Deconstructing letters

In cleaning out my bookshelf I rediscovered an old project I'd done. It was from the 1999 Paper & Book Intensive, a long weekend of projects and instruction from Masters on all aspects of papermaking and book binding. It was held at the picturesque location of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts at Blue Hill, Maine.

I can't believe it's been almost 20 years. I just can't believe it. /smh/ I'm getting old.

Anyway, the class was led by Suzanne Moore, called "Still Life with Letters." The blurb had said, "This course will give students new possibilities for page, book, and cover design using letters as visual subject. Students will begin with traditional typographic and written letters, and by abstraction, invention, repetition, and manipulation create a series of unique designs appropriate for a variety of book applications. Unusual tools and a variety of coloring techniques will further expand the horizon."

You know how, on the cooking shows, the chefs or contestants will sometimes "deconstruct meat loaf" and the dish they come up with has vestiges of traditional meat loaf but will be modern and updated? That was what we were supposed to do with letters. Deconstruct them, make them a design element, where you couldn't necessarily see the letter it was, but you could tell it was a letter.

These aren't spectacular but they are good for me at my skill level. It's harder than one would think to deconstruct a letter but still keep vestiges of the letter. I think they are pretty. I should actually take them out of the envelope I'd made for them and use them in another project. That way I won't forget them for another nearly 20 years!