about me

I grew up in academia; both my parents are artists and teachers. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Studio Art, and with an M.A. from The Cranbrook Academy of Art located near Detroit, Michigan.

I worked for many years inside the University of Texas Libraries system.  My work included teaching students and staff general collections book repair. I was also a teacher at the Conservation Treatment Lab at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

My work at BookLab II included creating and job paperwork for preservation photocopying, limited edition binding, and book repair. My work at BookLab II included marketing products to museums, libraries and presses across the country; constructing custom archival book boxes; and building limited edition books including sewing, cutting and binding.

I also served as a book repair volunteer at The Harry Ransom Center Book Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. At the HRC Book Lab, I handled and performed book and paper repairs to fragile materials of significant value, including materials from the 17th through the 20th centuries. 

My Philosophy:

“...preservation refers to steps that address the overall safekeeping of all the holdings. Conservation is used to mean hands-on treatment." — Nelly Balloffet and Jenny Hille from a book Preservation and Conservation for Libraries and Archives. 

My background is in libraries and museums, where the goal is to repair a book in a clean and durable way, while allowing it to handled in the future.  

In doing a repair I take away only the materials necessary, or that are beyond repair. I add what's needed for strength, while honoring the esthetics, the character, of the book. This process is a part of the provenance of the book. I want to respect the journey it has made up to this point in time.

I have seen the term 'preservation' used to mean hiding the repairs, painting over parts of the existing book, trying to make it look less like it had been repaired, or newer. For me this erases a part of the book’s history, which is the opposite of preserving it. 

My approach to book repair is from a conservation perspective. I keep as much of the original as possible, remove as little as possible, use archival and reversible methods, and do not hide the repairs.