How To Make a Simple Slat Book

 

Here's a new video from the Keepsake Books series 

with easy to get materials and easy to follow directions.

Make a name book to celebrate or commemorate. 

Or make one with a slat for each number in 2021 

and add wishes or resolutions for the new year. 

The form is based on books made of slats of wood or bamboo 

from ancient China.

VIEW ON YOUTUBE HERE

Winter Solstice Thoughts

 

I think I've posted this before but it seems especially meaningful this year. I did it in 1988, still aching from my mother's death three years before. The image was created by photocopying a yew branch and then recopying it until the grays turned into black or white. It was offset printed in green.

Winter Solstice 2020

 

May the light

of the longest night

rekindle our hopes

and awaken us all.

Wishing you

warmth & healing,

Susan

Poem by Naomi Long Madgett

 

I read these lines this morning in the New York Times obituary for Naomi Long Madgett. They were from her 1959 poem "Midway" inspired by the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Her first book of poetry was published when she was 17. Six years later her work was included in an anthology co-edited by Langston Hughes who was an early mentor. 

She founded Lotus Press in 1972 to publish work by black writers and was the Poet Laureate of Detroit from 2001 until her death on November 5.

New York Times Obituary

Detroit Free Press Obituary

Lotus Press 

The Spirit Books Catalog

This is the first in a series of posts about the six books I have published over the last ten years. I'm starting with my book about the Spirit Books, one-of-a-kind sculptural handmade books cradled in twigs, branches, vines, and roots that celebrate the mystery and spirit of nature. As is the case for all my books, it was a labor of love. I worked on it for over a year. I photographed the 34 pieces along with detail shots with the assistance of my son Brendan. I wrote text to accompany each book and asked Rosemary Noon who had curated two exhibitions of my work at Regis College to write the introduction. I designed the book in Indesign and worked with Sid Hall of Hobblebush Books to shepherd it through the printing process. 

The Spirit Books is available in the Bookstore of my website.