Two friends and I drove up to Carmel for a workshop with fabulous bookbinder Bonnie Stahlecker. Our goal was to create handmade travel journals with repurposed leather covers. Our modus operandi was to have fun doing it. Both accomplished!
Jen Grove, Doris Sisk and I joined four other calligraphy friends (Ellen Simon, Kathy Laporte, Pat Ward, Pam Weaver) and a new friend named Jean Ann at Nature's Karma for the workshop. It was great to see lovely Jane Farr, who came by for a few minutes to say 'hello'.
I will be posting photos to my wedding blog in a few weeks of two very large wedding letters (as vows) I did for a sweet couple. They met me at Nature's Karma to pick up the letters I'd done for their upcoming wedding in Ireland. Their reactions were more than I could have hoped for. Meeting them was as much fun as the workshop. "Perfection" was one of the words they used upon seeing their letters, but their smiles and appreciation were the perfection to me.
We also had the opportunity to visit a few of Carmel's lovely galleries, where we saw fellow calligraphers Erika Woods and Yves Leterme's exciting work and met Susan Mauck, an excellent portrait artist. We had an early supper in Carmel before heading for home, tired but happy - each of us with a beautiful new handmade book to enjoy. Jen, Doris and I had so much fun we plan to get together in two weeks to make more books!.
If you get a chance to take a workshop from Bonnie Stahlecker, do it! She is excellent at her craft, and is always well-organized, gracious and very helpful.
I LOVE, LOVE what you made Jan! And it's one of my favorite colors too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sara! When I saw the blue leather I had to have it! : ) And then she had the nice wooden beads and tan leather strip for the tie. I love it too. We'll be making more books after Easter, so hopefully I'll have another pretty one to share.
DeleteIt was great to see you too, Jan! I look forward to taking a workshop at Nature's Karma with Bonnie in the future.
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