Virgin Gorda here we come

I'm beginning to detach myself from life in Massachusetts and preparing for our eleven-day trip to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands which starts tomorrow. This will be our third visit to Guavaberry Spring Bay Cottages with too many years in between. This is a page from a book I made after our first visit in 1989 when I was new(ish) to bookmaking and still taking photos with a film camera.

Fifth Annual Beyond the Book

The Fifth Annual Beyond the Book: An Exhibit of Book Art and Collage
Honan-Allston Branch
Boston Public Library
300 North Harvard Street
Allston, MA

March 26-May 7
Opening Reception: March 26, 2-4 PM

I'm happy to have two Spirit Books in this exhibition of work selected by Marjorie Kaye of Galatea Fine Art in Boston. Thanks to Curator Ronni Komarow for beginning this wonderful tradition and seeing it through in great style for five years!

I won't be at the reception but hope to attend events which will be scheduled later.

Bookmark/The Kitchen Madonna

I've been a longtime fan of this book by Rumer Godden. When I first read it, it was the touching story of an odd boy who makes a kitchen Madonna for Marta who takes care of him and his sister while his busy architect parents were at work and misses her childhood home in the Polish Ukraine. It is a wonderfully unsentimental story of love, but also one of creative problem solving and using recycled materials. It's a great companion to the Flowers from the Collage Box project.

March and the changing of the clocks

It's the first full day of spring. While T. S Eliot wrote "April is the cruelest month", it is March that I find difficult. For me it is the impatient month. There is that tease in the air of spring to come and yet it it still is cold. I find myself longing for color. While I contently watched the slow swelling of the buds over the winter months, I suddenly want them to open and unfurl—now.

My sense of impatience is increased by the early change to daylight savings time. I associate the longer days and evening light with the warm. More than that, I find it unsettling. Over the years, I have adapted to the Celtic calendar and its correspondence to the changing light. I mark February first as the first day of spring and it makes sense to me. The days are appreciably longer—every day a little increase— and the sun is higher in the sky. And now, just as I am smoothly moving along to the steady growth of light, the rhythm of the days has been altered.

When the clocks changed at the end of April, there was almost a sense of release. The sun rose earlier and earlier until it became out of synch with the schedule of the day. I was ready to lose that hour of sleep and readjust. I am not ready and I am out of synch. Everyone is rejoicing and I am complaining. I feel like Scrooge at Christmas. Bah humbug!


PS I need no sympathy. I leave in two days for the British Virgin Islands. It is interesting to contemplate how it would feel to live all the time in a place where the cycle of the year is not marked by the expanding and contracting of the light.

Flowers from the Collage Box

It's spring! I see snowdrops and crocuses, welcome signs of the season and the many flowers to come. These accordion books use papers from the collage box to create flowers from the imagination.

The book above started with a piece of recycled copy paper folded in half with the writing on the inside. The bottom started with the front or back panel of a grocery bag cut in half the long way.

My collage box is probably my favorite thing in the studio. When Jean Van Hutl in an interview in The Artful Parent asked me if I could encourage parents to do one bookmaking activity, what would it be, I answered:

The thing I would say is that every house needs a collage box filled with bits and pieces of paper. Mine has been a source of hours of joy for me and those who come to my workshops. I cut up any interesting paper that comes my way- wrapping paper from a package, paper bags, the inside patterns on security envelopes, origami paper, art papers, etc.--into squares about an index finger long (no more inches). I find that the smaller size wastes less paper and seems to stimulate creativity in a way that large pieces of paper don't.

Written Directions

In Spanish

Video


BOOKS AND LINKS


Planting a Rainbow is a vibrant and beautiful book of collage flowers by Lois Ehlert.

The Parts of a Flower
Flower parts worksheet with a link to print a worksheet for students without the names.

Flower Parts
This site goes into more detail. I like it because it illustrates the parts with photos.

Celebrating Spring

The first image of the Emily Dickinson Series to celebrate the first day of spring. It was in mid-April 2008 that I took the first photograph, of a pieris, and played with it in photoshop. Today, it was that same kind of crisp spring day—bright blue sky and bracing wind.

View the series.

Read about how the images were developed.

