Bookbinding hits the Zoom circuit

Last year about this time I presented on Chinese bookbinding in a Portland State University lecture hall as part of the First Saturday PDX series on Chinese culture (now celebrating 20 years!). So many people came to hear about the evolution of the world's oldest communications device; dozens afterwards came up to check out my book-model petting zoo where books really work their magic. 

How much can change in a year, and yet how much can stay the same. 

Next week I present again on Chinese bookbinding, but this time from my keyboard and to groups near (the Portland Art Museum's Asian Art Council book group) and far (the Whitefish Art and Culture Club in Montana). Education about book evolution knows no boundaries. 

Happy Year of the Ox to everyone. This year is the metal ox, supposedly a harbinger of career opportunity so, in the words of one Internet oracle, "Don't let anxiety or negative thinking affect you." 

While I ponder my future, I am finishing all the rainy-day projects because, well, it's almost always a rainy day where I am, and it's still COVID. That means I'm on Volume III of The Life of Samuel Johnson and I fixed up a broken box ("before" pics above and below, "after" pics last three). Fittingly, I used lots of Japanese tissue so it's not good as new, but good for next decades of celebrating milestones.

This "giant train" was carved of wood in Japan at the behest of the Shackman toy company in New York.

All aboard!