After taking a somewhat unintended year hiatus-no really- Spring Leaf Press and I returned to our monthly collaborations this January. Our first books of the year are about family.

I’ve been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately. She was kind, gentle, a competent nurse and referred to the female genitalia as a doo-lolly. She also made a killer coconut cake. Once she forgot to remove the wax paper from between the layers and that was an interesting surprise. As a kiddo I would ask her about her past and she was always reluctant to discuss it. I think she thought it wouldn’t be interesting to me. I regret not pushing harder. This book is about her- Lena Louise Pochyba (neé Long).

I turned one of her scarves I’ve been carrying around for years into paste cloth and collaged it with Japanese papers, reproductions of old photos, letters and a few words. The delicacy of the scarf and thinness of the papers resulted in a pleasing translucency and successfully invokes a feeling of nostalgia and age. The concertina format helped establish a timeline. The finishing touches included hand stitched thread around the text and a ribbon that can move freely through the covers and control the tautness of the text block (thanks, Mary!).

I love and miss you, Baba.