The MAAP program through TACA

It's been great working with Jennifer McQuistion, teamed up with me through a grant from TACA's MAAP MasterArtistApprenticeProgam. (Their website is here: http://www.tennesseecrafts.org/program-overview.html and includes more pics of us at work.) Jennifer is a painter/woodburner/book artist from Nashville and we're working on some projects for a September show, including bindings of a Bernard Middleton book on restoration, Moby Dick, The Romaunt of the Rose, two Bibles, and the Sermons on Job pictured in the last blogpost. Here are pics of Jen in the shop and other projects we're working on. Her website is www.browndogbindery.com and her blog with with more photos of us at work is at www.browndogbindery.blogspot.com

Sewing a headband

Cutting the book's edges using a traditional lying press and plough.

Paring leather using a great new tool, the Scharfix. It uses a double-edged razor blade in a vise that can be raised, lowered, and tilted for bevelling.

Jennifer painting panels for the Job binding

Jen sketching out designs for our "Restoration of Leather Bookbindings" by Bernard Middleton.

Sermons on Job

Outside cover tooled very simply in blind.

Jen painting the inner wood panels

Cutting flowers

Leather borders on and adding leather onlays. The flowers are first tooled in gold, very thin leather applied over the gold, and then tooled again in blind and then gold.

Leather onlays tooled

Front Panel finished and inset into front board. Turn-ins tooled in gold.

The finished rear panel

Rear panel inset into rear board, turn-ins tooled in gold.

Rear panel again

Closeup of rear panel.

We've just finished a copy of John Calvin's Sermons on Job, a facsimile of the 1574 folio edition published by Banner of Truth Trust. The Tennessee Association of Craft Artists has teamed me with Nashville book artist Jennifer Mcquistion for a Master/Apprentice program and this is one of our projects. We've bound the book in alum-tawed leather over raised bands and tooled the outside very simply in blind. Jen does wood burning and painting and she created the wood panels that were laid into a recessed panel on the inside of each cover. A black leather border was added to the paintings and then I've added floral leather onlays in white and red and many hours of gold tooling to fill in. It's currently in the Tennessee Arts Commission gallery in Nashville for a September-November show.