Look! It’s a Little Lotus Book! This is an example of one of the books we made in the Books and More workshop we did at the Studio on February 3rd. It was everyone’s favorite because it’s easy to make and very unusual because it opens like a lotus flower, sort of like unfolding one of those crazy maps. Anyone subscribed to my Shards blog by midnight tonight (how dramatic) will be in the drawing to win this book and the directions on how to make more. TGIF, fellow artisans!

I’m doing a presentation to the Trinity University Women’s Club on Valentine’s Day about establishing places of creative belonging, and I came across this poem describing one woman’s feelings about her own special place. Read it if you like, then at the end I’ll tell you about the poet:

At Home in the Summer Mountains

I’ve come to the house of the Immortals:
In every corner, wildflowers bloom.
In the front garden, trees
Offer their branches for drying clothes;
Where I eat, a wine glass can float
In the springwater’s chill.
From the portico, a hidden path
Leads to the bamboo’s darkened groves.
Cool in a summer dress, I choose
From among heaped piles of books.
Reciting poems in the moonlight, riding a painted boat . ..
Every place the wind carries me is home.

This was written by Yu Xianji, a Chinese poet who lived in the 9th century during the Late Tang Dynasty.. It’s amazing how women have always expressed a need for a special – even sacred – place of belonging. To read more about Yu Xianji’s remarkable life, click here.