Dear Everyone ~
I wrote about David Reed several months ago, when he took my Introduction to Bookbinding workshop, a 21st birthday gift from his mother, Frances. (He was one of the three youngest participants in that workshop, the other two being Rachel, aged 14, and Martin, aged 12.) Midsummer, David was visiting family in Michigan and detoured to Chicago specifically to experience Bari Zaki Studio in person. He subsequently sent me an incredibly lovely thank-you ensemble that included a nesting pair of handfolded envelopes accompanied by his calling card encased in a petite glassine. Here are just a few of my favourite bits:
“ It was fantastic to see the magic behind the scenes when I visited you in Chicago this summer. Your studio is one of those places where you see so many things that you like in great quantities and have the desire to take the whole shop home with you. It is the opposite of Costco. ”
Last month, Frances signed up for Introduction to Glueing Happiness...with David, and David’s brother William, and William’s ladyfriend Zelda, and David & William’s Aunt Janice, and intrepid family friend Beth. In the living room, Frances set a table for six people, their workshop materials, their refreshments, two laptops, and one black cat. She has supplemented her wonderful report below with these photos!
Dear Bari,
WE had a BLAST. Our little group of six (four women, aged 22 to 70-something; and two young men, 21 and 23) was somewhat rowdier than I’d anticipated, but we managed to hear enough of what you were saying to keep us on track, and all were pleased with our handiwork.
It was a wonderful way for folks to spend time together, to create common experience, without having to conjure conversational fodder. I wish these photographs better captured the sparkle and spirit of the assembly, but I think you’ll get a feel for the space and its energies.
We did have refreshments, because we don’t gather here without food and drink: some had coffee, some had Champagne; there were tiny smoked-salmon quiches, various cookies, a salad of berries and melon, and a loaf of banana-date-nut bread. Some of us wore fascinators, because they happened to be on hand.
We put two laptop computers back-to-back on the stand in the center of the 60"-diameter table, which worked pretty well for the six of us. (We muted one of the laptops.) Everyone had a chair, of course, but some of us work better standing up, so there was that.
All, too, are excited by the prospect of our doing another workshop in the same format. We could have used a little more work space… I may set us up in the dining room next time, if I can figure out the lighting. (The Venetian chandelier with 12 candles is lovely for dining but not for positioning an Xacto blade.) We’ve also ordered a folding table that is 72" in diameter.
For now, please accept my thanks and my most cordial regards.
Yes, you can do this at home! – Frances
Since the zoomcast of Introduction to Glueing Happiness, I have received a large handful of emails and phone calls from other students conveying their sheer joy, sense of accomplishment, and desire to make more noteholders at home on their own, and to give as gifts. Every email & call I receive thrills me end-to-end.
Brimming beyond measure, Bari