Women Friends

 I have mentioned previously that I was playing with some words by Scottish poet Pauline Prior-Pitt.

Her poem Women Friends is the loveliest honouring of women's friendships and it has warmed me from the moment I read it. My Dad was with me at the Scottish Poetry Library and showed me her book Be an Angel and suggested I might just need to buy it. True.

I wrote to her recently asking permission to use the words in some work; and she generously agreed and I feel so honoured to be able to do so.

I have begun working towards a showing around the theme of The Red Thread. Three friends and I are hoping, all things being equal, to be able to have a small showing in the Deckled Edge Press studio hanging space in October-November this year.  We all know that a thousand things can happen between now and then, but we are committed to giving it a go! 

I have been pushing ideas around and playing with things for a while and am only now beginning to bring my fuzzy outline thinking into some sort of focus.  This wee artists' book is the first piece that is finished.

I was actually doing something else when my eyes came across the tin.

Funny story - when we packed up our home and studio last year, I was going to throw the tin out. Barry thought he might be able to use it for something and it stayed. Last month Barry was tidying up his new workshop space and came across the tin again. Now knowing he wouldn't use it, he asked me if I could use it and I thought yes, I might just be able to! Circles.

But back to the tin moment. I dropped whatever mundane task was at hand; went and gathered up some scraps of the roll of paper Barry had been cutting (Arches Velin) and wondered if I cut them into tiny squares (2cm x 2cm) might they fit in the tin?

And then what to do with them if they did?

I thought about writing out the poem on large paper then cutting it up and stacking it; I thought about making each page of a stack a segment of the poem. And then I thought, what if I stamped the poem in four parts on the top sheet? So it could be read?

I tried to work what size type I would need to fit all those words on such a small page and found it was 8 pt. Tiny.

So I gathered the type together and taped it so I could hammer it in one go; rather than end up having bouncing letters with too many spaces.

And then there they were...

Four stacks of words,

Nestled in their tin, with the title and the poet tucked into the lid.

 

And the sunshine beaming in...