North Redwoods Book Arts Guild

Happy 12th Birthday Norbag:

September marks the 12th anniversary of the founding of the North Redwoods Book Arts Guild. In September 1995, 15 people gathered together to form the Guild; today 9 of those 15 are still members. By the end of the first year our Guild had grown to 48 (20 of whom are still members) and today we have 133 members far and wide. While half of our members live in Humboldt County, the remaining 50% resides as follows: California (beyond Humboldt County) 24%; Oregon/Washington 11%; elsewhere in the U.S. 9%; and 6% reside outside the U.S. (Canada; England; Germany, Guatemala, Japan, and Thailand). Our membership changes on a monthly basis as new members join and others don't renew.

Shereen LaPlantz (author of Cover to Cover and The Art and Craft of Handmade Books) was one of our founding members. She and Robin Renshaw, had attended an OBAG conference and felt that a Guild here could have a conference in Humboldt County the years OBAG didn't. Our newly formed Guild did just that in June 1996. It was our first and last conference! Even though it was very much a success, the work involved was more than we ever wanted to take on again. We have been eternally grateful to OBAG, and now FOBA, for putting on a bi-annual conference, as well as the Newport Paper Arts Festival with their yearly gathering. So, now without having to commit to sponsoring conferences, our Guild enjoys monthly meetings with our mini-workshops; bringing in guest instructors for full-day workshops; sending out a monthly Newsletter which includes a wonderful project page; maintaining a rotating bookarts exhibit of our exchange books at the Humboldt County Library; and encouraging each other to make books. We also have a Guild lending library for our members to checkout books. The collection includes numerous "how-to" books as well as general interest books on bookarts and bookbinding. There is always something new to learn, and that is how we grow. Happy Birthday to us!

The NORBAG Newsletter

The most recent NORBAG newsletters which include the first page and colophons with pictures only, are available in Adobe pdf format. Please click on desired month. To contact us you may email membership person Dolores Guffey at dguff@humboldt1.com. For information about the website please contact Victoria Van Horn at vickiv@norbag.org