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An (apparently) quarterly update

Myfanwy Johnston

February 26, 2025

Despite all appearances, I do want to write this blog. The thing is I often write all day in my job, and by the time 9pm rolls around and we finally have the dishes done and the kids in bed, the appetite has quite left my brain. But I want to want to write.

Our second workshop was this past January 25th at The Curious Forge. A brand-new group of makers, all there for different reasons which nevertheless shared common threads, all finished their own little grief books and took them home. Folks have started to bring their own ideas and skills to the process, and this energizes me. There are so many ways to do this well.

We have diligently gathered at Gold Vibe Kombuchary every second Wednesday for our Makers Meetup, and will continue to do so. If you are local and have an inclination, please, come out and join us on March 11th from 4pm-ish to 6pm-ish. There are mundane, unskilled tasks that need doing, may even feel like a balm in this our daily lives of overscheduled schedules, unsolicited AI responses, and glitchy medical smartphone apps. These meetups enabled the gift of over 30 grief books since December, most to local high school students grappling with grief and loss.

I will be showing up for the project more out there, in meatspace, than I do here. I think that's the right way of things, despite the daunting discrepancy between my digital communication skills and my in-human ones. The idea is help form the "weak ties" that actually hold us all together as we do our best to outlive our sun. I invite you with a full heart to come and sit with me at the library, at the café, in the park, while I make books and hopefully also just talk to folks.

-Myfanwy

Our first workshop!

Myfanwy Johnston

October 13, 2025

It was a lovely afternoon of community making. I’m very open about the fact that I have no idea what I am doing, that this is an experiment. I’m still processing that people outside my friends or family trusted the concept enough to come out and make something together with Amanda and myself - so I’d like to thank our workshop participants again for their patience and openness. My mom and brother showed up for moral support, and to bring me rocks (for paperweights...but also a form of moral support) and to help me take pictures and video, which I’ve been trying to share regularly on the Brightsnail Press instagram page. Amanda, who has helped me with every single step of this effort, was there to help untangle things, both literal (thread) and figurative (my instructions, frequently).

Workshoppers were business owners, retirees, moms, craftspeople, artists, teachers...some communicated that they found the class because they were seeking events and activities with grief-related themes, and I think it’s fair to say we had as many conversations about grief as we did about bookbinding. Everyone had recipients in mind for their little grief books. We don’t need to look far to find grief and loss, as we're all connected to it. I am still figuring out what support I can offer folks, because I am not a therapist or grief counselor... I'm barely a booksmith. What I can promise is that I tried to be mindful and thoughtful about everything that went into the workshop, and will continue to do so in the future.

I have learned plenty about workshop planning, preparation, and teaching. The next workshop will be smoother and clearer. But the most gratifying thing of all was that afterwards, several workshoppers wanted to help make more little grief books, to give to more people experiencing loss, people they will likely never meet. We have some new makers on our team. :)

As for what comes next, I’ll be sending out our first newsletter this week - are you on the list, or would you like to be?

I’m also taking a limited number of handmade custom journal orders for the holidays - please reach out (brightsnailpress@gmail.com) if you are interested, and/or swing by the Open Studios tour entry at the Curious Forge this weekend if you’d like to see the kinds of books that are possible! All the money raised from Brightsnail Press books goes back into the Grief Book Project.

With gratitude,

-Myfanwy

Gathering help from helpful places

Myfanwy Johnston

September 11, 2025

If you're local to Nevada County, or if you're a giant letterpress geek like me, you might already know about Full Circle Press and their incredible artistic and professional reputation. They do world-class work, often for very intimidating clients. What you might not know is how generous and committed Judith and her team are about donating materials to local community art projects like ours. She was the first to volunteer materials for the Little Grief Book project over three years ago, and I've been grateful ever since.

Today I picked up the cover board we'll use at our workshops for the next year - it's enough to make 100 books! Each one was cut and stacked by Nathaniel, who even took time to turn on their biggest cylinder letterpress for me so I could blissfully geek out for a few minutes to its excellent snorts and stamps and puffs as it chuffed away in place.

In other news, the decorative paper arrived for our workshop book covers - my 7yo daughter filmed my awkward unboxing, likely setting the tone for my entire social media presence going forward 😅.

Workshop spaces are going quickly, I can't believe it - there are only two spots left as of today! If you can't make it to this one, don't worry - we have others planned (and at new locations) - if we can raise enough funds through these first workshops to incorporate as a nonprofit, more community spaces become available, and we can lower the cost of participation in the future.

-Myfanwy

The project is happening!

Myfanwy Johnston

September 3, 2025

Welcome, friends! This project has been a long time coming, and in many ways is already happening, and yet it's still difficult to describe what it is. I've been making books for five years now, and little grief books for almost as long. Making and giving them is a practice that has become important to me, although I know it's not much at the end of the day. Grief touches everyone at some point (or many points) in our lives, and yet we have a hard time connecting over it. The Little Grief Book project is a way to offer something in a world where (as Maggie says) there is certainly enough grief to go around. I'm looking forward to making these little books in a different forum, in community with other people.

So on that note - after connecting with Therese Rando's Institute to ensure correct attribution and acknowledgement of the adapted text, we are having our first workshop! We have space for up to 8 participants who will learn to make one book to keep, and one to offer in donation. This workshop also marks the beginning of a local network of makers who can help hand-bind grief books on an ongoing basis, inspired by community-support models like Cakes4Kids. Our vision is to create a two-way registry—connecting volunteers who wish to make and give these books with local organizations and individuals experiencing grief.

Registration is open, it will be at the Curious Forge maker space in Grass Valley on Sunday, October 5th, from 1:30pm - 5pm. Please join us!

I'm excited to write about this project, 2003-style, on this little blog as things happen. I've never been a consistent writer or blogger, but people can change. We will see.

-Myfanwy

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