The Artist

The queen-sized bed in Emily Smith's French Quarter apartment does double duty as a work table. A piece of masonite laid over its covers serves as a sturdy surface for working leather hides and stacks of thick Italian paper. When the weather is nice, she moves the operations outside to her courtyard. Smith, a native of Winnsboro, La., and a newcomer to Jazz Fest's Contemporary Crafts tents, has always been a writer, scribbling in diaries, penning plays and writing about jazz and food on a freelance basis.

Inspired by a trip to Florence's famed leather markets in Italy, Smith began making journals by hand about five years ago. She hand-tears the paper and stitches the leathers - cow, deer, beaver, bobcat - chosen based on their natural and unnatural characteristics.

Cattle brands, for example, get worked into the design. Other accents come from found objects. "I use a lot of recycled bits and scraps of slate. I have a bunch of costume jewelry from my great aunt, and I've dug in my grandmother's button box," she said. Her pieces often are described as "relics" or "legacy books," but Smith calls them Nuance Journals.

By Susan Langenhennig, The Times-Picayune.
April 18, 2010