Lisa Vollrath

Foreign Text is a round robin I hosted from September through November, 2002. I got the idea for it after realizing that A) I rely too much on quotes and song lyrics in my AB layouts, and B) I have an ever-growing collection of books in foreign languages that I really have to start using. The Foreign Text round robin required all players to choose a book written entirely in a language other than English, and to work for the most part without using English words. Most players opted to have works of many languages and many cultures done in their books, regardless of the original language of the book they chose.

About Texas was a serial round robin that began in 2002. It started off with one book and a dozen Texas artists, and it turned into two books and 15 artists. Book I returned home in December 2002, and Book II returned in February 2003. When they are finally completed, both books will be donated to the ISABA library.

Four Seasons was a board book round robin that I hosted in the Summer of 2002. Two groups of four players each created books based on the four seasons. Each time we received our books, we switched to a different season: the book owner began with Spring, the second player did Summer, the third Autumn, and the fourth Winter, so that each player completed every season once during the RR.

Impractical Magic was RR I hosted based on the spell book used in the movie Practical Magic. So many people on the altered book list wanted to create their own version of this book, I was able to fill two groups of nine players each.

Wine, Women & Song was the first round robin I hosted. Each of the five players chose a theme centered around the title of the project, and with a wide variety of themes and eras represented. Every two weeks, we passed the book we were working in to the next artist in line. This round robin ran from the beginning of April through June 2002.

Wings is a book I worked on with my friend Ellen. We each started a board book, doing about half, and then swapped. The book I chose is small and square, with a pop-up at the top of each page—something I thought would be fun to play with for this theme.

Anything Goes: The Jazz Age Adventures of Neysa McMein and Her Extravagant Circle of Friends is the title of the book I entered in the Wine, Women & Song Round Robin. I knew I wanted to do something from the 1920’s for this RR, and the book title just caught my eye. Although Neysa McMein was a real person, I asked the players to make up events from her life, to send her on adventures and weave tall tales based on the minimal information I gave them.

The Dark and Strange Round Robin was based on artists like Gorey, Tim Burton, and the work of Zettiology stamp artists Tracy and Teesha Moore. Six players in my group created dark and strange works, and each of us took a different spin on exactly what dark and strange means.