Bookmark/Traditional Crafts of Ireland

Yesterday Sandy Riddell Wagner posted a link to an Irish Traditional Crafts website. It features films by David and Sally Shaw-Smith and mentioned that they also had a book with Thames and Hudson. With a little bit of the luck of the Irish, the book was on the shelf of my local library. I brought it home and spent a few hours learning about traditional ways of textiles, stonework, woodwork, willow, rush and straw work (my favorite), leather (including bookbinding), metalwork, ceramics, glassware, calligraphy (Denis Brown), and rural life. It's beautifully photographed by the Shaw-Smiths with writing by a variety of different people. A treat for St. patrick's Day. I may need to add it to my library.

Nuclear reflections

The current situation in Japan brought to mind this calligraphic piece I did many years ago for an art auction for C-10, an organization against the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in nearby Seabrook, NH.

A gentle rain
is falling in the yard
I stand and watch
with my baby
in my arms

I think of the soft warm rain
healing and renewing
I think of rain dances
and poets celebrating rain

Geoffrey Chaucer
Whan that Aprille with its shoures soote

The Irish Blessing
May the rain fall soft upon your fields

Langston Hughes
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

And then
I think of Chernobyl

A gentle rain
is falling in the yard
I stand and watch
with my baby
in my arms

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Thank you Anne for this beautiful pot of shamrocks. And thank you Mary for this poem.

The Fiddler of Dooney
William Butler Yeats

WHEN I play on my fiddle in Dooney,
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet,
My brother in Moharabuiee.

I passed my brother and cousin:
They read in their books of prayer;
I read in my book of songs
I bought at the Sligo fair.

When we come at the end of time,
To Peter sitting in state,
He will smile on the three old spirits,
But call me first through the gate;

For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle
And the merry love to dance:

And when the folk there spy me,
They will all come up to me,
With ‘Here is the fiddler of Dooney!’
And dance like a wave of the sea.

Another billboard

Two days ago my daughter and I were driving up Route 1 in Salisbury, MA when I let out a cry, "Look!" There was a perfect example of that elusive object—an empty billboard. I wasn't too far from home so when we finished our errands, I went home for the camera and returned. I started the series a few years ago (Breathe and Listen) but this is only number three. Finding a billboard is rare enough and then having the camera with me as well makes it a hard thing to find.

I added the lettering back home by way of scanner and photoshop. The word "attend" has stuck in my mind since I read the quote from St. Benedict: "Listen and attend with the ear of your heart." And when I looked it up in the dictionary, the first definition is "be present at" which is where we should be—present in life.

South Carolina School Library Conference

My trip to the South Carolina Association of School Libraries was wonderful and proof that Southern hospitality is alive and well in Columbia, SC. I felt so welcome and met great people. The children of South Carolina are lucky to have such dedicated librarians in their schools.

The pre-conference workshop was fast-paced and fun. The librarians worked with kids from 3 through high school so it was a diverse and lively group. As usual, we used grocery bags, cereal boxes, and used copy paper. We made at least seven books, five from the grocery bag. It's always hard in a two-hour period to get in as much as I'd like without being overwhelming but I think we did well.

On the day of the conference, I gave a talk called The Community of the Handmade Book from Ancient Egypt to Your Library. I originally put the word "community" in the title because it was the theme of the conference but the more I thought about it, the more appropriate I decided it was.

Although reading is a personal and private activity, I always do feel a sense of community when I sit down with a book—with the writer of that particular book, with authors through time, and with the rest of the world of readers. And the same is true for the making of books. In workshops, there is always a great feeling of togetherness as we all work on our books. With educators and librarians, there is also the community of purpose, knowing that what takes place in the room will be shared many times over with children.

After viewing books through history and around the world, a small collection of artists' books, and lots of examples of books to make with kids, we closed the session by making two simple books, each from a piece of recycled copy paper with writing on one side.

I did have time to do a little exploring of the city of Columbia. My hotel was in the Vista neighborhood which is full of restaurants and art galleries. SCASL was so kind to make sure I had company for dinner every night and I tried the local dishes of she crab soup and shrimp and grits (twice each) which I loved. The gift basket that was waiting for me in my hotel room contained a package of grits which I look forward to making at home. I got lots of advice about preparation.

I love old buildings, cemeteries, and trees and had lots to inspire me. The State Capitol Building was a short walk from the hotel and a beautiful building. The grounds had massive southern magnolias, palmetto palms, and blooming redbuds. I couldn't help but gather a small amount of material for possible use in a future Spirit Book. Across the street was Trinity Church Cemetery—old and beautiful.

