Paper laid bare to the elements

If you are anywhere near Lincoln, Montana—or better yet, make it an art destination!—Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild is well worth your time. The free outdoor art park includes many wonderful works from local as well as international artists. Check out Steven Siegel's 30,000 pounds of newspapers that make up 2014's Hill and Valley.

A bespoke bookbinding belt? Be still my heart

Ace songwriter Izaak Opatz made me a belt! Although I would have been happy with anything from the tunesmith, he managed to get my favorite things on there, including (naturally) bookbinding and tango. Note the awl, bone folder, and knife plus a codex next to the dancers.

I can't wait to show the students in the second round of bookbinding classes at the Northwest Montana History Museum. 

Let's toast this drink

A favorite distillery in Butte puts old-school crafters in the mix.

Book lab launches at the Northwest Montana History Museum

Photo by David Vigil

In just a few hours we'll start a 12-session journey in getting to know—and making—the world's oldest communications device. Thank you to the Daily Inter Lake for the article last week.

Montanans make good bookbinders, too!

At Kalico Art Center in downtown Kalispell, a bunch of people spent part of a precious sunny Saturday learning to bind books with me. 

These kicks fit my new Montana life

My blog is usually all about books, but I have to share the work of other excellent handcrafters! Check out these bespoke tennies I just received from Heidi Agner at Lincoln Gulch Engraving and Leather Works. I met her and her husband recently at the Kalispell Gun Show.

Plain Converse is cool, but custom touches step it up.

                                        Photo by Heidi Agner

Tell me again that books are dead

This pic also references a
newspaper, yay newspapers.

And then tell it to the 140,000 people who attended this past weekend's Tucson Festival of Books. 

Given an unexpected bunch of time off, I seized the day (and a half) and a Covid-related airline credit and made my way Southwest. The crowd at the book festival drew a wide range of people representing all ages, backgrounds, and tastes—judging from the exhibitors, the teens standing in a line 100 yards long for a YA author signing, and the offerings of music and food (wow... the gelato concoctions). What a surprise, what a fun way to celebrate books.

Viva el libro.