On the first truly warm day of this Spring, I headed for the Book Arts Bazaar at USM in Portland and found an explosion of goodness! Handmade papers, eco-dyed linens, small works of poetry, coptic bindings, marbled papers, hand-built tools, ivory crochet hooks—yes! even letterpress! Several rooms, no—many rooms were filled with vendors offering colorful, original, and even offbeat work. I found a catalog of 2014 summer workshops from the Morgan Conservatory for Papermaking (MorganConservatory.org). Also on hand: the 2014 program book for Maine Media Workshops (mainemedia.edu) with classes on photography, book arts, filmmaking, and multimedia. I learned this tip: if a Maine Media Workshop class has not filled, just before it’s scheduled to take place, Mainers can receive a one-third discount off the price. I learned about exhibitions, private workshops and the Pickwick Independent Press—a “community print shop” based in Portland. Maine’s book arts community is alive and very well, and the place to get a fabulous intro to the scene, is the annual Book Arts Bazaar held in April.
Cool! I wondered why there weren’t more comments about these lovely photos and it’s because the message said people had to be logged in, but logged in was turned off. OK now. XOXOXOXO