Learn what you can, and can what you learn. Those words inspired one of Cassie Ogle’s many artistic projects.
Ogle’s grandfather used to ask her if she’d learned anything at school. Then he’d tell her, “Whatever it is, learn what you can and can what you learn.”
After her grandfather died, Ogle started making lots of tiny books, stitching the binding with her grandmother’s sewing thread. Near the end of her grieving process, she realized that she didn’t know what to do with the books, so she put them in a canning jar as a tribute to her grandfather. This project, called Book Preserves, was published in “Eco Books: Inventive Projects from the Recycling Bin” by Terry Taylor.
In 2006, Ogle did an apprenticeship with bookbinder Robin Rain through Southwest Virginia Community College. During this time, she completed her most difficult piece. It was a box that, when unfolded, showed books that were composed of a series of vintage postcards of New York City. The books were covered in maps of the city.
“It was definitely my most difficult piece. It involved lots of measuring and pre-planning. I wish I had never sold it,” Ogle said.
As well as being a bookbinder, Ogle teaches knitting, crocheting and spinning classes at A Likely Yarn in Abingdon. She sells hats, scarves and mittens and is a knitter-for-hire.
Ogle learned to crochet from her grandmother when she was 6. When she graduated college, she decided she needed a hobby so took up knitting too. She taught herself from books checked out of the library and enjoys spinning her own yarn from sheep’s wool. Ogle doesn’t sell everything she makes. She saves some for herself.
“Personally, I love hand-knit socks. That’s actually all I wear,” she said.
Ogle’s work can be purchased at her website, www.thecraftykitten.com or at the Appalachian Arts Center in Richlands.
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