Dear Everyone ~
We are hugely grateful to Everyone who sent a postcard (or two or three or more!) for the BZS First Ever Epistolary Drawing! Your enthusiasm and participation—and your creatively expressed anticipation—made the run-up to the actual drawing more exciting than we could have imagined—and heartwarmingly so!
As soon as the postcards began streaming in, Will, our beloved mail carrier, would have a smile on his face when he handed me each postcard. Sometimes he’d come to the door with an armful of mail and say with a straight face, “Nope, nothing today”, and then a big smile would emerge, and he’d hand me a postcard, or two, or more, one at a time. He enjoyed this lead-up as much as we did, and we love that!
Naturally, we wanted Will to officially draw the winning postcard—which he did last week—and Ruby was there to photo document us!
And the winner is … Janet Hoffman!
Janet is a knitter of things, a maker of books, and a lover of paper. Janet had signed up for my recent Correspondence Album workshop via Zoom, though her daughter was getting married the weekend of Lesson 2, in another state, and another time-zone, several hours away … so she woke up very early the day after the wedding (the day of the workshop) and made it home in time to join us via Zoom!
The message on Janet’s postcard is addressed “To my fellow artists,” which we love. She writes, “This postcard encompasses many of the aspects of my creative journey. The photo is by a Scottish photographer who is married to a Scottish knitwear designer who creates beautiful knitwear patterns, yarn, and delightful books. All things I love. It also highlights my love of traveling and exploring all kinds of art in other contexts.” The Tomie de Paola stamp was a perfect choice for Janet’s sentiments. And now she has won the Abecedary at the end of the rainbow!
Later last week, Ruby & I made a garland displaying all of the postcards —each attached with two teeny Japanese paper covered butterfly clips to Japanese cording. The garland looks so festive in the shop that we are inclined to keep it up for the summer. We invite you to visit … and take a gander at the garland.
If you’re able to drop by soon-ish, you’ll also have a chance to admire the Abecedary pages in person! We are putting the finishing touches on several pages this week, and I’ll be binding the following week. You will not have to wear gloves, though we will invite you to wash your hands—using one of our prized lavender soaps from the UK.
I want to assure Everyone that each and every page will be xoxtremely photo-documented (and scanned) before the finished Abecedary is delivered to Janet. We are percolating about making a facsimile copy to keep at BZS for posterity and dreaming about a set of Abecedary postcards. And my postal muse is penning a highly annotated index, detailing what each letter stands for (and why), as well as process notes about the various pages. This will become part of Janet’s Abecedary… and perhaps something we can share.
Later this week, we will post the E (is for guess what?) page. Hint: It’s not exactly a page.
Astoundingly beautiful creativity, Bari