The Specimen Book Workshop with Erin Sweeney

The Specimen Book
Erin Sweeney
Saturday, August 21, 10-4 pm
$75 plus materials fee


Historically, ‘Specimen Books’ were used to display various typeface examples. Taking the ideas of display and informational storage, we will construct a new form of specimen book. Using an accordion-folded spine, we will build pages with pockets and boxes to store and display items. Pages with room to write about each “specimen” will also be included. We will use Scratch-A-Prints to create simple background patterns for our pages, and spend some time writing brief stories about our displayed items. Bring a few things that you’d like to display! Keep them fairly small, and fairly flat.

Erin Sweeney is an artist living and working in New Hampshire, having just completed her MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She holds a BFA in sculpture from the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. Her current work combines fibers, text, and the book form. She is interested in all forms of building, be it conceptual or physical. Her current work revolves around the concepts and processes of building community. Making handmade objects, manipulating space, and utilizing printmaking processes in non-traditional ways are all a part of Sweeney’s vocabulary. She continues to show work nationally, most recently at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ, Donna Seager Gallery in San Rafael, California, and at the Skybox at 2424 Studios in Philadelphia. Additionally, Sweeney is an instructor, teaching book arts workshops at her Lovely In The Home Press, 30 Main Street, Peterborough, NH.


$20 materials fee, payable to instructor.

Supply List:
bone folder
exacto knife
scissors
pencil
awl
*cutting mat
*materials to display/house within book, not too thick, not too big



To register, please send an email to:
store@philadelphiacenterforthebook.org