Bookbinding

I regularly tell my students about the power of networking.  Making contacts will lead to other contacts, etc.  I have experienced an excellent example of networking in my eventual connection to paper artist, Razvan Supuran. (See some of his work at www.atelieruldecarte.blogspot.com.) When I was still in NC I took a workshop on how to set up a "shop" on Etsy, an online community specializing in handmade items.   The young woman who taught the workshop regularly commented on the value of using the community to make connections, which would in turn help boost sales.  I used my networking a little differently.  While I have set up a shop there is nothing in it currently because I did not want to try selling anything from Romania.  However, when I arrived in Bucharest I did use my Etsy membership to see if there were artists in Bucharest.  I did indeed find a water colorist, who is a physician by day, who in turn gave me the name of a paper artist and bookbinder.  An email to Razvan yielded an enthusiastic welcome and an invitation to his studio.  (I mentioned the first visit back when I wrote about my sister visiting me.)

This is not Razvan, but another artist who works in the studio pulling sheets of paper.  They work primarily with recycled paper to make their pulp as they do not yet have a functioning beater for pulping cotton rag.  I have already offered to help remedy this situation as I prefer to work with cotton rag.  If I can use some of the skills I have to help the studio, it would be a nice way to repay the hospitality!

 Couching the new sheet...

The "felts" between new sheets appear to be a kind of canvass or cotton duck material.

The stack ready for pressing...

The empty press

Newly made paper hanging to dry...
It is very satisfying to note the process is the same here as when I am making paper in the studio at Asheville Bookworks!  Some of the equipment looks a little different, but functions just the same.  I am eager to start making some paper!

But in the meantime, I have been to the studio twice now to use space to work on bookbinding.  I have even been given part of a shelf to store my things so I am not carrying them back and forth...  (The studio is in the basement of the Museum of the Romanian Peasant, http://www.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro/)

This is the first edition in the "Books bound in Bucharest" series.  The decorative cover is paper purchased here...

Inside the covers I have used some of Razvan's handmade paper...

The binding is called Secret Belgian Binding.  The book is a mostly blank journal, with several quotations inserted for stimulus.

While my profession is not artist and I did not specifically come on this Fulbright grant to practice my craft, I am confident that the sharing we are and will be doing in the studio fulfills the intent of the Fulbright Commission to share across cultures.