A Book a Week 2014: Made, Altered, Repaired. Week 13

Week of 31 March

I wanted to do a little research on my grandma and make a scrapbook of some of the memorabilia my mom kept of her. There is a large collection of letters of the time when Clara was in high school and college, diplomas, and diaries, both Clara's and her mother's during the same year. I wanted the scrapbook to be looked at and fiddled with, so I didn't want to include the originals. So I archived the originals and made copies of the things I wanted to include. I made the scrapbook in a standard 12 x 12 size and covered it in leather.

Clara Grunhuvd Froiland.

My maternal grandmother was the daughter of a tobacco farmer (Knut Grunhuvd) in Orfordville Wisconsin.

I even have a pad of Knut's receipts:

Clara and her family loved to play games.

and Clara did well in school.

Clara was an avid reader.

I have a book that belonged to her, House of the Seven Gables.

I made a color photocopy of the book

 I also photopied a couple of pages, and bound them with a pink silk ribbon, making an origami fold out of the pages.

Clara was given this book by her teacher, "For good work in spelling"

My mom used to tell me that I was like her mother, in that I could easily find 4 leaf clovers.

One time, I decided to actually read House of the Seven Gables. There, in between the pages, I found a pressed and dried 4 leaf clover that my grandma had saved. Here's a photocopy of it:

Clara's father, Knut, was a stickler for good penmanship, and taught the Palmer method. My mother told me that when she went to college, she would write her grandpa Knut letters. However, she was never sure if she would get her own letter sent back to her, corrected.

Here is an excerpt from both Clara and her mom's (Randy) diary about the time of Clara's confirmation. The diaries talk about buying the fabric and who was going to sew it.

It was decided that Clara should go to St. Olaf Academy for high school, and then continue at St. Olaf through college. St. Olaf, in Northfield, Minnesota, is about 300 miles from her home in Orfordville, Wisconsin. Naturally, she would take the train. Here I found maps of her route, and made them interactive. I also found postcards she wrote (or were written to her), one from the Orfordville train station, and one of the bridge the train would have crossed.

See how you can use the little train to follow her path up to Northfield?

Here's a couple of photocopies of my grandma's class notes!

Here's Clara and a friend. They lived in Ladies' Hall at St. Olaf.

In the St. Olaf archives, there was a scrapbook from one of Clara's classmates. I made replicas of a couple of the things.

Letters, of course, were the main form of communication. My mom still has quite a stash of letters between Clara and her parents. Here I made color photocopies, and "antiqued" them.

And there's Knut's letterhead, and a sample of his perfect Palmer method penmanship. How sweet is this? Knut really misses his daughter.

I found Clara's Academy graduation program in the archives. Here's a picture of the gals, there's a circle around Clara's head:

 There's her name:

and her diploma:

Clara was a member of Delta Chi

She sang and participated in concerts and recitals

"Miss Grunhuvd possesses a voice of exceptional quality and sang with excellent taste the varied numbers on her program"

Tag Day, May 17, 1911. May 17 is Norwegian Independence Day. Tag Day was the same day, and it had something to do with raising money to expand the Ladies Hall dorm. I think students "tagged" people with yellow squares of paper. I need to research this a bit more.

Clara's college graduation program, grades and diploma.

She graduated with a music teacher's certificate

A Book a Week 2014: Made, Altered, Repaired. Week 12

Week of March 24
Emy's Journals

I have been making journals for Emy for a few years. What I like about doing it is that she fills them up. They are jam-packed! They are filled with all kinds of cool writing and ticket stubs and memories.
I made them all from 1950s-1960s-era Readers Digest covers, and used a simple Coptic stitch. I have determined that with all the use these books get, cotton crochet thread tends to break. So the last one I made, I used chartreuse nylon thread, and it wears really well!

 Sometimes I add beads:

 A little washi tape:

A Book a Week 2014: Made, Altered, Repaired, or Reviewed. Week 11

Week of 17 March
Book Review:
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

   Wow, I couldn't put this down till the very end. This is a beautiful, smart, intriguing tale blending Jewish and Arab folk mythology. It was well researched, historically accurate and kept me wanting page after page. I found this book, as I find most books, by shelving the reserves at the library. I get to see what is new, what is popular, and what looks interesting. I am drawn to mythical characters, historical fiction, and I liked the setting of New York in the early 1900's. I was so taken with the book, that I didn't read reviews of it until I finished. NYTimes review and good old Good Reads both liked it as well.
   I also noticed that the author, Helene Wecker, is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, MN. I was the Music Collections Curator at Carleton for a few years, and I like to see Carls being creative.

   The book cover is lovely and mysterious, the lettering perfectly mythical. I like how the friendship between the two outsiders develops and grows. I don't remember where I had read about golems, but this is the image I had of them:

Basically, a blob of clay. The author literally and figuratively fleshes out a developing character. The man who wanted her created as his wife asked that she be given curiosity, an unexpected trait in a wife made of clay. The Golem learns and assimilates and grows because of her curiosity. The Golem, named Chava, figured out what her skills were and how she could use them to fit into her neighborhood in New York City. She also used her skills to make friends and form a life.

   I thought the Jinni's history was fascinating. I liked how all the stories intertwined. The details of the oil lamp made me want to know more about the art of creating lamps and pots, and how they can be repaired.

   I highly recommend this book!!!

A Book a Week 2014: Made, Altered, Repaired. Week 10

Week of 10 March 2014

Belgian Binding!!!
I love this binding. It has a similar look to Japanese stab bindings, but opens and lays flat, like a Coptic binding. One of the cool things about this method, is that the spine is completely free-floating. This binding is a relatively new style, created in the 1980's by Anne Goy, a Belgian artist; here is its history.

 My supplies and tools. Actually, I didn't use my Japanese Screw Punch, because it was easy to make holes in the Readers Digest book covers with my little piercer.

You sew the covers separate from the text block. I wanted some staggered holes, so I could get this look.

 You sew through each hole twice to get this nice wrap-around style.

 I made sure to keep the threads taut so the cover wouldn't be loose and flimsy.

 The text block is sewn separately, then sewn onto the threads covering the inside of the spine.

 Here you can see my seven signatures.

 Inside the back cover.

 And the pretty spine. I think I'll give this one to my sister, Julie, as a house warming gift.