TRAVELING IN A TINY HOME THAT IS REALLY AN ARTISTS' BOOK ON WHEELS

Peter and Donna Thomas have been making fine press and artist's books for over 40 years. When they started, as craftspeople at Renaissance Faires, they fell in love with the graceful beauty of "gypsy wagon" caravans that other vendors had made to sleep in or use as booths for selling their wares. In 2009 Peter and Donna built their own tiny home on wheels, designed after a typical late 19th century Redding Wagon. This blog documents their trips around the country, taken to sell their artists' books, teach book arts workshops, and talk about making books as art; as well as to seek out and experience the beauty of the many different landscapes found across the USA.

Peter and Donna started their business in 1977 and made their first book in 1978, so from 2017-18 are traveling to celebrate 40 years of making books with shows in a dozen libraries across the country. See the schedule on the side bar to find if they are coming to a town near you....

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Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Wandering Alone: Texas

I have been wandering alone this trip. Donna and I both left home February 12, 2019. I flew to Waco, Texas, where we had parked the gypsy wagon back in November. Donna flew to Chile to travel with our daughter Tanya, who was a high school AFS exchange student there. 


I easily pulled the wagon out of the garage (well really more a car barn). Thanks to Josh Been and his family for its winter home.


The first day I met with Baylor librarian Sha Towers and dropped off our book Piute Creek, which he had just ordered. Here are a few interesting snippets from our conversation:
1. “With a quick glance a person can fool themselves into believing they have seen a painting, but they can’t do that with a book.”
2. One way to classify artists’ books is by their content. There are three general categories: Artists' books are made to a. present something external (politics, environment, etc.) or b. something personal (my life, my relationships, etc.) or c. to create an aesthetic expression (beauty, shape, etc.).


Without Donna, I planned a number of musical events for the trip. That night I led a jug band sing along for the Waco Ukulele Orchestra. A day later I received this nice note from Fred (whose last name will remain anonymous to protect the innocent). “Thank you Peter for an enriching and enjoyable musical experience. I’ll speak for myself and perhaps more when I say, where else can church choir members get to sing (in public) nice bawdy songs like the ones you taught us!” The event was held at the Texas Music Cafe. Chris Ermoian spent his life recording Texas' almost famous rock bands. His work can be seen on his Texas Music Cafe web and facebook sites.


I spent the first night at a Walmart. Not a very auspicious start.


My next stop was Austin. They don’t allow RVs in Walmart’s there. Luckily Mary Boffman, of the Austin Book Arts Center, once again offered me a spot on her street in a part of town called Clarkesville. Just as I was parking an older, white haired lady (and I am 65 so I mean older) was driving by. She rolled down the window and said “You’ve stayed here before and it’s so nice to see you again. I notice you have repainted the wagon since last time.” It’s nice to be welcome.



The Austin Ukulele Society had their monthly meeting on February 14, and as co-founder of the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz which provided their inspiration to start their club, I was an honored guest. Before hand I had dinner at Tyson's Tacos, where ukulele players can sing for their supper.




I visited Kevin Auer’s papermaking class at UT Austin and showed them my tricks, then spent some time admiring the Rob Roy type collection. Here are a couple of fonts I wish I owned.





I taught a weekend class for the ABAC titled “Type and Image”. We used wood type and found cuts to create folded paper booklets.




ABAC had just opened the last time I was in Austin. My class was the last class before moving to a new location. Since I had my trailer pulling truck I was co-opted into helping the ABAC move, and on my last night in town, ABAC member Linda Anderson’s Green Man Coffeehouse hosted a party to celebrate. GM coffeehouse parties always feature a themed music play list. Of course the night’s theme was books. See if you can figure out the connections.



Friday, February 8, 2019

Wandering westward. Heading home.

Last November we left the caravan in Waco, Texas, in the good care of Baylor librarian Josh Been, and then flew home to catch up with life and make books. In a few days Peter will be flying back to Waco, and then driving the caravan west, towards home. Please take a moment to look at the route, and if you are interested in getting in touch, or taking one of the workshops, send us an email.

We thought our wandering would end in 2018 but it has stretched into 2019. In a few weeks this trip will end in Albuquerque, NM,. Then later in the spring, or perhaps early summer, we will drive through Colorado, heading for Jim Croft's Old Ways Workshop in Santa, Idaho. In October there will be a show of our work at The University of Idaho, then we will drive home through Seattle, Portland, Eugene.

This last winter we spent our time at home binding unbound copies of our edition books, printing what needed to be printed, and Donna made a few stunning one-of-a-kind books. Below you will see one of them: A Great Song, Four poems Celebrating the Power of Nature to Transform and Inspire. The binding is the structure we call the Nested Accordion, which is described in our 2004 book More Making Books by Hand








A Great Song, Four poems Celebrating the Power of Nature to Transform and Inspire. (2019) Rainer Maria Rilke, Johann Goethe, Walt Whitman, Donna Thomas. (Full leather  binding with bas relief leather pattern on front and back panel covers. 14 by 8 1/8 inches. 14 pages, 5 watercolor paintings painted on location while backpacking in the Sierra. Nested accordion structure, running stitch design sewn on pages. Clamshell. Sold to the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.