A quick internet search of the topic "crafts from old books" will pull up hundreds of ideas, for crafty people eager to repurpose old books to create something new...like this pumpkin below.
The activities director at The Timbers of Shorewood made these for the WriteOn Joliet members who participated in the third "Meet the Author" event in November.
The "Meet the Author" event has become a yearly opportunity for The Timbers book club to enjoy the prose and poetry by WriteOn Joliet authors and for the authors to enjoy reading to a rapt audience from anthologies that are donated to the club that evening.
The Timbers also hosted WriteOn Joliet in 2022 and 2023.
To make these pumpkins, The Timbers' activities director took on of WriteOn's anthology that had become coffee-stained from many readings at The Timbers.
Its stem was fashioned from the anthology cover.
And (in my pumpkin), the flesh was formed from words I'd written, from excerpts from BryonySeries novels that I'd shared for this particular anthology.
I found it intriguing that words that began in our imaginations eventually found their way onto pages through many hours of work, which then found their way into the hands of readers for many hours of reading, where one reader also then spent hours reforming them into another form of artistic expression, which then returned to the authors to enjoy.
For me, this shows the malleableness of art and its ability to be explored, reshaped, and enjoyed in many forms.
Maybe it's something to consider as we make our unique way in the world today.
Happy Monday!
