Leah Virsik

Raid Your Office Supplies! Make Your Own Simple Handbound Journal
Time: Sunday, February 7, 2010
9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (1/2 hour break for lunch, bring a bag lunch if desired)
Where: Frank Bette Center for the Arts
1601 Paru Street, (at Lincoln) Alameda, CA 94501
Fee: $45 members, $60 non-members. Plus $10 materials fee
(pay materials fee at workshop)
Click here to sign up via PayPal at the Frank Bette site.

In this class for beginners, you’ll create your own 3-section “pamphlet stitch” journal from commonly available office supplies including file folders, envelopes and paper clips. You’ll sew the sections, attach eyelets to the spine and secure your book with an elastic band or a button and string. You’ll then add elements to the cover and inside to make it your own. Take home your own unique handbound journal and a one-section mini-postcard book.

What to Bring: ruler, scissors, glue stick, pencil, a cutting mat and a bone folder. Also, bring a 4″ x 6″ piece of cardstock (or postcard) for a cover for a mini-book. Optional: Bring any elements you’d like to include in your book to personalize it. Some examples are: canceled stamps, rubber stamps, stickers, paper clips, ribbon, old receipts, shopping list, scraps of paper and handwritten notes. Limit these things to 5 1/2″ high. White inside pages and some ephemera will be provided.

About the instructor: Leah Virsik enjoys making books and painting. She has a passion for paper and bookbinding and daydreams about art when she’s not actually making it. She creates books out of new and repurposed materials and works with paper, fabric, plastic, metal, acrylic and collage. Learn more about her and her work by visiting www.leahvirsik.com.

Small Mixed-Media Fabric books, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

It really is the end of November and Art Every Day Month and I can’t believe how much I’ve created this month! Thanks to all of the AEDM participants, Leah Piken Kolidas, my friends and Tom for all of your support. It wouldn’t be as much fun without you!

Click on books to connect to my Flickr account.

Watercolor Polkadot Button book, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

I was cleaning up my office and put away my sewing machine and ironing board and I know now that I can’t put them away at least for long. I missed them way too much. I have three more little books like this coming together really soon. They are so much fun to make. They’ve come out of AEDM and my mail art postcards.

Art Every Day Month has been such a blessing. I want to make work that I need to make, to connect with it, to find out what it needs, where it wants to be… and it really feels like I’m doing that. I’ve passed the point of no return in many ways. So much of it is just trusting that I’m on that path. Today I was looking for and found some great yarns I had purchased several years ago from Article Pract. They’re going to be used in the other books I’m making. It’s funny how things connect. The scraps of fabric that I’ve had over the years fit right in to the projects I’m working on now.

I had a lot of fun teaching Erin and Dave how to make books. Tom came in and took photos of us. I got a lot of good feedback from them. It’s such an emotional process for me… to teach. I’m quite attached and want things to work out for my students. But at the same time I also know with my own process that classes can be valuable for different reasons in different ways and so often not for the product I produced in the class. So I think more practice teaching and less attachment will help.

Book Cover Beginnings (in progress), originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

This in progress “Book Cover Beginning” actually looks better on the screen than it does in reality. It doesn’t have as much contrast. I really like the resisting qualities of crayon underneath watercolor. I’ll be folding this paper twice and creating a 1/2′ spine for the pages to go inside. I want to try a new stitch. Looking forward to learning.

I really appreciated this quote by Natalie Goldberg posted on Leah Piken Kolidas’ Day 27 Check-in for Art Every Day Month “Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of beginning. Probably that’s why we decide we’re done. It’s getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.” In Leah’s post she says: “Today is the 27th day of Art Every Day Month. So close to the end of this particular journey. How would you like to wrap things up? What would make a beautiful ending for you?”
In so many ways, I do feel like this is the beginning. I’ve touched upon what it’s like to blog very consistently and to notice what it’s like to do art regularly. I appreciate the chance to document it in such a supportive and encouraging environment. I don’t want to stop but I also want to transition into a new way of being around my creating and maybe it’s just continuing… and discovering what’s right for me.

I had a really nice Thanksgiving yesterday with family. Good food and really nice people to be around. Erin and Dave brought fresh vegetables from Chino Farms. Yum!

Art Has Become My Life, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

This is my “box” for Pro Arts 35th Anniversary Party/Box Art Benefit Auction: Saturday, November 7, 6 – 9 pm Preview Exhibition: November 3 – 7, 2009. Thanks to my dad for cutting the box of wood into nice 1/2″ pieces.

Inspired, I signed up for Leah Piken Kolidas’ November Art Every Day Challenge and received a really nice email back from her. I’m exited to join an online art community and post more of my work, more often.

Also, I signed up for Rock Paper Scissors Collective’s Sewing Lab Training. Looking forward to learning how to use their industrial straight stitch and serger! I want to make more books with fabric and leather.

I’m super excited to be a part of Book Arts Jam 2009 this Saturday, October 17 at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. Come for the day and stop by to say hello. As well as displaying my books for sale, I’ll be giving a hands-on demo on how to make a mini-pamphlet book.

Book Arts Jam 2009, is a one-day regional celebration of the book and print arts, co-sponsored by the Bay Area Book Artists and Foothill College. This year’s event features an exhibition of artists’ books, hands-on demonstrations, and make-and-take activities; an exhibitors’ showcase with work by more than 50 artists and craftspeople in the book, paper, and print arts; a slideshow of member work; silent auction; and a full-service onsite cafeteria. Great for families with children, teachers, students, artists, and anyone who likes books. Remember, books make great gifts!

October 17, 2009 | 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, California
Free admission, parking $2
www.bookartsjam.org Eventline: 650-949-7591

What inspired me today was reading Wendy Richmond’s column in Communication Arts. And she has a book coming out in the Fall: Art without Compromise. The intro page is great. I enjoy hearing about her process and about the idea of creating sacred space and time for your art.