Adventures of the Wandering Book Artists: The Eclipse

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....

Sunday, July 7, 2024

The Eclipse

This is our first road trip since the pandemic. When we found the full eclipse of the sun would be seen from Texas in the first part of April 2024, we planned things to be there for the celestial event. When setting up the workshop at the Austin Center for the book, our host suggested we might enjoy seeing it while attending the Kerrville Folk Festival's "Kerrclipse" event.

The Kerrville Folk festival has been putting on multi-week folk music festivals for over 50 years, and all the info you want to know about it can be found on the internet, but this was their first eclipse festival and a great adventure for all involved. Yes we got a bit skunked, as the weather was cloudy, but the clouds parted just enough at totality that we could see the corona and the solar flares.