Joan
My book for this month’s theme, ‘Green’, was a celebration of Joni Mitchell’s song ‘Little Green’ written 60 years ago, in 1966. She wrote it for her daughter, Kelly Green, who she had given up for adoption the previous year. She was an impoverished young folk singer, unable to provide for her new baby. The song is poignant, loving and hopeful.
Patti
As my colleagues know, I wasn’t much taken with this month’s theme … but I discovered that working on an almost unloved topic challenged me and I had to work harder. I ended up very happy with this little blizzard fold book with inserts in a Belgian binding. All the papers used, including the cover, have been recycled.
I looked at the various connotations for green: new growth, jealousy, bruising, and regeneration, and wrote a few words on each topic.
Tony
Death by Decor
What Wilde actually said was:
“This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do.”
Perhaps the wallpaper in question was printed with Scheele’s Green (copper arsenite). It has been estimated that in 1858 there were 100 million squares miles of green wallpaper
in Britain alone.
Scheele’s Green was discovered in 1778 by Karl Scheele, a Swedish chemist. It was cheap and vibrant in colour and became extremely popular in the 1780s.
It has also been blamed for the death of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1821, reputedly by arsenic poisoning from the wallpaper in his room on St Helena.
Wendy
For the theme of Green, I was struck by the colourful array of vegetables outside the Indian food shop on Drummond Street. The geometry within the display suggested the book format.
Alison
I found ‘Green’ a particularly inspiring theme and couldn’t help but produce 2 books. The first is purely an exploration of various names for colours of green. I’m fascinated by people’s varying interpretations of colour names and so chose more unusual examples and my own versions. You can turn the book over and play a game trying to guess the colour names as well.
The second book is a flag book made up from a photograph I took at Alexandra Palace Park and interspersed with different greens found in that photograph. The cover is another shot also from the park that comes together when the book is spread open.
Isi
My walk to my local station can be very repetitive so I often take photos of plants, flowers and weeds imagining surreal creatures living in them to entertain myself. So, for the theme “Green” I wanted to use some of these photos and an imaginary “green man” surrounded by green plant spirits!
