Historic Yellow Springs

Inspired by the 18th- and 19th-century tradition of collecting natural specimens, artifacts, and unusual discoveries, explore a variety of traditional craft techniques while creating your own Cabinet of Curiosities. This collaborative series brings together Historic Yellow Springs and Historic Sugartown for four individual workshops in botanical preservation, ceramics, paper marbling, cyanotype printing, and bookbinding.

Each workshop is offered separately, so you can choose the sessions that most interest you. Attend one workshop to explore a new technique, or choose two or more to begin building a more complete and cohesive collection of materials for your own Cabinet of Curiosities journal.

Saturday, October 24 | Historic Yellow Springs | Sarah Rafferty | 9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Collecting & Preserving Specimens Begin by exploring ways to collect, dry, and press botanical specimens. You'll also create a small ceramic element by pressing a natural specimen into clay to create a unique button or fastener that can be used on a finished book.

Saturday, October 31 | Historic Sugartown | Ramon Townsend | 9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Traditional Paper Marbling Learn the historic art of paper marbling and create one-of-a-kind decorative papers. Your marbled papers can become covers, endpapers, or pages in a future book project.

Saturday, November 8 | Historic Yellow Springs | 9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Cyanotype Specimens Transform collected plants and other natural objects into striking blue-and-white cyanotype prints. Create a collection of images that can be incorporated into a handmade journal, displayed as artwork, or used in future creative projects.

Saturday, November 21 | Historic Sugartown | Ramon Townsend | 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. Traditional Bookbinding Bring your collection together in Historic Sugartown's working bindery. Using traditional bookbinding techniques, create a handcrafted journal incorporating your marbled papers, cyanotypes, specimens, and other materials. Participants who have attended two or more of the previous workshops will have the opportunity to create a more finished and personalized Cabinet of Curiosities journal.

Each workshop can be enjoyed independently, and no previous experience in book arts, ceramics, or cyanotype printing is required. If you'd like to create the complete Cabinet of Curiosities experience, choose two or more workshops and build your collection over the course of the series.