We didn’t travel very far to make this “Studio Stop” - just down the street, in fact. Susan Denniston is a Santa Fe mixed media and handmade paper artist we first met on a Studio Tour. We never finished the tour - because we were “entertained” at Sue’s house for hours and didn’t feel we’d get any more inspired by going anywhere else.

Sue is one of those people whose enthusiasm for her art radiates from her and lights up the immediate vicinity. Her creative curiousity protrudes like little antennae - rotating to “lock on” to the next exciting idea. Those same antennae endear her to the folks at the Alien Festivals she attends in Roswell, NM, but that is a whole other story.

We were fascinated by several of Sue’s processes, by her infectious sense of humor, and by her refusal to take it all too seriously. Her work is represented by one of Canyon Road’s finest galleries (you can’t do much better than that), but the idea of artist “attitude” is as alien to her as some of the folks at Roswell.

So, we got ourselves invited for an afternoon of “play” (her term) at Sue’s studio, and we hereby share the fun with you.
The works that had first intrigued us on that studio tour were handmade books that had actual slabs of stone for covers - a brand new twist on the old saying “written in stone”! A wonderful example is shown on this month’s cover - and to the right. This book is resting on a piece of Sue’s faux rock made of handmade paper - more about that in a bit.

Sue makes the inside pages to fit the unusual shape of these rock covers and binds them into a booklet which is then attached by the “endpapers” to the inside surfaces of the rock.

Sometimes the covers are embellished with painted symbols and bits of this and that, and sometimes they are left to show off their natural beauty.

Being a member in good standing of the “hunt-and-gather-and-never-throw anything-away” tribe, Sue always has something unusual around to add to the “look” and she just tries one thing after another until she finds the perfect combination for each cover.

And she doesn’t have a problem stepping away from the traditional functionality of “binding”. Some of her books will not open and were never meant to - their secrets closed inside to be kept - undisturbed and secret - on their handmade paper pages.

I just had to ask the question that had me mystified (I mystify easily, it’s true): “Where do you get these great stone covers?”

Her answer, “Oh, I just find them” had me entertaining visions of her picking up an interesting rock and then wandering the countryside in search of its mate. (Hmmm - pretty time consuming), but Sue set me staight:

“The two covers are actually broken from one piece of rock, and sometimes you are lucky and you find them already split. You look for out-croppings of slate, shale or sandstone, and often, you will find the pieces that have fallen and split. I find a lot in New Mexico and Arizona, but some of my rocks come from Lake Erie, and those I usually have to tap with a chisel. About half the time, they come apart nicely and half the time, they don’t. So I split them before I haul them home!”

But, just because they are easy for Sue to find doesn’t mean we can all get our hands on a set of real stone covers in a hurry. So, in the meantime, we asked her to show us how to make a book with a “faux” stone cover, since the bookmaking procedure is essentially the same. And, Sue makes the faux stone from handmade paper and has it for sale on her website, so, we know exactly where to get some of that.

On the next two pages, Sue will show us, first, how to make that paper look like rock, and then how to make the book’s insides - rustic enough to match.
Susan does not actually have two different colored arms, but she spends a lot of time picking up rocks in the sun and has picked up a great tan in the process.
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