Who doesn't love a blank book -- it holds so much potential. For diagrams or a diary, for poems and sketches, recipes and todo lists, mementos and manifestos!
Imagine a blank book that is handmade, from all sorts of paper and bound in interesting ways with twigs, cord or snaps? Even better.
Regin Igloria knows that making books is a hands-on way to help connect a community or family. That's why he started North Branch Projects many years ago to encourage "community binding." CCRx was pleased to invite him to share his skill at creative reuse binding at workshops in LIttle Village Branch Library and the Blackstone Library in Hyde Park.
Books are small, intimate and tactile. Regin encourages people to use the things that are already in their house when making these books because it helps to reduce trash and also makes them more unique and personal.
Regin is an multidisciplinary studio artist who can make a book out of anything that can be bound- in the past he has made them out of VHS boxes, library cards, coffee bags, election signs, tea boxes, rice packaging and more! Seeing examples of his past work inspired the workshop participants to think about all the different materials that could be utilized when making their own creative reuse books. Regin started off an avid sketchbook keeper, sketchbooks to him were like a portable studio and this is what got him interested in bookbinding. In his art practice he is thinking about brands and consumer culture and how this is embedded into our society, we as humans are attached to these things and there is often a response when the logos are recognized after being reused and made into new objects.
Non-adhesive bookbinding does not require many supplies and some of the tools are things that many already have at home. You will need a darning needle, wax thread or embroidery floss, bone folder, scissors, box cutter and a ruler. Of course, you also need paper! Preferably reused paper that can be taken from old notebooks, maps, stationary, birthday cards, pictures, scrapbooking paper, tracing paper, outdated calendars, folders or packaging. The more creative you are with your materials the more one-of-a-kind they can be, the possibilities are endless!
If you would like to take a community bookbinding class, Regin will be teaching a class at Oxbow in Michigan and also will hold some more workshops in Humboldt Park this summer. Or try one of CCRx's free Imagination Journal workshops at various Chicago parks all summer long -- part of Night Out in the Parks. www.creativechirx.org/events
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