November 2021

This was a special meeting, not to share work on a theme, but to visit the Stratford Park Museum in Stroud. We had a brief get-together for coffee and chats, before setting off to explore the rooms of the museum with the objective of finding inspiration for responses to items we found there. Members are invited to create books that reflect anything that they wish to respond to, and for this to happen over an extended period (no monthly deadline). Ultimately we hope to mount an exhibition revolving around the Museum. We thank Abigail who was welcoming and helpful as always, and we have taken away many ideas to mull over.

October 2021

This was our first meeting at the Stroud Subscription Rooms, and we welcomed what may have been a record number of members, including some new faces which is always wonderful. The theme for the month was ‘Spine’, and as always this resulted in an extraordinary variety of interpretations, methods, constructions and concepts. You can see the work that was displayed on our Facebook page and Instagram feed.

September 2021

Our second meeting (and it turned out, our last) at the Stroud Brewery. The theme was ‘Quietly’ which had been translated into diverse books and concepts, often including a surprising amount of noise! The meeting was very well attended with the pleasure of meeting face to face still a novelty. Please see our social media feeds for examples of the books that were displayed.

August 2021

Our first live meeting at the Stroud Brewery was very lively and exciting, with members able to meet in person for the first time in 18 months, and to be able to show and touch the work was a huge pleasure. The Brewery was very welcoming, and offered hot drinks and drinking water during the meeting, and provided a delicious lunch afterwards in their large bar area for those who wanted to stay.

The theme for August was ‘Reunion’, although only one or two members had produced a response to this theme – it seemed like most people just wanted to enjoy the actual reunion. Each brought along 3 books that had been produced during our online-only meetings, so there was lots of hands on and opportunities to ask questions about techniques, inspirations and so on.

There was as usual a lot of new information that we shared, and below are some links for resources specifically mentioned at that meeting. You can also visit our Links page, where you will find a wealth of additional resources, which we will add to as time goes on.

Philobiblion is a very rich archive site containing many tutorials: https://www.philobiblon.com/tutorials.shtml

Specifically for flag book structures: https://philobiblon.com/flagbook/index.html

Books that were mentioned at the meeting included:

Making Handmade Books by Alisa Golden – isbn: 978-1-60059-587-5

The Art of the Fold by Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol – isbn: 978-1-78627-293-5

The Book as Art, ed. Krystyna Wasserman – isbn: 978-1-56898-992-1