Taking Another Class

Well, I am taking another weekend class at The Center for Book Arts in NYC. This class is being taught by Ben Rinehart and is based on his book Creating Books and Boxes. This class will be dedicated to boxes with drawers and dividers.

Dividers in a box are one of the hardest skills to master because there are so many ways to approach the problem. I wanted to take the class because (1) I love making boxes and (2) I wanted to learn how someone else approaches the problem.

An interesting aspect of Ben's method is that he covers the exterior of his boxes in one continuous piece of material. Most people will cover the sides of the box with one piece of material and then paste in a top and bottom piece of material.

One of the most agonizing aspects of taking classes is making artistic decisions on how you want to design your class project. What decorative paper? What covering materials to use? What notions will you use? The problem is that many of these decisions have to be made on the spot. When you are designing at home, you can pick and choose from your own stock. When you are taking classes, you have to pick and choose from what is available on site. I wish teachers would indicate what decorative materials to bring should you want to bring something from home. For example, a 6" x 12 " piece of bookcloth, and a 18" x 23" piece of decorative paper will be sufficient for this project if you want to bring materials from home.

So here are some of the choices I made for my class project. The decorative papers and bookcloth were provided by the Center. The notions I picked up from M & J Trimming during my lunch break. Tomorrow, I will show you how the materials were used.


Decorarive papers and bookcloth


Notions from M & J Trimming