Dedicated to my mum. For everything.
I used Japanese stab binding to hold the pages of this hand-painted book together. It is full of poems. More importantly, it is full of love.
It is red because my mum emanates the vibrancy of red. She loves poems the way her mother did, and I do, and I hope my daughters will come to do.
My early memories were formed around my mother's lap where she would read beautifully illustrated poems aloud to us. Her voice strong and lyrical as it captured our imaginations.
I asked my siblings, all five of them, to contribute their favourite poems too. Thus, the poems in this little red book range from Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes to Tupac Shakur. We all loved 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. I can still feel the undulations of her voice as I recite it to my children.
I also have her mum's favourite poems nestled within. My Nana died recently. I intend to gift this journal to my mum on my Nana's birthday as an acknowledgement of the circle we all share.
I hope that she will love it.
Love and light,
Zinnia 💜
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She asked me to paint an Orca on the cover in calm sea tones.
I lovingly painted and bound the journal and filled it with ocean feeling pages and papers from my stash.
This was only the beginning of the Orca Journal story.
The true magic came when I gave the journal to my friend. She then called upon all the people who would normally have gathered to celebrate the birth of her friend’s baby before COVID times.
She asked them to send their love and thoughts and wishes to her. My gorgeous friend then gathered all of these beautiful memories and wishes for the new mamma and baby and painstakingly glued and pasted them into the Orca Journal.
The Orca Journal finally arrived in the hands of the new mamma. She was overwhelmed with all of the love that spilled out from the Orca Journal into her world.
I am so blessed to have had a part in the gorgeous baby and mamma’s beautiful welcome to their life together.
Love and light,
Zinnia 💜
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