Cha book - 茶の本

Last night I made a cha book. I used handmade Sri Lankan papers sewn in four signatures on the inside. For the outside covers, I glued the wrapper from a Yunnan tuocha round of tea, some marigold color tissue paper, and pieces of Japanese printed paper over a cut manila folder.




Not sure what possessed me to make this one other than that I had been looking through some of my old handmade books. Like so many of my creative endeavors, the process begins this way: some spark of an idea has me searching through cupboards for materials and then I am on the floor with my open art box creating. And I'm always amazed that something emerges out of what might have become garbage (i.e., the tea wrapper and other bits of paper and cardboard).



Here, I am "reading" the book. The blank pages are telling me stories already... Stories, and songs, and poems, and drops of ink.