Our Instructors

Jeffrey Altepeter

Jeffrey Altepeter is a 1999 graduate of the bookbinding program at North Bennet Street School and also a 2003 graduate of the American Academy of Bookbinding. He has taught workshops at Penland, Paper Book Intensive, and for the Guild of Book Workers. Jeff has been the Bookbinding Department Head at North Bennet Street School since 2007.

Robin Ashby

A lifelong student of history and art, Robin Ashby started his career as a bookbinder and marbler with studies at North Bennett Street School in Boston and The School for Bookbinding Arts in Winchester, Virginia. He continues to hone his skills under the regular tutelage of Regina & Dan St. John at their Chena River Studio in Amherst, Massachusetts. Robin also worked on the team that restored Andrew Wyeth’s studio and home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and heads the Audit and Compliance department for a global software company. Robin is the author of The Industrialist’s Brush: Watercolors of Harry E. Cann, Chester County, Pennsylvania West Chester [PA]: Lucky Hill Road, 2022.

Pam Buchanan

Pam Buchanan is a paper and print artist in Cumberland, Maryland, working out of her studio Gypsy Artist Bookworks. She maintains an active schedule as a working artist, instructor, and exhibitor. She received her BA in Art with a concentration in book arts and printmaking from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. She has studied with Melanie Mowinski, Paula Bernard Krieg and Ben Denzer. Ms. Buchanan learned pop-up construction from Carol Barton and went on to learn paper engineering from Shawn Sheehy. She integrates movable elements into her work of designing and fabricating artist books. She is a member of the Movable Book Society, the Center for Book Arts, and the Allegany [Maryland] Arts Council.

Alexis Candelaria

Alexis Candelaria is a bookbinder at Cat Tail Run where she specializes in clamshell box making and book restoration. Alexis has a dual degree in Japanese Language and Japanese Culture which culminated in a two-year residency in Japan. Her love of antiquarian books is in her family’s DNA, and her literary interests are seemingly limitless. Alexis’ passion for music, ethnic foods, fantasy role-playing games, and etymology make her the perfect fit for the quirky world of bookbinding.

Jill Deiss

Jill Deiss established Cat Tail Run Hand Bookbinding, host of the School for Bookbinding Arts, in 1991. She studied bookbinding and restoration first in Northampton, Massachusetts, then at Cornell University’s Department of Library Conservation and in the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Laboratories. She holds a B.S. in chemistry and received a Master of Library Science degree from Syracuse University, where she specialized in the study of archives and rare book collections.

Mona Hayford

Mona Hayford is a retired accountant with a love of paper crafting and bookbinding. She has studied Book and Paper Arts at length at John C. Campbell Folk School and The School for Bookbinding Arts. In addition to teaching at the School for Bookbinding Arts, she has taught mixed media courses at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

Amy Jackson

Amy Jackson has been a bookbinder for over 15 years. She currently works on a project basis at Cat Tail Run Hand Bookbinding in Winchester, Virginia. She holds BFA from Longwood University with a concentration in printmaking and book arts and is currently completing her MLIS at University of Illinois in the library preservation pathway. Her additional studies of note include hand papermaking and book conservation studies with Jacques Brejoux and Christopher Clarkson at a workshop/seminar at Moulin de Verger in Puymoyen, France, and studies in the medieval color palette with Cheryl Porter at Montefiascone, Italy. Ms. Jackson worked for several years as a contract Matter/Framer in the Conservation Division of The National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C. Ms. Jackson has been in numerous exhibitions for both book arts work and printmaking.

Rowland Kirks

Rowland Kirks studied studio art as an undergraduate and serves at Cat Tail Run as a papermaker, inventor, and bouncer. He studied papermaking with Jacques Brejoux of Moulin du Verger in Puymoyen, France.

Lana Lambert

Lana Lambert is a resident book artist and printmaker at the Virginia Center for the Book in Charlottesville, Virginia. She graduated from the Corcoran College of Fine Art in Washington, D.C., where she received a B.A. in Art with a concentration in printmaking. Her studies also included bookbinding, letterpress, stone lithography, and Japanese woodblock printing. Her love of the Japanese arts stems from her feeling of kinship with the respect for tradition found within Japanese techniques and practices. Additionally, the emphasis on the use of organic and sustainable materials by many Japanese artists aligns with Lana’s own interests in art and sustainable living. For Lana, the compatibility of Japanese ways with her own beliefs inspires her to seek new ways to blend traditional Japanese arts with western techniques and to employ Japanese techniques to interpret American themes.

