This third book is based on the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi. This is the art of finding beauty in imperfection. The word wabi can mean humble by choice, sabi, the appreciation of rustiness. However, it is said that if you ask a Japanese the meaning of the words, they cannot translate them, which leads me to wonder if they have something of the spirit of “duende’ about them – something heart and soul felt, but intangible. This book takes the circle as its inspiration. I also found somewhere the idea of a circle becoming a square, which I have incorporated into the pages.
The front cover
The back cover
All the fabrics I needed I found in my stash : cottons, linens, silks, dyed with natural dyes and indigo, rusted, eco-printed and composted, then printed and bleached with circles of various sizes. I also used old teabags, bits of lace and pearl buttons, together with machine and hand stitching.
The pages are in sequence.
Finally, I used a piece of driftwood as the spine, made three signatures of four double pages each and a variety of beads to tie the threads together. I loved making this book – it brought together all my favourite fabrics and colours and ways of embellishing them.