There was a lovely full-page feature on Windy Weather Bindery last Sunday in the local paper, The Grand Rapids Press.  Thanks to all of you who let me know that you saw it and enjoyed it.  If you missed it, you can still catch it online.  The column is a weekly feature on a local artist or craftsperson.  I am so impressed and thankful that the paper recognizes the importance of the arts and crafts in the community and supports it enough to devote a full page to it every week.  If you don’t already read the column, I would highly recommend that you check it out.

The columnist who wrote the piece, Jennifer Ackerman-Heywood, also has a podcast at craftsanity.com that I have been enjoying.  I have just listened to a couple of the episodes so far, but they are a great way to learn about new artists and craftspeople doing innovative and creative things.

Windy Weather Bindery will be featured in the Grand Rapids Press this Sunday, March 28! If you live in the Grand Rapids area, be sure to pick one up and check it out.

Every week Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood, of craftsanity.com, writes about local artists and craftspeople in a column in the Home and Garden section of the Sunday paper.  She came my studio last week and we chatted for an hour and a half about my work and the joys and challenges of owning a small business.  It will be fun to see what she writes!  For those of you not in the Grand Rapids area, look for a link next week to the column online.

In the last year I designed a new box for Windy Weather Bindery that looks so simple, but can do so much. It is a top loading box that snaps snugly shut, is designed to fit 4″ x 6″ photographs or recipe cards, and is an affordable alternative to a clamshell box.

If you are anything like me, you have great intentions of making beautiful albums to showcase life’s big moments, but end up with piles of photos in a cardboard box in the closet.  With this box, you can slide in a stack of photos with little effort (at 4″ deep it will hold quite a lot) and your organization is complete!  A ribbon allows for easy removal of the photos when you want to pull them out and show them off.

Photographers will find these a lovely solution to presenting proofs to clients.  I am happy to work with you to find a fabrics and ribbons in the right colors and textures to fit your business.  Want your logo on the box?  No problem.  I can work with you to create a die of your logo that I can foil emboss stamp in a variety of colors.

Alternatively, covered with a different cloth or paper, the same box form becomes a recipe box.  The fabulous fabric on this recipe box was designed by Yardwork. Fun, decorative spoons, knives, and forks line up in lovely greens, yellows, and grays. It’s modern design is timeless enough to fit perfectly with your grandmother’s favorite dishes.  Find this box and others on my Etsy store.

Recently I undertook a book project of large proportions. Not only was the book quite large, roughly 22″ tall by 18″ wide and 4.5″ deep, designing the structure of it was also a real challenge.

The project came to me from Matt Aaron Templeton, an artist working in Boston.  He sent me 28 drawings on an extremely thick watercolor paper, almost more like board, that he wanted bound together into a book.

I decided to use a screw post binding to join the individual drawings together.  You can see the head of the posts along the spine of the book.  The benefit of this is that he can disassemble the book if he ever decides he wants to show the drawings on the wall, and of course put it back together again in book form when the show is over.

Because I hinged each of the drawings to a stub of thicker board, the pages are able to turn quite easily, despite the extremely thick paper.  When I ran out of the board I needed for these stubs, Monica Holtsclaw of Boom Box Bindery came to the rescue by cutting all 28 stubs and mailing them to me practically overnight.

It is interesting to see how binding the drawings together in this manner changes the experience of looking at them.  As you turn the pages you see two drawings together in a spread, rather than each drawing individually.  Turning the pages is quite a physical experience, given the weight and size of the book, which also significantly alters the way in which you interact with them.

I made a lot of mistakes along the way to completing the book, but I also learned a whole lot about the how books function, how to work more productively and efficiently on a large scale project, and how to manipulate large materials.  Despite the physical and structural challenges of working on this book, it was enormously satisfying to see it finished.

Better late than never… here are some of my favorite vendors from the Indie Wed Show in late January:

This amazing dress made of letterpress cards was made by Paper Stories, the folks who were responsible for putting the Indie Wed show together in Chicago at the end of January.  Their cards and stationery are really lovely and also ecologically and socially responsible.  They print on recycled, tree-free paper with vegetable-based inks and donate a portion of their profits to charity.

I had the great pleasure of being next to Brooklyn chocolatier, Daniel, of Fine and Raw Chocolate.  In addition to being the nicest guy, his chocolate was amazing!  So good that I could hardly believe it was all free of sugar and dairy.  His packaging was lovely as well.  I highly recommend the bonbons in particular.

One of my favorite vendors was Sarah Neuburger, of The Small Object.  Her wedding toppers, made out of clothespins, are so nicely made.  What fun to replace the traditional toppers with a handmade, custom topper of the bride and groom!

Finally, Magnolia Photo Booth Company had one of their booths on location to try out.   I love the idea of having a photo booth like this at a wedding.  Beyond being a great way to collect photos of your friends and family, the booth itself lends such character and design to the reception.

There were so many other vendors that I could gush about. Read more about all of them here.

On a similar note, if you are from Michigan, check out GRunveiled, an upcoming show in Grand Rapids.  Bringing together a great group of independent and contemporary local vendors, it is sure to be a really fabulous event.