Meet Jordan Kent Wozinski | Bookbinder & Papermaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jordan Kent Wozinski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jordan, why did you pursue a creative career?
My late mother, who passed of stage 4 Lymphoma in 2013, is the reason I am an artist. Tracey Lee Kent was a brilliant creative writer. She built magnificent, immersive worlds from short prose, with subjects from her everyday life. She was an advocate for writing what you know– to see the beauty in the present. Despite my family’s encouragement, she never published her work.

Tracey saw my affinity for visual art. While she did teach me to write poetry, crafting she learned for my sake. The memories are vivid– multimedia collaging with felt, newspaper, silk flowers on the gray living room carpet of our drafty apartment… building paper-mâché Halloween pumpkins with homemade wheat paste in the 70s yellow kitchen… folding and painting silver & gold paper garlands for our “Christmas tree” (a 6 foot oak tree cut from her father’s yard, weighted down in a bucket of cement), drawing seagulls in charcoal in the marina parking lot of Perth Amboy, NJ. Of course there was also gardening, cooking, floral arrangement, sewing, crocheting– anything I showed interest in, she supported with every fiber of her being. I miss her.

My mother taught me that with determination, I can create a joyful life. Kent Bindery is named in her honor. I hope to encourage the innate creativity in everyone– just like my mother did for me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
MY ART:
I’m a bookbinder and papermaker! I create a plethora of books styles– hardcover coptic, stab binds, soft leather cover journals, casebound notebooks, wedding photo albums, guestbooks, and sketchbooks. I like to hand embroider monograms and designs onto the covers of my work. I create my own book cloth as well. I specialize in custom orders and my customers are always thrilled when I bring their designs to life!

I recycle my paper scraps from bookbinding into new paper. Sometimes I turn that recycled paper into new books– a closed-circuit eco-friendly process of reusing and recycling my own materials into new art!

I also teach papermaking workshops. I’ve taught many free workshops for guests at Melrose Trading Post, where I’m an occasional vendor (see IG for upcoming event dates). I’ve taught two ticket-entry workshops at Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont. Please shop my work in store at McManus & Morgan Fine Art Papers, Pans Apothika, and Junior High!

I love the studio arts of bookbinding and papermaking because they embody transformation. Plant fiber-becomes paper-becomes book. This process of transformation continues in the hands of my customers– my journals/paper become a unique collection of their creative work! I encourage my customers to tag me in their creative work on Instagram so I can add you to my guest-artwork highlights; I love to celebrate everyone’s talent and truly believe the best creative process is a community-based process. Let’s uplift one another (:

MY PROFESSIONAL PATH:
I had a full undergraduate ride at Loyola University New Orleans. I double majored in English Literature & Studio Art, and double minored in Spanish & African and African American Studies. I worked through college as a dishwasher, landscaper, fry cook, food runner, server. I was deeply involved in volunteer work– participating in Habitat for Humanity builds, coordinating fundraisers for a local women’s shelter, tutoring ESL elementary students. I could not afford the required internships for my degree program and worked with my dean to graduate without them. While this choice allowed me to obtain my degrees in 2017, it meant I had lost a major career advantage in my fields of interest.

From 2016 to 2018 I had a career restaurant job with healthcare benefits and 401k in New Orleans. After two years I was offered a job transfer from New Orleans to Los Angeles! Two weeks before my move, I advocated for a coworker who experienced $5000 of wage-theft. I successfully helped her obtain her lost wages, working with a pro-bono accountant and furiously emailing the chain of command at our job. When I arrived in LA and showed up to my transfer job– the HR department said it had *no record* of my transfer, even with my copies of signed paperwork in hand. My employer had retaliated against me when I held them accountable for breaking the law. I was absolutely crushed by this betrayal. I worked briefly as a server at a DTLA tequila bar, burned out, then moved to Koreatown in 2019.

