A Collaborative Bookbinding Journey
Working with Corinna Krause on this bookbinding workshop has been a rewarding experience. Corinna is skilled, meticulous, and thoughtful in her approach, and I always felt comfortable making decisions while being gently guided by her experience and expertise. The process involved a huge amount of measuring, planning, testing, and problem solving, and having her calm and professional approach throughout gave me a lot of confidence in the work.
As with any creative project, it was also a reminder of the importance of building flexibility into schedules and expectations. We had to reschedule one of the workshop days due to illness, which is simply part of working on longer, handmade projects like this. I had also prepared one or two extra prints in case of accidents or unexpected issues during the binding process, and I made a proof print specifically for measurements and calculations so that we could test everything before committing to the final works.
Corinna approached every stage with real care and precision, and I think she genuinely enjoyed the project too, which made the collaboration feel both supportive and creatively engaging.
One of the parts of the project I am most looking forward to is giving the completed artist books to the non-verbal autistic adults who contributed to the work. The books bring together both their imagery and my own through photography, printmaking, collage and collaborative process, reflecting the shared nature of the project from beginning to end.
The books are not simply documentation of workshops or participation, but a celebration of creative exchange, collaboration, and the different ways connection and communication can take place through making. Seeing all of these elements brought together equally within the finished books feels like a meaningful conclusion to this stage of A Tapestry of Connection.
Nicola Neate 