The Secret (Cambridge) Garden

I've finished the bookmarks that I mentioned on Monday in my blog post, so time to tell you the story behind them.

A friend of mine, Fran, in San Francisco is having a reunion of friends she met when her husband was on sabbatical in Cambridge, UK. This group of American women formed a book club and also took a lot of guided walks around Cambridge, especially around the university area. They loved seeing all the gardens and Fran mentioned how much she liked the fact that so many of the gardens were initially hidden behind garden gates. Very English! Fran thought that she would like to give each of them a gift at their reunion, that symbolized something about their connection.

So the idea that came to mind was to make a bookmark for the bookclub part, and then form a garden gate with flowers on the back to suggest you had opened the gate and walked into the garden....and thus The Secret Garden

The group are reuniting in Chicago in October. There were 16 of them in the group and they've kept in touch and supported each other through email over the years. Twelve of them are managing to make it to the reunion, including the blue badge guide from Cambridge.

I chose roses for the flowers as they are very English.....and when I picture a garden gate, I often imagine a climbing rose trailing over the top of it. It's also a very feminine flower too.... I hope the ladies enjoy their roses and memories.

Thanks Fran. It was a nice project to do, and made me think of England too!

The Secret Garden

I am busy doing a commission of 12 bookmarks. There's a lovely story behind the commission and how we came up with the design, but I'll save that until the pieces are finished...

For now, here's a quick glance at the unfired stage of the garden gates from "the secret garden":

The rest is a secret!

Like a garden in your pocket...

"A book is like a garden in your pocket" - isn't that a lovely saying....

I recently used it to design a book mark for a dear friend's birthday. She loves books and words and is a wonderful source of information on literature and many other things....


So when it came to making her something for her birthday, as her skin reacts to wearing silver so jewelry isn't an option, I decided to make her a bookmark.


So I made a "pocket" and then filled it with flowers. Now her book is like two gardens in her pocket!