Right before the covid19 lockdown happened, I worked as a gift wrapper, bra-fitter & saleswoman at a department store in The Grove. It was the most stressful job of my life. I experienced wage theft at this job, (which I was seasoned to handle with the past experience of helping my coworker claim her stolen wages) but instead of advocating for myself, I quit and walked away. By summer of 2021 I yet again burned out.

I spent 2021-2023 as a property manager/resident landlord. But I still felt unfulfilled.

LESSONS I’VE LEARNED:
I needed to break the cycle of day-to-day survival mode, of service to others but not myself, and pursue joy. And my joy is art.

I started bookbinding because it overlapped my degrees in literature and studio art perfectly. My then boyfriend (now husband! 02/29/24! <3) made an etsy for me, named Kent Bindery in honor of my late mom Tracey Kent. I began posting my work on Instagram, vending at art markets, and approaching stores about consignment sales.

I went into EMDR therapy and was diagnosed with cPTSD. I learned why I’m a chronic people-pleaser, how to break thought-loops, and how to advocate for myself. I began practicing yoga to improve my self-awareness. Between EMDR and yoga I gained a greater mind-body connection. I stopped disassociating from my body. In 2024 I finally recognized I was living in daily chronic pain. I went to the ER last summer and was diagnosed with stage IV endometriosis. Last November I had successful Endo surgery.

With my mental and physical health completely integrated, I feel like a new person. I believe that pursuing a career as a working artist has saved my life!

Every day is a learning experience, and the possibilities are unlimited. I hope that my bookbinding and papermaking encourage people to pursue their joy. Just imagine, through the course of human history, how many times a doodle, a small poem, a list of goals hastily penciled in life’s small moments, reshaped a person’s future. What if the journal or paper at hand that encouraged you to make your mark on the world, was from Kent Bindery?

What if you allow your everyday life to be joyful? How will you transform? How many times have books and paper been transformative in your life? Above all I want people to know that I believe in them and that I’m proud of them. It was when I believed in myself and felt proud of myself that I found joy. Creativity is wellbeing!

Where my brand is now:
To be clear, I made less than 3k after taxes in the 2024 year. I have 500+ followers on IG. I’ve had a really late start, but I have become a working artist. I’m proud of Kent Bindery and optimistic about my future.

p.s. Yes, I did the elbow-grease of quitting my odd jobs, being a patient in trauma-therapy, and putting in years of highly skilled, degree-accredited labor to be an artist. Yet I’d like to say that my husband’s love for me is the foundation of Kent Bindery’s existence. It’s thanks his support that I was able to start my journey as a working artist. Every day I love myself more, because of all the ways he loves me. Take the time every day to thank the people who love you!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
HIKING/OUTDOORS:
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
Griffith Park
Redondo Pier
Huntington Library

MUSEUMS:
Lacma
The Getty Villa

RESTAURANTS/CAFES:
Badmaash
Republique
Bumsan Organic Milk Bar
Destroyer
SPL coffee

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Thank you to Bo Sapphire of Little Gem Gallery for being a role-model creative small business owner! Please check out her work– she is a prolific artist that uses hand harvested botanicals to create eco-friendly cyanotype prints.

Thank you to the team at Melrose Trading Post for helping me grow Kent Bindery through Sunday markets. Big shoutout to Natalie for your donations of scrap paper for my free recycled papermaking workshops at MTP and for choosing me (two years in a row!) as a featured artist at Katy Yaroslovsky’s The Great Pumpkin Bash!

Thank you to the brick & mortar small businesses in LA that stock my work on consignment– Gary at McManus and Morgan Fine Art Papers in MacArthur Park, Vicky at Pans Apothika in Hollywood, and Chelsea at Junior High in Glendale!

Thank you to Charlene Mathews of The Bindery in Larchmont for mentoring me in bookbinding classes!

Warmest thanks to my husband Hunter for volunteering as my behind-the-scenes art market employee, and being my #1 fan in everything I do (:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kentbindery/

Image Credits
Melrose Trading Post (credit for photo of me only)