Chela Metzger

Austin, Texas

Bird Book

Blank book covered in full goat parchment using a laced-case structure. The text is sewn on parchment straps laced through the cover, with a silk front-bead endband sewn on a flat parchment core. The covering parchment is attached to the case using mechanical non-adhesive methods. The wings and nest are cut from goat skin parchment. 15 x 10 x 3 centimeters. Created 2005.

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Chela Metzger was trained in hand bookbinding at the North Bennet Street School by Mark Esser. She completed an internship in rare book consevation at the Library of Congress in 1994 and worked as a project conservator at the Huntington Library for a total of five years. She began teaching book conservation as a Fulbright lecturer in Argentina, and since 2001 has taught book conservation at the University of Texas at Austin.