Dear Everyone ~
Back in mid-April, I received a lovely call from a gentleman in Texas about a Mother’s Day gift for his wife. She had a treasured cache of personal letters she’d received from friends and family after a spiritual retreat back in 2008. These very special notes had been kept together in a brown bag in his wife’s nightstand. He envisioned some sort of book that would preserve and protect the letters as a set, that his wife could easily open...and reread whenever she was so inclined.
A beautiful box with an interior ribbon “lift” was absolutely not what he had in mind. He wanted to give his wife a book, and his aesthetic central point was to incorporate the colours of the LGBTQ rainbow, honouring his wife’s consulting work focused on LGBTQ+ inclusion, affirmation, and allyship. She has turned her passion for equality into a profession, reaching hundreds of individuals within corporations, schools, health clinics, and social groups, as well as in the broader community.
I instantly accepted the commission, despite Mother’s Day being just two weeks away. I percolated overnight on how best to present the cherished missives, and received the actual letters the very next day. As I carefully sliced open the padded envelope, revealing the bagful of letters, the inspiration came to me in an instant. Because the missives from family & friends are so personal, I felt that essence needed to be preserved and elevated. They needed to remain enveloped!
He was understanding and also excited to see how the process unfolded (irresistible envelope pun), and requested that I send him photos documenting the steps, which was my absolute pleasure. He made a photo collage from parts of the images—so as not to give away the surprise—to let his wife know something special was in the works.
I made 22 envelopments from creamy Stonehenge drawing paper and was able to retain the dreamy deckle for the flap. I also had each sender’s name calligraphed at the bottom left edge of its envelope, so that his wife could flip through each envelope and know whose letter was where.
I stitched in the envelopments using the multi-needle Coptic-stitch binding with Natural Irish waxed-linen thread, so as not to detract from the colourful cover. This binding style allows the book to open entirely flat, so the envelopes can be opened perfectly easily.
As soon as the book was finished, I shipped with priority speed. A few days later, I received an email reporting “The book was very well received and it’s sitting on display in our bedroom bookcase right now—as opposed to in a box under the nightstand. Much surprise and much delight at what you were able to design!” And “She saved the string you used to tie the book and that’s how it now sits. BTW, the color choices were spot on—she thought the muted rainbow was the perfect choice.”
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Projects such as these are among my favourite sorts of collaboration. I typically don’t know the person or people being honoured or celebrated or cherished, but I am an ardent believer in the power of paper to help tell a story, whether it’s intimate or corporate, romantic or nostalgic. In the Project Gallery on my website, you can take a behind-the-binding tour of diverse commissions, from Johnston: a family memoir to a Madly Romantic Scrapbook.
May you be inspired, Bari