BOOKS

BOOK OF HOURS

My wonderful client Ron, commissioned this book. It was a book about the passing of TIME. There are 144 pages on manuscript vellum (genuine calfskin) with 23.75k gold on almost every page. He wanted only the color on the facing pages to match, so I had a lot of fun creating. The size of each page was around 6.5 x 8.5. Below are a few of the pages.

BOOK OF ALEXIS

Created by Holly with the inspiration from her client. This 4-volume Baby Book is covered with blue leather bound by Jame Fallon, Ohio Book. The end pages were hand-lettered and several borders were hand designed with variations of it used throughout the book. Featured on select pages is a unique font along with hand-lettered titles.

BOOK OF JULIA

Below, I show the borders that I created for the Book of Julia.

Book of Remembrance

I worked with a church in Frankfort, Kentucky on this project. They requested a leather bound book with wooden carved inserts on the cover. Bob Furia did the magnificent chip carving in bass wood. Gabrielle Fox did an extraordinary job of putting the book together with Harmatan leather cover. The pages are Twinrocker handmade paper. Of course, I designed the pages (although when I moved they have a new person working on the pages). I’ll request new photos, so stay tuned!

A Simplier Book – for a Graduate

This book has a paper cover and a slip cover. A simple sewn binding. Heather Barton, created the binding. I show the title page below….family and friends created Haiku’s that had to do with the graduate.

A Eulogy Book

The following book was created for my dear friend, commemorating her father, who was also an ophthamologist. It had a blue leather cover, bound by James Fallon at Ohio Book. I hand lettered and illustrated each page on Twinrocker paper. Below is the title page and one with a family story. They wanted the titling to be a 1950 style.

CALFSKIN & GOLD LEAF

The images below are all created by hand on genuine calfskin. The 23.75k gold is made in America and laid on Cennini gesso, made in my studio. Typically, I use watercolor, gouache and hand ground stick ink on calfskin.

In this first image I’m laying gold leaf on the ‘pink’ gesso for a commission from Mt. Angel Abbey,

Below, you can see the final framed images. Calfskin will always have some ‘cockle’ to it. It does not lay completely flat. One of these went to Mt. Angel Abbey and the other to Westminster Abbey, Canada.

Below is the top of a wedding gift to this couple. A much more decorative border. Also with gold leaf.

Below is a commission that has been mounted for framing. It’s important to mount the calfskin before framing. It will move with the weather, so this stabilizes it.

BELOW, Mercy hangs in the same room as Man in the Arena above. Note the similar colors. Both were cut out of the largest calfskin that I have ever worked on.

BELOW, note that intricate borders with gold leaf and color can be created to fit your design.

BELOW, finally a shaded curved heading in an Old English style on calfskin with gold powder and raised gold leaf.

Certificates & Awards

Family Trees

Coat of Arms – on Calfskin with 23k Gold Leaf

FAMILY HISTORY BOOK

This book was made when my studio was in Cincinnati, OH, so I do not have the best pictures, yet I wanted to show it. The binding and clam shell box was made by bookbinder extraordinaire Gabrielle Fox. I created the inner pages. Once you open the book, on the left, Gabrielle built a pocket. The third picture down shows the family genealogy. Once that was folded, it fit in the pocket. I consider that the family ‘road map’, so you can see when in history a family member lived. As you flip the pages, the family marriages highlighted with decoration, make up the chapters and specific content to individuals was placed there. Birth, marriage and death records, photos, newspaper articles or any other history that the genealogist had found. This is an excellent format if you want to preserve more than just names and dates.

Greeting Cards

You may view a few of my greeting card designs here. I have many for sale in my SHOP – individual cards for various occasions, as well as Boxed Christmas Cards. My designs have been licensed through companies such as DaySpring, Leanin’ Tree, DesignDesign, Abbey Press, The Printery House and others. Many are still available for licensing. Original designs for your company or organization can be commissioned. In my SHOP I have a line of Artist Cards which are printed on digital fine art paper with archival inks – blank inside unless specified otherwise .