looking for new and interesting techniques and book structures that give them some room for artist license. Here is a preview of two very different themes for two very different books that I’ve been creating as models for the courses. I will post photos of the finished books after the OLLI Open House this Saturday, 1-3pm at HBAC (Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center) in Eureka. Hope to see you there.

The first book has an accordion spine and will feature The Fly.

The second book will use a double needle coptic stitch to sew pages and covers. We will be exploring the use of different alphabets. This is a favorite called The Miro Alphabet.

I will post more details and photos of the completed books next week!

January 22, 2015/0 Comments/by Michele

How-To, My Books, Studio

Car Workstation

With long travel days and a need to work on a book I’ve decided to create a lap workstation for the car. I purchased the least colorful lap desk—hard to imagine that the others were brighter—and put together a little kit of threads, needles, prepunched sections and boards that I can store by my feet. The drink holder on the table is perfect for storing needles and scissors. Of course, I cannot be without my iPod. To the right, on the dash, I can store my piping hot coffee.

So, how’s it working? I’ve lost one needle between the seats and can sew without stabbing Rollie in the eye while he is driving. I also decided to go with 6-needle sewing against my better judgement—one needle would have been easier to keep track of but the need for longer thread has it’s disadvantages. I am sewing a wedding album for a dear friend. I will keep you posted.

September 11, 2014/0 Comments/by Michele

My Books, Photography, Sewn Spine

Found Objects

The making of this book has been a labor of love and one of constant problem solving; I didn’t think things through before starting the book. There is something to be said for that approach— I learned a lot and the book is more interesting because of it.

We have a little cabin in Nebraska and for several years we used an old “farm” table for dining. My husband found in an old barn; most of the red paint was gone and the wood was dry from years of extreme temperatures in that part of the world. I loved thinking about the meals that might have been served on this table when it was a bright color of “barn” red: fried chicken, peas in milk, puffy dinner rolls, lemonade, coleslaw, Jello something, raisin cream pie. When my husband built a new table I couldn’t bear to just toss the old one into the burn pile. We were able to salvage a couple of rectangles cut from the table top and I decided to use these as covers for a Farm Table Book. Straps were in order so I made book cloth from fabric purchased from a quilting fabric shop in nearby Fullerton—see the movie Nebraska and you will know. The orange hemp thread added the rustic look I wanted; it was not fun to work with and needed attention on every step of the sewing. Sections were covered with strips of handmade Nepalese paper. I covered the boards with layers of milk paint and waxed them to give this table new life. A rusty metal “thing” was embedded in the front cover—something from my explorations around our property. At the last minute I added a print from a deconstructed screen printing workshop and photos by daughter, Laurie Evans, taken on a visit to the ranch years ago.

It has been very satisfying to create this book from mostly local materials. I also enjoyed working without a finished product in mind—just letting the materials tell me what to do next. The wood told me to cut slots in it for the straps and that was really a challenge—hand drills and chisels. Next time I may not listen.

This book and seven others of mine are part of OLLI Arts Alive exhibit in Eureka, California on Saturday night, March 1. Come and see the work of over 30 local artists trying to raise funds for OLLI. If we raise $20,000 we will be eligible for $1,000,000 in endowments. We could use your support!

February 28, 2014/0 Comments/by Michele

My Books

Book Exhibit: Fullerton Library

We spend much of the Fall in our cabin near Fullerton, Nebraska. The cabin is located between the two libraries of St. Paul (45 minute drive) and Fullerton (25 minute drive). I like to describe our cabin’s location relative to the location of books and internet. Last Fall, the librarian of the little library in Fullerton asked if I would bring some of my books to display in the kiosk and it’s turned out to be a great experience all around. The library patrons have enjoyed seeing book structures that stretch the definition of “the book” and they have an opportunity to make a simple accordion structure this Tuesday evening. My books were also featured on the front page of the Nancy County Journal. It was a treat to cut it out and send it to my mom—hope she puts it on the fridge. I’m sure I’ll be doing this again next Fall and hope it inspires some new book artists.

October 21, 2013/2 Comments/by Michele

My Books, Past Workshops

Blizzard Book

I have a book that is part of the International Printmaking Conference in Dundee, Scotland. My book Equations is near the bottom of the table on the right edge. This is a book I made for an international exchange. One never knows where our books may show up! This is exciting and thanks to my friend Ellen for bringing it to my attention. I used a gelatin plate and printing inks to print plants from Humboldt County, California. These images were then enhanced using Photoshop. The wooden covers are made from recycled Bubinga and the pages were inserted into a Blizzard structure.

I love book arts!
I will be using this structure as a model for an OLLI class on this fun book.

September 1, 2013/1 Comment/by Michele

My Books, Sewn Spine

Last Journal finished

The last book in the OLLI course Leather Journals is finally finished. It’s mine (instructor) and I know it’s the last one to be completed. I used the leather cover to demonstrate the longstitch sewing of the spine and hadn’t intended to actually complete a journal. I cut the leather from a blue suede jacket (shoes would have been too small) and the beautiful buttonholes were too interesting to ignore. I don’t know what I will use this one for; I usually use a journal for some kind of theme. The journal hasn’t told me what it wants to be yet.

August 14, 2013/3 Comments/by Michele

Folded, My Books

Book Art Object International Exchange

I joined an international exchange in January 2012 because a friend suggested that I do so….you see…one of the topics was “Equations”. I was placed in Group #4 with about 8 other artists, each with a different title. The idea was to make enough editions for everyone else in the group, plus one for Sarah Bodman whose book of short stories An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen
provided 100 titles for our editions. I know this sounds like old news but I still haven’t received several books so “the file i still open”. AND I’m still playing catch-up with my blog.

It took months for the ideas to come together and several more to experiment with my ideas and find an appropriate structure; with the serendipitous gift of some wonderful pieces of wood samples, i was on my way.

I wanted, somehow, to illustrate the interdependence of mathematics and nature. Since these books were going to be mailed to several countries, I wanted to feature the redwood forests where I live. Picking through my gelatin prints of local plants, I scanned several, thinking I would play with these and then go hiking and find other material to print. I started with not-so-nice colored prints and used Photoshop to alter the colors. Remarkably, the newer colors were so beautiful that I decided there was no need to make more gelatin prints. Lesson learned: don’t give up on things I’ve made. They can be altered! Cut them up, crop them, alter the colors, paint over them.

The pages for the Blizzard Book structure were made from a single sheet of paper made from a collage. The collage was created from torn pages of a vintage mathematics textbook, then scanned, and finally Photoshop was used to adjust the colors and add semi-transparent texture.

A redwood tree printed (heat transfer) on bands of handmade paper served as the closure for the book. The books were very small (2.5 in x 4 in) and easy to mail.

The books I have received so far are beautiful, skillfully constructed, and very creative. One of my favorite exchanges. One of the photos shows a gelatin print of redwood needles and the other shows the entire set as they were ready to be mailed (you can also see the Bubinga wooden covers).

June 16, 2013/1 Comment/by Michele