The special piece I mentioned in my previous post about
handmade books is a portfolio of my grandmother's artwork. When she passed away, we cleaned out her apartment and found her portfolio stashed away in the back of a closet. It was full of pieces she had completed when she studied fashion in art school in the early 1930s.
I was smitten, and touched, and amazed by every one of them. Each piece had visible brush strokes and pencil marks made by the hand of my grandmother. Her name was carefully lettered at the top of each page, and some even had grades scribbled on the bottom—A+, of course. Go Nana!
These papers were big. They measured 14"x20" so, though I marveled at them for a while, they eventually ended up stashed in a closet once again . Last year I decided these pieces of family history needed to be liberated, and I had the idea to make mini portfolios. I scanned the art (and tiled and scanned some more), and shrunk the images to fit in small books. I made three of them and gave one each to my father, my aunt, and my sister.
I'm kicking myself for not making one for my own family at the time but I will make one someday, so that my girls can flip through and see their great-grandmother's art whenever they please.
Her pictures are glamorous and sleek, with a graphic quality that is so very reflective of that time.
I have always been curious to know what, exactly, the assignments were. Check out this sailor pattern. Looks like a textile pattern to me, and I am tempted to put an order in with
Spoonflower. Imagine custom fabric arriving at my doorstep, designed by my very own Nana, some 70 years ago?
Oh, the possibilities...
