Arts and Entertainment

Conservation Centre celebrates summer solstice by swapping book art creations

Penn State University Libraries’ Conservation Centre accepted the creative challenge of the Summer Solstice Swap. Organized by the Guild of Book Workers’ Potomac Chapter, 15 member participants created original items that could fit in an envelope and shared them by mail. The Conservation Centre team created 15 wire-based planetary mobiles composed of handmade papers, including a representation of Earth plus stars, moons and fiber-textured planets. Credit: Penn State University Libraries / Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — What do book conservators do when a pandemic strikes and keeps them from their workplaces? They make paper at home while the sun shines, thematically based on when it shines longest.

Penn State University Libraries’ Conservation Centre employees, led by Senior Book Conservator Bill Minter, recently joined other Potomac Chapter members of the Guild of Book Workers — “the national organization for all the book arts,” as its organization’s website states — for a "Summer Solstice Swap."

For the swap, chapter members were given a creative challenge to craft unique, handmade paper or a small piece of book art, such as a paper toy, cutout, print or postcard, that could be produced in multiples and sent in envelopes to other participating members. Chapter members also include individuals who work at the National Archives and Records Administration, the Smithsonian Institution Archives and at universities, while others are printmakers, independent bookbinders and book artists.

“The Solstice Swap was a great opportunity to create a unique item outside of the standard projects for the University Libraries collections,” Minter said. “This allowed us to expand our papermaking skills that can be shared during future workshops. While paper is a standard in any library, making decorative paper is educational and fun.”

The Conservation Centre team embraced the event’s theme, making wire-based planetary mobiles using handmade papers formed into shapes of the Earth, a watermark-cratered Moon, stars and other interesting and unique planet concepts. Minter and staff members Jacque Quinn, Emily Jamison and Catherine Orochena spent several days making paper at home using a variety of fibers. The group also made amate, a bark-based paper prepared by indigenous peoples of Mexico. Amate was also made during a papermaking workshop held in early 2020 to complement the recent Eberly Family Special Collections exhibition “Indigenous Roots/Routes: Contested Histories, Contemporary Experiences.”

While 15 of their mobiles were mailed to other participants from the Potomac Chapter’s members reaching as far as Virginia, one will join items received from those participants and added among the University Libraries’ Special Collections.

One set of contributed items has a Penn State alumni connection. It was created by book artist Lawrence Novak, a Penn State math alumnus who worked at NASA. Appropriately, he created a small summer-solstice study guide and a companion small winter-solstice booklet. 

A small image gallery highlighting artifacts sent by Summer Solstice Swap participants is available below. Click on an image to view a larger version.

 

Last Updated July 10, 2020