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Description
Want to have some fun with folding and stitching your own small books using beautiful papers? Join artist Gay Ayers to make accordion books. You will learn how to fold them, make covers, stitch inserts, and have these creative endeavors for yourself, journals, or gifts. You can later put in photos, poems, recipes, or watercolors. Bring home at least two handmade books! Materials provided. Bring lunch and a good pair of scissors. Space is limited to 10 participants.
Ancient accordion-folded books have been around for centuries, having found them in China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, India, and Burma. Book artists in this country often use this form for their art. The second style of book that also has Asian roots is the Japanese Stab Stitch Binding. It is a simple non-adhesive binding that is an excellent introduction to book binding. It’s a good place to start and can be used in numerous ways, such as travel journals. The stitching patterns on the cover can add ornamentation, as well as beads that we will incorporate. The uses are varied: gifts, journals, and objects of beauty.
About Gay Ayers
As a visual artist of a variety of things, such as book artist, paper artist, calligraphy, photography, miniature book collector and more, Gay is constantly creating and thinking up new structures or figuring out how others might have made something. She enjoys sharing ideas with others so that they, too, can find their own creativity, having taught in schools, art workshops, libraries, small and large groups.
Gay’s background consists of studying with many well-known artists, calligraphers, and photographers. She has, at times, taken yearlong classes with these people. For years she has attended International Calligraphy Conferences, which brought together teachers from the U.S.A., Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. This led Gay to study in Wales with Donald Jackson, O.B.E., the calligrapher to Queen Elizabeth II, and the incredible artist who, with 23 scribes, led the way for 14 years to create the complete handwritten St. John’s Bible, finished in 2014.
Gay’s photography world consisted of studying at the Santa Fe Workshops and the Maine Photo Workshop, along with individual photographers. It helped that she is a traveler who led an adventurous life on 5 of the 7 continents, freelancing and selling her work through a licensing agent, stock photography, and on her own. Much earlier on, Gay was active in The Embroiderers’ Guild of America, having achieved her master’s certification. Later she turned to textiles again, but in another form. She began a successful business of restoring and cleaning linens, vintage and contemporary.
For Gay, each day is a new beginning, a new place to start, and a day to enrich her life. After living in Farmington, Connecticut, for 49 years, she moved to a small town in New Hampshire, east of Concord. A new series of adventure, exploration, art, and belonging fills Gay’s new life with a recently built studio for the continuation of creativity.
Date & Time
Tue, May 16, 2023 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Venue Details
Webb Deane Stevens Museum
211 Main StreetWethersfield, Connecticut 06109
