Instructors: Cat Bennett + Bari Zaki

This Bookful workshop, and its eleven Bookful brethren, was originally presented to a Zoom audience of students from far & wide. We’ve decided to make our full-length live recordings of each of these workshops available for purchase this summer. (The themes of the twelve workshops will never be repeated or reprised, as Cat Bennett & Bari Zaki will keep thinking of new subjects.)

Every recording (12-ish hours-ful) comes with the same kit of sumptuous materials as the original workshop, barring the occasional palette refreshment or replacement. Also included is my sincere invitation to contact me if you have questions or anxious moments whilst watching and making. Enticement: a 15% discount ($44.25!) on your second Bookful purchase, likewise on your third, and so on & so fourth.

Bookful of Art was our debut co-teaching collaboration, back in the early autumn of 2020. Our inspiration for this workshop—which has become an ongoing series— was combining the art of making a book with the joys of filling its pages with art. A bookful of drawings, stories, and musings—is a pleasure, a treasure, even a joy beyond measure.

When we announced our first Bookful, Cat offered this enticement: “As a teacher, I hope to encourage everyone to work with imagination and try things out. Even to go to the edge of their abilities and ideas. That’s where we really discover things and make creative leaps. I’m always excited to see the beautiful work our students do and I think the books we make and fill are real treasures.”

What you’ll make: A French-link stitch book (6" x 9" x 1") with luscious 100% cotton St-Armand handmade paper for your covers. The binding will lay perfectly flat, which is fabulous for sketching. Signatures are uncompressed, so you can fill the pages with ephemera, cut-paper collage, &tc. without your book starting to pooch.

Workshop #1 (4-ish hours) – The session begins with an introduction to paper grain and its importance for your finished book. After Bari’s brief review of your bookbinding tools, you will be ready to fold your 40 sheets of 80 lb. text to make ten 8-page (a total of 160 serendipitous sides) signatures. You will use Cat’s favourite sketchbook paper: white, slightly toothy, and acid-free. Next you will measure, score and fold your heavy St-Armand 100% cotton handmade paper to make your two covers. Then, you will place your three lengths of ribbon along the spine and prepare the signatures for stitching. After stitching, you will weave the ribbon into the front & back covers. Voilà!

Workshops #2 and #3 (each is 3-ish hours) – Cat is a passionate believer in having a daily practice of looking for and recording the good we find in our world and in our lives. She leads two sessions about creating strong images using a range of techniques: drawing in line, working with markers, brushes, and colored pencils; and, using painted papers and found ephemera to create simple collages. She also shows you ways to include a few words here and there. Cat shares tips & techniques from her years of artistic experience about design, composition, and pacing, so that by the end of this workshop, you will have created a beautiful bookful of positive inspirations.

Class fee includes the materials (but not the tools) we use to make one French-link stitch book:

40 sheets of Cat’s favourite drawing paper (9" x 12")

2 pieces of St-Armand for the covers (9" x 14")

1 yard of luscious ribbon

1 spool of waxed-linen thread.

Tools needed: Bonefolder, shipping clerk’s knife, lightweight awl, X-acto knife. You will receive a 20% discount on all tools ordered for the workshop (via refund after your recroding purchase). You can purchase these tools individually here.

Ancillary tools needed: Cutting mat, glue-stick

The three palettes, as shown here (left to right) are Forest Bathing, Tuscan Villa, and Desert Breeze. Please order from the dropdown menu below. If you’d like to purchase an additional set of materials, you certainly can. However, you cannot accomplish this in the dropdown menu (because one set of materials is included with the workshop fee). It’s $145 per additional set, with no shipping fee if you order at the same time as your workshop purchase. To order, please e me and I will be in touch extremely promptly. And I will be sure that you don’t receive duplicate sets for making your French-link stitch (unless you want to).

Cat and I look forward to sharing our love of summer, farmers markets, drawing, painting, & collaging with you in this 3-session (11-ish hours-ful) live-recorded workshop!

About Cat: In her former life, she was a commercial illustrator for 25 years. All three of her wonderful books are available in our shop & online: The Confident Creative, Making Art a Practice, and The Drawing Club of Improbable Dreams.

“I believe that drawing and painting create happiness. I love teaching because I get to see people discover their own creative genius!” – Cat Bennett