In celebration…
My daughter is an accomplished graphic designer. She is also a highly creative book artist. And in 2006, when her mother took on Big Business with a lawyer friend and a doctor friend to save a tiny strip of river beach, and after we had WON the case, she made keepsakes to remind us of what we had been fighting for.
For my friends she made a book each, not unlike the one above. For me, she made two books and a box in which they could be kept. Each page has an illustration highlighting aspects of the river and its culture, its history, its ecology.
She has used a concertina format for each book and a standard cover binding. My books are covered in leather and the book box is covered in a fine pale sea-coloured bookcloth. She has found and worked into photos, then photographed them again and then printed them on the most delicious parchment paper.
The finishing touch is the little label she stained with tea, crumpled and then took to the village post-office, asking them could they stamp it with the post office’s regional date stamp.
This gift is already a family heirloom and sits at House on the counter next to the modest library shelves in this tiny place. I often open it and marvel at the artistry and binding skill. Yes, I know I’m bragging about her, but she’s my daughter!
I’m allowed to…
Like mother like daughter – a delicate eye for finesse. Stunning!
Johnny, that’s lovely of you. Thank you. I am so proud of her work. Her pieces, both artworks and book covers, have a ‘feel’ to them that indicates pure empathy with the subject. She didn’t get the artistic gene from me or her father, so we’d love to know what shines, way back in the family tree…
Lovely, Prue! What a perfect keepsake.
Thank you, Ann. To have heirlooms made by family down through the ages is so special.
Treasury of detail. Lucky you.
Thanks Caro. I am lucky. I’ve always loved book-art and to have some of my own, and made by my daughter, is very special.
She’s deeply talented and has wonderfully restrained taste. I love her eye for color, too – I wish mine were that subtle. And a great heart.
Oh pat! That actually makes me feel weepy. Thank you…