Interpretive Binding, 2026
This bookbinding was created for a book obtained “in sheets” titled, Papermaking in Seventeenth Century England, by Peter and Donna Thomas, et al. published in 1990.
Linen was selected as the covering material to represent the linen rags used in the early years of the Rittenhouse Town paper making production to create a tactile, tangible context of the era. A Folk Art style bookbinding was created to represent what a handmade book may have looked like if made to protect a papermaking treatise in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries. The cover was embellished with embroidery using red cotton thread intended to correspond with the red ink used to print the actual words of those who visited the paper mills in the seventeenth century. Block-printed endpapers, cloth-over-core end bands using red and white striped cotton “shirting” traditional in early American bookbindings. A photocopy of the title page on translucent long-fiber tissue was adhered to a recess on the upper cover to identify the book. Peter Thomas’s research includes the two known visitors’ accounts written as a result of their observations in English seventeenth century paper mills. One of those accounts is by a woman who had the financial and emotional independence to explore England to pursue places of interest to her. The extraordinary illustrations by Donna Thomas are very similar to the methods used at the Rittenhouse Paper Mill.
ARBORETA, 2026
Digital photographs of tree structures, collaged with a gift of handmade papers. Botanical inclusions. Covers: orizomegami on Japanese paper. Coptic binding
Unfinished Project, 2026
Paste papers and collage
Unfinished Project collages paste papers and old children’s encyclopedias to explore the history of our country’s relationships with Native Americans. At the same time, it also references processes and feelings I often have about the art I make.
The Papermaker, 2026
A tunnel book using a 16th Century print by the Swiss-German artist, Jost Amman (1539-1591)
Pigment print on Epson matte paper, covers are marbled paper over board, 2026
Jost Amman, a 16th century Swiss-German artist based in Nuremberg created Das Standebuch (The Book of Trades) in 1568. The book featured woodcut illustrations of 114 professions accompanied by a short poem and documented occupations ranging from Emperor and Pope, to papermaker, engraver, printer and bookbinder, lawyer, clockmaker, thimble maker, and jester. The book provides a unique cross-section of daily life and social attitudes of the 16th century.
The Rittenhouse Mill made paper using the same techniques shown in Amman’s image. The beaters which made pulp from rags were powered by water wheels. The paper molds were hand dipped in tanks of pulp, and the water was squeezed out of the wet sheets using a press. The sheets were then hung to dry.
Untitled, 2026
Legion Stonehenge paper (90 lb.), Tracing paper, cotton rag paper, recycled encyclopedia pages, copy paper, magnetic paper, acrylic, PVA adhesive
In 2025, I began experimenting with hectographic prints with bookmaker Eriko Takahashi and illustrators Mônica Carnesi and Adrienne Wright. Hectographs are monoprints, meaning only one true image is created. Secondary prints, or ghosts, may also be pulled, but these are fainter than the monoprint and fine details are often lost. Layering monoprints and ghosts creates unexpected textures and patterns that are influenced by both ink and paper. I used a meandering lotus design for the book’s structure, allowing the prints to move and interact as the book is manipulated—a nod to the layered history of Rittenhouse Town and its paper production. Hidden under two panels, magnetic paper allows pages in the book to join, forming a circle or Möbius strip, echoing the cyclic nature of making and recycling paper.
Paper Arc de Triomphe, 2026
Paper, mat board
Deployable folds of Miura origami
Hand Made Paper & Home Made Food, 2026
Recipes are from the “Penn Family Recipes” edited by Evelyn Abraham Benson, and published by George Shumway of York PA, in 1966. All the paper is handmade with painted watercolor discs on front & back cover and handmade marbled paper. The recipes are copied in ball point ink. The sewn binding is by Lisa G Scarpello, The Evening Press, Philadelphia, PA 2026. This is a unique copy.
Paper: The Write Metaphors, 2026
Gouache and ink on paste-painted Rives BFK, with collaged bits of assorted papers. Text by the artist.
Gift, 2026
Gift is a meditation on the material paper. The seed of this piece is the transformative power of a gift. Plantlife, used to create paper, the material for this book can be viewed both as something that needs to be cleared by a new land owner or a gift, providing not only this paper, nutrients and oxygen, but stabilzing the earth. Likewise, the paper in this book could be quickly cast in a recycling bin as valueless or given freely as a gift and placed with other treasures in a collection. This paper records an unseen worth, it captures spirit
The Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers 