Almost a year after our last in-person meeting, we met up again on August 2nd at Café 16 in St Nicholas’s Cathedral Newcastle- 14 past/present members and some long-time friends of the group! It was a very rainy and rather miserable day weather wise, but the sun was certainly shining in our corner of the café as we enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch and swapped news, stories and some beautiful handmade books.
One of the joys of meeting in person is that we all get a chance to handle the books, rather than just seeing everyone else’s over Zoom and each of these books made its way slowly round the table before reaching its new owner.
Our swap theme was to make a book using paper that we had been saving (or hoarding!) - a crime we're all a bit guilty of!
Marise H brought a concertina book of precious Art Deco pictures adorned with lace, ribbons and flowers:
Pat D had made an exploding kaleidoscope book which twisted to reveal four different sides:
Jo D used small pieces of much loved papers to remind her of places where she’d bought them:
Karenna F created a very clever binding using leather and cork fabric to hold precious papers from her stash:
Judi P had created a book with Gateshead’s Arts Diamond organisation which used some lovely paper swatches and fitted into a decorated box:
Janet A calligraphed the words of a beautiful Irish blessing, inspired by a choral piece she’d sung:
Janet B used a precious piece of illumination she’d created and added some letters to remind us to ‘Shine’. The pages were cleverly held in place with ribbon so they can be removed if needed:
Mari H sent a cunningly folded and bound book which held inspirational quotes about writing:
Margaret B used some much loved paper to create a book of fluttering butterflies and quotes about friendship:
(Photos are mine, mostly taken at the table – apologies for any stray crumbs or photographer shadows!)
Thank you to Janet B for all the organising - such a lovely day.
Our next meeting will be on Zoom on Saturday October 28th when the swap theme will be 'Woven, Sewn or Printed.'
