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Kit Davey is a Redwood City, California-based artist specializing in book art. Davey’s work pushes the boundaries of “bookness” by using unusual materials such as mica, acetate, flattened coins and teabags as pages, and making book covers from shells, coins, driftwood, rulers, buttons and acetate. Davey has taught over 70 different book structures, holding her classes on Zoom so that students the world over can join her. Her work is available on her website and at San Francisco Bay Area art events. She makes a book a day and shares them on Instagram.
Here’s one of her recent books: Stitched Leaves.
California bay leaves are stitched onto eco-dyed paper, and the book is held together with the reverse Australian piano hinge binding. This link will take you to Davey’s shop page, filled with the artist’s books she creates daily.
Davey is a generous instructor. I enjoyed watching this video, in which she talks about the materials she sources and gives a tour of her studio.
You can find information about upcoming classes, tutorials and events here. This image shows a Slide Frame Book.
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Kit Davey’s recommendations:
- 500 Handmade Books
- Making Handmade Books, by Alisa Golden
- Martha Stewart Scoring Board
- Fiskars embossing tool
- Tim Holtz clear ruler
- Cropadile corner rounder
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Visit Kit Davey’s website to learn more about her work. You can also find her on Instagram.
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Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. He practices and refines his skills in audio production while making his own podcast I’ll Have a Beer and Talk, a show about tech news, culture, weird animal stories and of course, beer. Gary is also the Deckle in Pulp & Deckle, a Portland-based community hand papermaking studio.
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1 Comment
I’ve been following Kit Davey on Instagram for quite a while and have taken a few of her book classes. She is amazing and so creative with materials and with structures! She’s also a wonderful instructor – she provides clear directions, plus is great with student questions and focused on making sure everyone has a great experience. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this wonderful interview with her, which gives us a glimpse of her journey into full time art making while also providing practical advice. You, Helen, are a great interviewer – obviously very well prepared and giving the interviewee lots of time to speak. Great job!