50 books in a year of being 50

In this year of being 50 I have decided to follow one of my creative passions
and make 50 handmade books over the year.

Early next year I will find a way to exhibit the books and auction them.

The money raised will go to Plum Village in France,
a monastic retreat centre inaugurated by Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.

Sunday 28 June 2015

Book number 26, Snowdrops

Current bid for this book stands at £20
Snowdrops is a simple 10-page book which has my lovely friend Clare's snowdrop print on the front and my poem inside, hand printed.
The book measures 19 x 19cm.

 Here is the front cover of the book with the lovely print.

 This picture shows one of the inside pages and the printing.

Here is the poem - 

Fragile, tender tendrils of green
peeping out of the earth.
Small, almost insignificant 
bulbs of white
barely supported
by slender green stalks.
Yet these tiny white flowers
make a huge announcement,
a proclamation
that Spring is on its way.

The cycle of nature is turning,
the time of hibernation,
of huddling by a warm fire
reluctant to go out
will soon be over.

Delicate drops of white
scattered among decaying leaves
and brown earth,
defying frost and snow
and all the weight of weather
nature has to outpour,
herald a time
of warmth,
longer days,
sunshine.
And make my heart sing.

© 9/2/13


Sunday 21 June 2015

Book number 25, Silence heart

Current bid for this book stands at £10
Book number 25, (yay! half way through) is a heart-shaped book held together with a split pin. It has the poem Silence written on individual pages which appropriately open out into a lovely fan.
 This is the book closed

 and this is what it looks like open.

It measures approximately 8 x 8cm with 17 pages.
The poem is - 

Silence is palpable
at the centre of a heart turned inside out,
knowing its fullness instead of its limits,
its generosity instead of its spite,
its enormity instead of its shrinking.

Silence is a depth-charge
into the ever-present space
that words cannot plumb,
dancing on the outskirts
and knocking at the door,
they cannot express the
vastness and completeness.

Silence is the end of all our longing,
the dropping away of desires and wants,
the dissolving of binary opposites and
the shedding of burdens we have
inadvertently accumulated.

Silence is tangible at the centre
of a heart turned inside out,
embracing infinity instead of being bound
by invisible walls created in our imagining
and forgetfulness that we are bound to one another,
indistinguishable as the wave and the water.

© 28/2/13


Book number 24, Acorn

Current bid for this book stands at £25
This book is based on a quote from Kahlil Gibran -
"In a field I have watched an acorn, a thing so still and seemingly useless. And in the spring I have seen that acorn take roots and rise, the beginning of an oak tree, towards the sun. Surely you would deem that a miracle, yet that miracle is wrought a thousand, thousand times in the drowsiness of every autumn and the passion of every spring". It was also inspired by some felt acorns that I made and fitted into real acorn cups, one of which is on the front cover.
The book measures 9 x 10cm and is hexagon-shaped, opening out into a bigger hexagon.


Thursday 18 June 2015

Book number 23, 10 Love poems

Current bid for this book stands at £23
This is in fact a folder of individual leaves with a poem on each one.
The folder measures 15.5 x 10.5 cm, made of simple gold card and fastened with a ribbon tie.
The love poems are -
The world needs more love letters
The heart has its own language
Listening to the heart
Love
The whisperings of the heart
I have looked
Can we love?
Tell me a story of falling in love
What is love?
How can I know?
and apparently because I can't count, there is an 11th poem, A thousand mile journey!
An unexpected extra!
All of the poems can be viewed on my blog, Mindful Living, http://lauribower.blogspot.co.uk/





Wednesday 17 June 2015

Book number 22, The earth is breathing out

Current bid for this book stands at £25
This book is of a poem I wrote in April 2013.The words are hand printed onto the pages and each page is decorated with a die cut of a spring border in different papers.
The size is 15 x 10.5cm with 16 pages and is landscape rather than portrait orientation.

 This is the front cover, with the beautiful card like handmade paper with silk strands in it.

 Here is a view of some of the pages, all feature this lovely spring die cut.