Book Arts

 

3 books with Japanese Stab binding

When I first moved to Rexburg, I was interviewed for an adjunct teaching job at BYU Idaho in the arts department, to teach Book Arts. This is a skill that I have only recently learned, and feel that I am still learning. I love books and the history of them. When I was studying archaeology, I learned that when monks in Scotland began making and writing books, the local population was amazed. It was a magical, powerful thing to them. It's exciting and challenging to teach students the art of making books, and the joy and magic of them as well. 

A book I made in the Coptic style, for one of my brothers-in-law

I used postcards with Shakespeare quotes for the decorative inside cover.

My first semester teaching coincided with my wedding - classes started the week after we were married. That was a crazy thing to do in hindsight, and there were some challenges during that semester. But I'm grateful for what I've learned, and for the chance to teach again this new semester.

I have some blank books that I've made that I've been hesitant to use, but just a couple weeks ago I decided to use one as a personal/ creative journal, and it has been really exciting writing in a book that I made by hand. 

The bound book I made which I'm  writing in, on top of another Coptic book.

The outside of the bound book. I think Coptic books are my favorite to make, but it's very satisfying to be able to make a bound book too. 

I'm grateful for the unexpected things in life: learning this new skill and having the opportunity to teach it at a university isn't something I necessarily planned in my life. I am blessed to be able to have two jobs where I can use my creativity, knowledge and passions. 

Making my own Wedding Dress

 So much has happened since I last posted on this blog, the most obvious being Covid. We all know how that has changed everyone's lives, I don't need to write any more about that! At first I was using Covid as an excuse to not keep up on my blog, but lately I've been feeling the itch to revive it and so here we are. 

Last year, in May, I moved from living with my mother in Utah, to totally living on my own (something I've never experienced before) in Rexburg, Idaho. I found a part-time job at the local museum (The Museum of Rexburg), and then, on September 18th, I got married! Both of these have been significant and exciting shifts in my life. 

I was going to wear an antique dress from the 1910s, but decided to make my own dress instead. I used a pattern from around 1938 or 1939 that I've used before for two different dresses. I have previous posts detailing these dresses: Late 1930s dress and the Darby O'Gill dress I re-created. I used this pattern because I knew it worked well and I was comfortable with it. I used the long sleeve option and lengthened the skirt as well. I also worked with real silk, something I've been too shy of doing before this. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was to work with. 

Years ago, even before Nick & I were dating, I bought a pair of American Duchess shoes on sale. I was determined that I'd be married in these shoes. So, when I was picking out the silk for my dress, I matched it to the flowers in the silk panel on the side of the shoes. It was a perfect match.

A progress image - the bodice pinned to the skirt. 

My husband Nick and I got engaged in March, and then I moved to Rexburg in May. He would come up to visit and work during the summer, and then we were married in September out in the desert in a beautiful location. A friend of ours years ago had built a labyrinth, based of the one in Chartres Cathedral, and this was the location of our wedding. 

The finished dress, right before driving out to the desert. 

Out in the beautiful desert. You can see my American Duchess shoes in this photo too.  

Nick and me on our wedding day.

It was a semi-elopement, but some of our friends and a few of my siblings came for the wedding.

Our friend Scott Samuelson. He designed and built the labyrinth and talked about the history of the labyrinth, as well as reading an epithalamion -- a wedding poem -- that he'd written just for us. 

We all walked the Labyrinth before the wedding.