Shan Linde

Shan Linde has several decades of experience with the conservation department at the National Gallery of Art. Her most recent work there placed her in charge of collection care for the galleries, assisting and directing collection care and framing for exhibitions and storage. Specializing in the handling and care of prints and drawings on paper, she was responsible for coordinating with the museum’s conservators, designers, and curators in order to ensure the safe handling, exhibition, and storage of paper-based objects. Shan is proud that during her tenure at the National Gallery of Art, she led her department in implementing a more effective workflow that resulted in increased the safety for the items being handled. In addition, she was part of the installation and application of computerized matting-cutting equipment for the department which provided critical modernization to help with hundreds of mats and housings created per year.

Shan was an instructor for the Professional Picture Framing Association, promoting the best practices for caring for fine art. She also contributed to developing a certification program that encouraged the best care of artwork for commercial framers. Prior to entered the field of professional museum work, Shan managed art galleries in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC, and owned her own custom framing company in the Washington, DC area.

Naomi Geller Lipsky

Naomi Geller Lipsky received a PhD in Biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, and enjoyed a satisfying career in research for many years. At the same time, she continued to develop her skills in the fine and decorative arts. When these latter interests finally became more compelling, she made the decision to retire from science and become a full-time decorative artist. She is best known for her work with quilling, an antique art in which paper strips are shaped and applied as ornaments, but she works in other media as well. Many of her pieces incorporate gold leaf. Her main body of work consists of Judaic ritual art and liturgical illustrations. She creates originals as well as limited edition lithographs, and she completes her artistic vision by doing all of her own matting and framing. Her award-winning work has been exhibited in museums and galleries and featured in books and other publications.

Brittani Locke

Brittani Locke is a visual artist from Western Maryland. She is an alumna of University of Maryland Baltimore County where she received her BFA in Print Media with a specialty in printmaking. She began her marbling studies over a decade ago with Regina and Dan St John and carries on their methods and legacy. Brittani has made a mark with her hand-marbled silk scarves and paper marbling. Brittani receives commissions for custom work from all over the world for her marbling both on paper and on fabric. Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame saw Brittani’s scarves and now owns several. Maybe she’ll use them in an uncoming show! Book publishers, fashion designers, celebrities, and the public alike have embraced her marbled works

Brittani’s marbling can be seen in exhibitions, and she regularly teaches classes around the region at art centers, fairs, and libraries. She continues to push boundaries in marbling techniques through color theory and experimental processes. Brittani enjoys sharing her journey on Instagram where she has built an online artist community of nearly 130,000 followers.

Susan L. McCabe

Susan McCabe is a bookbinder at Cat Tail Run Hand Bookbinding where she prepares texts for rebinding and/or restoration. Traditionally, this position is called a “Forwarder” because the processes leading up to the point that a book receives its cover are collectively known as “forwarding.” Susan’s work includes text sewing, the working of endbands, paper repair, and the application of various linings and hingings that books require. Her work also requires ingenious problem solving because the way through the repair of a damaged book can often present some unusual challenges (otherwise knows as “opportunities”). Susan also marbles some of the decorative papers that are used at Cat Tail Run.

Dianne L. Roman

Dianne L. Roman is a retired college educator with over 25 years of experience in both teaching and production in a wide range of design and fine art courses including typography and book arts. She utilizes a variety of tools and materials for projects, including found and recycled. Bookmaking, like art making, can have many different approaches for a similar final solution. Her doctorate is from Virginia Commonwealth University in Media, Art, and Text. As a scholar, she investigates the American woman in the nineteenth-century print shop and publishes and gives talks on the topic. She maintains a visual studio practice and is currently investigating the female involvement in the development and growth of printing across her home state of West Virginia.

Regina and Dan St. John

In the world of decorative paper, Regina and Dan St. John hardly need introduction. Their work and teaching is known throughout the country and the world. Regina began studying marbling in the 1990s in Massachusetts with Faith Harrison and to this day continually seeks out new methods of paper decoration from across the globe that she incorporates into her own marbling practices and her courses. Dan’s specialty as a marbler is in the recreation of historical 18th-century patterns, especially the elusive Tiger’s Eye Pattern, which he hunts down with precision. Dan is also a professional bookbinder, having trained in the studio of William W. Streeter of Northampton, Massachusetts. By our estimate, Dan is nothing short of an alchemist and magician. Surrounded by honey, walnut oil, beeswax, and minerals, Dan concocts the compounds and potions that become his marbling pigments. It is from this deep pool of knowledge and experience that the St. Johns bring forth the practice and art of marbling to their students.

Mary Sullivan

Mary Sullivan is a bookbinder and printmaker who runs Crowing Hens Bindery in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned her MFA in Book Arts at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, and prior to that spent a 5-year tenure at Hatch Show Print. Her private studio is dedicated to the design and production of historical methods of making books, specializing in traditional stationery bookbinding, letterpress printed fine art & stationery and decorative papers. Mary aims to elevate the status of stationery binding and its materials as functional art.