Who?
High Class Booker is the alter-ego of Rai Peterson, retired professor and founder at Book Arts Collaborative.
What?
Using centuries-old methods, Rai makes books from sheets of archival paper, thread, book board, and glue. While she loves the 21st Century (and dreamed since childhood of participating in it), she generally eschews modern machinery in favor of hand tools: knives, brushes, scalpels, rulers, pencils, needles, sewing frames, bone folders, presses, and patience.
Why?
With a fondness for fine and vintage papers and artifacts, Rai collects hand-made, manually-decorated, and vintage papers from around the world; she gathers baubles, coins, medals, and other treasures; as well as rare and domestic leathers for use in book design.
Treasure binding began with monks in the 6th Century who would encrust volumes with jewels. During the Renaissance, there was a resurgence in treasure binding. High Class Booker is part of the contemporary revival of treasure binding by embedding lucky charms in the cover of our books.
Where?
Browse our in-stock items in our online shop, visit any of the retailers, or contact us to collaborate on a custom journal/sketchbook.
Contact us.
Please contact us via email (Rai@bsu.edu) or Messenger, and follow us on social media using the links at the top of this page.