In the spring of my sophomore year, I took an Artist’s Books course, which was taught and recommended by my Paper-making course professor, Dr. Cushman. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in this class because I did not know whether it would include reading books about artists, studying books made by different artists, or crafting actual books. All options sounded pretty fun to me, and fortunately it turned out to incorporate all of the above. Plus, Dr. Cushman was a great teacher in Papermaking, so I knew it couldn’t be a class I would regret. I learned quite a few book sticking techniques, including the Butterfly Stitch, which was my favorite. It was introduced to us by Doug, a bird fanatic who visited Longwood in March. He had a vast knowledge of book-making and so many little tricks that made the process easier. Another one of my favorite books to make was a leather-bound journal, taught to us by another visiting artist named Susanne. The stitch for this book ended up having a pretty diamond shape, and I had so much fun making it that I decided to make two of them. Towards the end of the class, I was required to make a fear book, where I chose a particular phobia and go from there. This was my least favorite project because the instructions were vague, and I had no idea what to do. I decided to do a fear that doesn’t have a specific name, a fear of elevators. I chose this odd theme because I had a bad experience getting stuck in an elevator when I was younger. I made the front cover look like an elevator door with buttons, and the inside text consisted of scary elevator stories. This class definitely gave me very useful skills and a new appreciation for books.

I chose my fear book as my artifact because although it was not my favorite project, it is the one that I will remember the most since it challenged my creativity more than any of the other books I had made.