Stitching of a Different Kind

I took a class Saturday at Bare Knuckle Arts, the studio run by a former colleague. It is the third class I've taken there, and they have all been fabulous.

I have wanted to learn how to do Coptic book binding for ages. I've tried to teach myself from books, but I just couldn't figure it out. The name comes from the fact that this type of binding was used by Coptic Christians in Egypt as far back as the second century AD.

Our teacher, Kerri Cushman, who hails all the way from Virginia, had the covers premade for us so we could dive right into the binding process. She made the whole process easy as pie. My first attempt is downright presentable.

Isn't this cool?

Most of the work is in the set up: making the covers and the inside pages, and poking all the holes (and making sure they line up). Once you start the Coptic binding, you can relax and enjoy it. You just fall into a rhythm -- but don't fall too hard or you'll make mistakes. (As me how I know!)

The last thing I need is one more craft, but as an inveterate writing and sketcher, I'm telling myself that bookbinding isn't really a NEW craft, but rather an expansion upon the ones I already do.

I wanted to make more books as soon as I got home, but I've stuck to my schedule of cleaning up my craft room and organizing photos. My parents passed along a ton of photos in May, and I am happy to say that they are now all organized by date in photo boxes. Not a very exciting Sunday but a pretty productive one.

I hope your weekend was good.