Text:
She sat
looking down at him,
and wondered how women told men
when there were going to be children,
and what men did then.
She drew a long breath, smiling.
She could remember her wedding day,
with her white voile dress
three Easter lilies and a small black Testament.
And she thought about the words
"--take thee--"
"--to serve--"
"--to cherish--"
"--any reason--"
"I pronounce you--"
It was
sweet to be married.
It would be sweet to be a mother.
Already there was this possibility.
She felt rich in sweetness
and excited by a faint, not unpleasant fear.
She knew him now, and all his ways,
and how to please him;
it was not always easy to do, but she knew how.
It would always come to this in the end;
she must do as he wanted and do it happily,
not complaining.
She must see things as he saw them;
for him there was only one way.
Ingredients:
decorated paper, Emagination adhesive-backed blue vellum,
Dover clip art, doily, advertisements cut out of magazines
from the thirties, heavy weight white paper for
flaps
Lessons Learned:
1) Go easy on the glue when using vellum; it wrinkles really
easily
Process:
>Because
I had so many images that I wanted to include in this page,
I decided that I needed to expand my space by making some
flaps. I was afraid that if I used flaps that open up to the
sides, that the advertising copy would be too overwhelming,
so I decided to make flaps that open up and down
instead.
First I
cut two pages of heavyweight copy paper the same size as a
single page in the book. I took off a little in the width to
make sure that the pages could open and close freely and
added about an inch in length to insert between the other
pages for the flap. I glued the decorated paper to the front
of each page and applied the adhesive blue vellum to the
back. I made a fold at the top of the left page and the
bottom of the right page, checking all the time to make sure
that the length of the flap matched the length of the book
page.
I also made a two
copies of the same picture on premium ink jet paper. One is just the
same as the original image. The other has been flipped vertically (or
is that horizontally? I can never remember.) I cut out some of the flowers,
bees and butterflies and glued them onto the top and under sides of
the transparency. I think this causes the image to have a 3 dimensional
feel to it. I adhered the transparency to the page using gel medium.
Next, I
put glue on the front and back of the 1" flap and tucked it
between two pages that I had previously glue together. (I
had left the top and bottom edges unglued so I could insert
the flaps.) I folded the pages down, closed the book,
weighted it, and let it set.
I
started decorating the outside first. I made a fold line on
the heart doily and cut it in half. I glued the two halves
onto the two sides of the spread. Next I laid out the text
and the bird and butterflies around the heart and adjusted
the spacing. When I was happy with how it looked, I glued
everything down. When I glue down strips of text, I use a
very tiny paintbrush and a pair of surgical tweezers that
have a very, very narrow tip. I grab a piece of text with
the tweezers in my left hand, turn my hand over, apply the
glue to the back of the strip with the paintbrush, and then
use the tweezers to lay the text on the page. I use the back
end of the paintbrush to tap down the text and then smooth
it down with my finger.
I worked on the inside
of the spread next. I had already removed the advertising images that
I wanted to use from the magazines. I spread them out across my desk
and started trimming them in different ways. On some I left sharp, straight
edges. For other images I cut or tore around the edges. Then I laid
everything out onto the pages. Doing collage this way is like putting
together a puzzle without using the box lid! It took me several hours
to get everything placed right. I had to be careful about the folds
to make sure nothing important got lost in the gutters. I also tried
to balance text with imagery and give a good balance of open space between
the pictures so it wouldn't be too overwhelming. Even when I had everything
where I thought I wanted it, I still changed things around as I was
gluing. And I made a few mess-ups here and there, which I hope no one
else can see!
Reflections:
In this section of the book, the young woman has gotten married and
is living with, and getting to know her husband. She discovers she's
pregnant and wonders how to tell him. She thinks about how much she
loves pleasing her husband, making him happy, and about how wonderful
it will be to have his child. Although the actual wedding takes place
much earlier in the chapter, I used the details from the wedding in
this poem as a memory, as she thinks about the vows she made that day.
I am really happy with this poem. I think it expresses the young girl's
innocence and love in a way that many of us can relate to; that sense
of hope when we first get married and the excited anticipation we feel
when we know we're going to have a baby.
I had
decided on the text of this poem a couple of months ago, but
I didn't have any imagery to go with it. So I went to
Ebay
and looked for magazines from the early to mid thirties,
which was when this book was written. When the magazines
arrived, I looked for pictures that would relate to the
theme of being a bride, and I was amazed by the advertising
that I found. I thought it was a great juxtaposition of the
ideas in the poem. The ad techniques had so much to do with
shame and the fear of not living up to a certain set of
standards as a housewife, lover, and mother. Of course, I
knew these views of womanhood existed, but seeing these
attitudes expressed in print really made me think about how
lucky I am for the freedoms and luxuries I have and often
take for granted.
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