Summer Camp at Open Book
By LuAnne Silvia, ASID
Week two of adult summer camp we attended class at The Minnesota Center for Book Arts. What an exciting place it is! Everything is centered around a passion for all things related to books: paper making, writing, letter press printing, bookbinding. Our class was structured with such a mix including the hands on art activities, fascinating history lesson, and walking tour of the open studios that it was engaging from start to finish. We learned about:
- The history of marble paper and how to make it
- The history of the building and it's tenants
- The architectural firm's design concept for the remodel while we toured the building (for interior designers, this was a bonus!)
- AND we got to create our own marble paper and bound journal
The process of creating marble paper has such immediate results it was fascinating to watch the designs develop before your eyes. We tried several techniques including a stone design, traditional marble pattern and a peacock design. See photos below...
Welcome to class
Step one: Dropping the dye into the tray of water to create the design
Step two: placing your paper into the tray to transfer the design and lifting the paper from the tray
Step three: The finished stone design
Step four: Rinsing the paper
Step five: Papers hung to dry
Step six: Removing the old design with newspaper
Starting a new design, raking a traditional marble pattern
The traditional marble design as it appears in the tray
Transfering the design on to the paper
The finished marble design
Using a chopstick to create a peacock design
A finished peacock design
Using our marble paper as the front and back cover, assembling our journals 
Our bound journals wrapped in marble paper
To learn more check out their website at www.mnbookarts.org
