The work that you see here reflects my lifelong love affair with books. I have always loved to read, but I also adore the tactile qualities of books. There is nothing quite like opening a brand new book and feeling the virgin paper beneath your fingers, but there is something equally alluring about picking up an old battered and torn copy of a favourite book from a used bookseller and imaging the many hands that have held it before you.
However, it wasn't until I had a child that I really began to appreciate the tactile qualities of books. Those first cloth baby books that I bought for my infant daughter reminded me of long-lost treasure: I had simply forgotten how wonderful these books are. Incorporated in their simple story pages are textures to touch and feel, flaps to lift revealing hidden secrets, sometimes even hidden sounds, and, best of all, some come with little cloth figures which can be moved from page to page as the story progresses, inserted in stitched slots, temporarily attached with velcro or buttons. These books are simply magical.
So when I made the fabric books shown here, I wanted to make them beautiful to look at, but I also wanted to make them wonderful to touch, hold and play with, like children's cloth books. These images represent just the beginning of my experimentation with fabric books: I hope to make many more.
