Laume's Studio

Since I'll be busy with family activities all weekend, I've been busy, busy, busy trying to get a bunch of stuff done this week, including two swap deadlines. So of course I found unexpected buried treasure and had to carve an hour out of my day to dig it out.

I wrote a long To Do list last night and started tackling it first thing out of the shower this morning. One of things on the list was to pick up some how-to collage books I'd ordered from the library. I haven't been to the library since last week and I walked in to discover it was the last day (or at least the last day I could go to the library this week) of a week long book sale. Lots and lots of books being culled from the library, two thirds of them from the children's library.

It's really hard to explain how old and out of date most of our local library resources are, but in this particular case, it was to my advantage. No one wanted old, outdated, battered books apparently. No one but me!

Each book was fifty cents. I spent nineteen dollars. I found a Middle East cookbook, a few books to keep to read to the grandkids (or myself), one Barbara Michaels novel to read. The rest of the books were all for crafting and art use. Dozens of children's nonfiction, most of the books are between twenty and sixty years old.

Here are half the books. You can click on the photo to see the titles and covers closer.

Here's the other half. I love the old covers, even the simple ones.

I love the feel and smell, texture and style of the books. It takes me back to my own book filled childhood. It makes me think of children through the ages, born, like me, before the invention of the television, personal computer, Gameboys, cell phones. Children sitting with a parent reading together before bed. Kids curled up in a windowsill on a rainy afternoon, sitting in a tree, laying on a screened summer porch, sitting at a kitchen table after school with a plate of cookies and a tall glass of milk, but at the same time all of them somewhere far away from their environs, fallen deep into the pages of a book.

But beyond the pleasure of the books in and of themselves, there are the wonderful illustrations I hope to use once I learn some collage techniques with those books I borrowed. Here are a few pages.

And a few more.

And even more. I wish you could see them in person. I realize now I should have taken photos of single pages, they would have shown up better. But too late, these will have to do for now.

Oh, and just one more.