View some of my photos from Columbia, SC.

St. Patrick's Day Cross

For St. Patrick's Day, I wanted a project that wasn't about shamrocks or leprechauns and had traditional roots in Ireland. I found this in The Year in Ireland: A Calendar by Kevin Dannaher. The book is out of print but can be found on half.com and other sources.

Young girls and small children wear on the right shoulder "a St Patrick's Cross", consisting of a single or double cross formed of pieces of narrow silk ribbon stitched to a circular disk of white paper, nicked at the edge, and measuring from 3 to 4 1/2 inches in diameter. At the ends of the arms of the cross a very small bow or rosette is stitched and one a trifle larger at the junction of the arms; the more and the brighter the colours of the silk, the more handsome is considered the St Patrick's Cross.
Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 1908

I made my cross from a piece of white shirt cardboard. I used pieces of plastic bag instead of silk ribbon. Even though I make an effort to carry a bag with me shopping, plastic bags do seem to multiply. I went through my bag of bags before I took them back to the supermarket and selected ones with color to make the ribbons and bows. I cut narrow strips and tied them into bows. The plastic bag I used for the center wasn't long enough to tie a bow so I just shaped one. I stitched the plastic ribbons and bows onto the circle but you could also use a stapler.

A Photographer in Old Peking

I just got this wonderful out of print book through half.com. I was revisiting some of my old books to prepare for my talk at the South Carolina School Library Association and spent some time with Chinese Traditional Bookbinding by Edward Martinique. He had some illustrations from a magazine article by Hedda Morrison that appeared in the Canadian Geographical Journal in December 1949. I wasn't able to track down the article but did find her book, A Photographer in Old Peking.

Hedda Morrison was raised in Germany and in 1933, at age 25, went to Beijing to manage Hartungs Photo Studio. She lived and worked in China until 1946 and recorded the time and place through her black and white photographs. She photographed temples and palaces, street life, art and crafts, and food and entertainment in Beijing and also ventured further afield in China. In the book-related department, there are pictures of papermaking, bookmaking and selling, seal carving. The photographs are introduced by her straightforward text which gives a sense of the world she saw around her and reading between the lines, the open and intrepid spirit that she brought to her life in this foreign city.

Two places to learn about Hedda Morrison and her work are the websites of:

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia

Harvard-Yenching Library in Cambridge, MA

Butterfly Stick and Elastic Book

Here's a great book to get ready for spring. Vicki Bilton from the UK made this butterfly book with her students. She used a flexible straw instead of a stick and used the bendy end to attach a head and antennae. Delightful!

Stick and elastic written directions (English and Spanish)

Video directions

10 Tips for Raising Readers

I was pleased to be included in Sarah Farthing's article, 10 Tips for Raising Readers at thegoodstuffguide.com. I do believe making books can be a key component in developing literacy and a love of reading. Not to mention all the fun!

PoeTree at Rhythm of the Home

I'm very pleased to be able to share this project with the readers of Rhythm of the Home, a lovely quarterly online magazine of crafts, recipes, stories, and celebrations of the season. With four sections—Warmth, Play, Celebration, and Connection—there's lots to savor and inspire.

PoeTree at Rhythm of the Home

Bookmark/ A Freewheelin' Time

This week's bookmark was chosen for a sad reason—the passing of its author Suze Rotolo. Susan, as those of us in the book arts community knew her, was a book artist. We were in several exhibits together and met some years ago at the Center for Book Arts in New York. Although I knew her only briefly, I felt an artistic kinship. When I read her book, I was filled with admiration for her as a person and a creative woman. Here's a previous blog post I wrote when the book came out:

Susan Rotolo is a book artist who was Bob Dylan's girlfriend in the early 60s when she was know as Suze Rotolo. She has written a warm and generous memoir about those days called A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties. While it is very much about a time and place and a certain group of people, there is much that speaks to the journey of growing up and understanding one's place in the world as a woman, an artist, and a human being. She concludes the book by saying "The creative spirit finds a way."

Susan's Book work

NY Times obituary

Guardian obituary (I think this is most complete)

Rolling Stone remembrance (by a friend and more a sense of her as a person)

Her own voice on Fresh Air with Terry Gross