HABITAT Paperwork

Paper art is not for the impatient. Using paper as an artistic medium requires meticulous attention to detail, careful measurement and lots of waiting, blending me skills of an architect with those of an artist. Many paper artists got their start with one of the oldest forms of the craft-bookbinding. Dallas’ bookbinding history began with Mariana Roach, a co-founder of the Dallas Craft Guild who taught binding for many years, then passed the torch to Dorothy Westapher. Westapher, who still works and teaches locally, taught Linda Finnel and Julie Cohn how to make books and boxes, and now Two Women Boxing is an artistic success story. Catherine Burkhard, another bookbinding teacher, has expanded her emphasis to include related paper arts, such as making and marbling paper and constructing boxes and frames, accordion notecards and tiny boxes. Some artists are even transferring their technique to jewelry. Everything, though, is designed as intricately as origami and engineered as carefully as a bridge.