Paper Nerds Tish Brewer (middle) and Shannon Driscoll Phillips (right)  help Jackie Chaiken (left) as she pieces together her Jacob’s ladder Structure.

Guest blogger Lydia Regalado is an arts educator and blogger who writes for Art&Seek about people who gather to make things.

“It’s all in the wrist!” That was one of the many things I learned from the Paper Nerds last weekend at their Jacob’s Ladder Workshop. Paper Nerds Tish Brewer and Shannon Driscol Phillips own and operate The Center for Art Conservation here in Dallas, and Paper Works are workshops that they offer for those who love the paper arts (a.k.a. Paper Nerds).

This 3-hour workshop focused on the processes and techniques used to create a Jacob’s ladder book. This multi-paneled structure can appear to be a simple accordion book, or with the flick of a wrist turns into a flip-flopping slide show of colorful images. Once the mechanics of our model were mastered, the ideas on how to best use this structure poured in. What a great way to commemorate your summer vacation, or in my case, summer stay-cation! Since our model used 12 images, the Jacob’s ladder book is a great way to display baby’s first year, or a new couple’s first year together. The good news is, the possibilities are endless and I know what to do with all of the pretty paper scraps I’ve been saving.

Paper Nerds offers workshops monthly, and their next one is Japanese Book Binding, click here for details.

Next-up: Salsa Sunday!
Stop by North Haven Gardens this Sunday for their Salsa Sunday festival. Learn the basics of canning at 11 am with Melita Taylor, Master Gardener. Then at 1:30 pm, Dallas Country Master Gardener Tom Wilten will tell us how to get the most successful harvest of tomatoes and peppers. Oh, and don’t forget to sample some prize winning salsas! This is a free event.
See you there!