Jes Lee

New adventures

Tuesday I started a new adventure. The day after a long, holiday weekend, I woke up early to head out to day one of an internship. I will spend the next four months working in the preservation department at the library. The work isn’t easy, but it is a wonderful challenge. I can finally see myself putting to use the skills I have learned in my classes at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. The books I get to work with, to look at, to touch, and protect are amazing. I am there twice a week, and each time brings so many new tasks and treasures. I’m so very lucky to have this experience! Even better, my supervisor loves chatting about photography, and doesn’t mind at all when I photograph what I’m working on!

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My morning walk across the river to get to the library is pretty spectacular as well!

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This Sunday I will have a booth at Art at Rice Creek – the annual art festival held at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts! The event runs from 10am-4pm and includes live music, activities, and many artist vendors! I will be selling pottery and photos as usual. This time I will also have copies of the broadside I made in collaboration with Kathryn Kysar for sale as well!

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I hope to see you there!

Boxes to make and miles to paddle

I believe this week will be my last “non-crazy schedule” week for a while. Next week will start a new epic adventure. Tuesday, September 3rd I will be starting a part-time internship at the Hennepin County Public Library in their preservation department at the main branch in downtown Minneapolis. I’m so excited! I will being doing many jobs, some of which will include helping to repair old bindings and make new enclosure boxes to protect aging materials. So, like any nerdy over-achiever, I have been practicing my box making skills.
It is really nice to have my new studio space set up so I can make things!
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The boxes that are made at the library are a style of clam shell box. I’m not exactly sure what their specifications will be, but I have made clam shell boxes before.

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This one I made over a year ago in a class taught by Jana Pullman.

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I found instructions from a workshop I took from Jodi Williams last winter and started figuring out what I needed to make a mini box.

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Mini boxes are great, since the pieces are never too big, and you can usually use scraps from other projects to make them!

This past Saturday I decided John and I needed a break from yard works and house work. We took our kayaks down to Long Lake and had a lovely quiet afternoon paddling around. Somedays you need to just be somewhere quiet. Having a day like this helped a lot.

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