Shereen (Buckland) LaPlantz (1947-2003) was an internationally recognized book artist, basket weaver, author, and teacher. Born Shereen Buckland on February 9, 1947, in Glendale, California, she went on to attend California State University, Los Angeles, where she studied textiles. After graduating in 1968, she continued to explore fabric design and weaving at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. In 1970, she married artist David LaPlantz, a jeweler and metalsmith.
LaPlantz's early work focused on weaving and basketry as an art form. She authored two books on basketry, Plaited Basketry: The Woven Form (1982) and The Mad Weave Book (1984), began a magazine dedicated to the craft, taught numerous workshops, and exhibited her work internationally. In the late 1980s, LaPlantz took a new direction, creating a series of baskets with small books integrated into the physical context of the work. This project marked her transition into the book arts.
Her recognition that book structures could be a combination of two- and three-dimensional formats and that the structures could tell their own story as well as provide information inspired her to write Cover to Cover: Creative Techniques for Making Beautiful Books, Journals, and Albums in 1995. It provides an overview of book structure and design, with chapters on binding, stitching, and presentation and it remains a standard work in book design. Many of the book structures in this collection are described in Cover to Cover.
LaPlantz is also well known for her books Innovative Bookbinding: Secret Compartments & Hidden Messages, published in 1997 and The Art & Craft of Handmade Books, published in 2001. In addition to her commercial books, LaPlantz created an average of twelve artists' books per year and was a committed educator, inspiring other book artists' through the hundreds of workshops she conducted. LaPlantz died on September 11, 2003. Her basketry and artists' books can be found in collections across the United States, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.
This collection contains 9 boxes of material related to Shereen (Buckland) LaPlantz's career as an artist. The material has been been arranged in three distinct series. These are: Professional/Personal Material, Basketry and Weaving, and Book Arts.
The collection documents the evolution of Shereen (Buckland) LaPlantz's artistic interests, inspiration, ability, and process. It includes examples of her artist's books as well as photographs of her baskets. The first part of the collection includes LaPlantz's personal and professional material including artwork, blank stationary, scrapbook material, and her resume and artists' statements.
The second part of the collection relates to LaPlantz's basketry. While there are no physical baskets, the series includes the work she did prior to creating the baskets such as making sketches and color samples, as well as photographs and basketry publications and papers.
The third part of the collection is related to her artist's book work, including her own artist's books, artists' books that students made in her workshops, a collection of abecedaries, and other artists' books that she collected. This part of the collection also includes background material for the artist's books, professional material (including workshops and assignments), photographs, and publications and papers.
Collection is open for research.
The Archives & Special Collections, University of Puget Sound, provides access to its collections to support educational, personal, and non-commercial use. Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law. Copyright laws protect published as well as unpublished materials. It is the user's responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or any other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise disseminating materials found in the collections. Physical property rights reside with the Archives & Special Collections, University of Puget Sound. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, please consult the Archives & Special Collections.
[Name of document, date.] Shereen Buckland LaPlantz papers, MSS.076. University of Puget Sound Archives & Special Collections. Tacoma, Washington.
This subseries contains various materials related to LaPlantz's professional and personal life. It includes artwork that wasn't part of her book arts or basketry practice.
LaPlantz started her artistic work in basketry and weaving. This series focuses on her early work and is divided into four subseries: Background material, Professional Material, Photographs, and Publications and Papers.
Background material includes items like basket sketches and color samples. Professional material includes mailers, workshop materials, posters, and exhibitions material. Photographs contains photographs of LaPlantz's baskets. The Publications and Papers subseries contains newspaper articles written by and about LaPlantz and her work, books she wrote about basketry.
Much of LaPlantz's later work concerned book arts, both making artist's books of her own, creating structures as guides for other artists, and teaching book arts classes and workshops.
The series has been divided into eight subseries, these are: Background Material, Professional Material, Publications and Papers, Media, Artist's Books (Shereen LaPlantz), Student Artists' Books, Abecedaries, and Collected Artists' Books
The material in this series contains the sketches she did of various of her artist's books, particularly "When There's No Light at the End of the Tunnel," "Surface Embellishments of Eastern Woodlands Basketry," "Historical Jewish Wedding Rings," "The Dr. Menuki Stress Relief Program," ''Life Doesn't Fit into a Nanosecond," and others. There are also illustrations, sketches, and research LaPlants used for her artist's books, published works, and stationary, including the beasties that she enjoyed drawing as well as many different kinds of dragons.
This series also includes workshop materials and instructions for different kinds of artists' books and bindings. There are also photographs of her collection of other people's artists' books, as well as her own, and several VHS video cassettes that showcase LaPlantz's artists' books collection.
The series includes a variety of artists' books, both LaPlantz's and books that she collected. The subseries containing LaPlantz's artist's books includes "Historical Jewish Wedding Rings," "Seed Dolls," "Life Doesn't Fit into a Nanosecond," "Love & Partnership," and others.These books have been given a corresponding identification number. The subseries Student Artists' Books,containins artists' books created by students in LaPlantz's workshops. The subseries Abecedaries contains various abecedaries since that was a particular collecting interest of LaPlantz. The subseries Collected Artists' Books contains artists' books that LaPlantz collected over the years. This subseries also contains several books that were in one of her books on book arts or were made by one of the book artists featured in the book.