Barbara Close gave her class the homework project of creating an accordion book with our calligraphy on the inside. Once again I was faced with filling a blank sheet of paper. After talking to my architect brother about the project, the ideas began flying, and I thought I would cut holes in the pages and outside edges. (This was one day before the project was due.) That evening I went to work, measuring out all the cutouts first, then making the tracks the lettering will follow, then drawing the letters in pencil. The final paper size was 30″ x 5″, with six 5″ squares.

I brought the paper and ink with me to class the next night and added the text in two colors of ink, black first, then the red. When it dried, I folded and cut the paper. I did not erase the pencil lines until the next night, giving it plenty of time to dry so it would not smear when the eraser was applied. Then I added the fancy paper embedded with wood ships to pieces of cardboard with spray adhesive and attached them to the ends with white glue.

I’m happy with the way it turned out. Barbara is really good at passing on neat projects for us to do.