STORYTELLERS & ADVENTURERS.
The Storyteller collection of handbound journals is an ode to Edna May who has always my muse.
My grandmother was a quiet, curious creative with excellent taste. She was an adventurer and a bit of a rebel for her times…
In the late 1940’s, as young college student from Yorkshire, England she became besotted by a handsome chap working in the local fish and chip shop, he was fresh off a boat all the way from British India. My grandmother would visit the shop often to buy a penny bag of chips just as an excuse to see him. It was love at first sight, they were soon married much to the disapproval of her mother who disowned her as she didn’t quite like the idea of my grandmother marrying a South Asian man.
Their love story unfolded on a road trip from Europe to South Asia, traversing the old silk route, a romancing of life which decades later inspired my most popular journals, the Storyteller collection.
It was my Grandmother, Edna May, that instilled a love of thrifting and treasure seeking in me, teaching me about the richness found in travel, heritage, textiles, culture and craft.
I often think of how life must have been for my grandparents as an interracial couple in 1940’s Britain; I wonder how they felt when they first experienced each others culture, food, music, language!
They were rebels indeed, going against cultural norms to follow their hearts…
They were from a generation of people that were
pioneers of van life! They had the spirit of curiosity,
courage and an adventurous nature.
It would be decades later that my grandfather would travel back to his home country [now with a different name, Pakistan] after partition, with my grandmother and their children on an epic journey halfway across the world. They caught a ferry to Rotterdam and drove their campervans through Europe, Turkey, what was Yugoslavia, Iran and into Afghanistan [just missing the Soviet invasion] and finally travelling into Northern Pakistan through The Khyber Pass. They stopped at my grandfather’s ancestral village near the UNESCO heritage site of Taxila founded in 10th century BC, before following the river Indus all the way to the Southern tip of the country, to the seaside city of Karachi where they lived for the next 10 years.
In the early 1980’s my own parents decided to move our lives from Yorkshire, England to Karachi, Pakistan where I spent a lot of time playing in my grandmother’s garden, picking mangoes, tamarind and pomegranates, jasmine, marigolds and gulab [roses], I’d make fresh rangoli inspired manadalas with the gardens’ offerings before devouring the fruit and stringing garland to wrap around my nana’s wrists.
‘‘ Edna May had the greenest fingers, her garden was full of fruit trees and intoxicating flowers. Each Storyteller journal is a memory of the garden views from my grandmother’s verandah.’’
I spent my childhood in Pakistan in the 80’s surrounded by a vibrantly rich culture that has inspired so much of the work I do today. We would travel back and forth to England to escape the summer heat of Karachi where my grandmother’s garden was filled with mango, coconut and pomegranate trees and where she grew flowers like lantana, marigold, jasmine, hibiscus, Arabian roses, frangipani and bougainvillea that cascaded over garden walls— I never appreciated the beauty of bougainvillea bushes back then as they were always teaming with chameleons which I was terrified of! In England my grandmother’s garden was full blousy hydrangea, carnations, petunias, David Austin roses, apple, cherry and pear trees.
My childhood was spent dipping my toes in and out of both the East and the West, I feel lucky to have experienced the fruits of a melting pot of two cultures.
My grandmother collected many beautiful objects along her journey halfway across the world. She gave me a few of her beloved treasures before she passed on. A beautiful hand painted Chinese parasol, a black onyx silver locket, an antique tiny book of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, AND a wooden trinket box adorned with the storytelling art of a Persian miniature painting.
Little did she or I know at the time the little jewel like box would go on to inspire a collection of journals that would become so loved by people all over the world.
On a rainy April day in 2016, I was feeling particularly lost and uninspired by life, having just been given a prognosis that spelt death; I was ready to give up.
Something lead me into my studio late that night where I began unpacking the removal boxes filled with objects of my affection. It was then that came across my grandmother’s trinket box and popped it on my desk without much thought, until the lid slipped on top of an unfinished binding, the book-block was almost the same size as the lid,
all I could see was a book cover!
I started pulling out all my travel photographs of walls, tiles and floors, rummaging through my vintage textile collection, going back to my creative roots of block printing; I began painting with intention for the first time, mostly floral motifs in gouache.
I used all these elements I’d gathered to create beautiful book covers that are meant to look worn with love, like something you’d find in an old chest in an attic, filled with beauty, poetry and stories of a life lived and loved.
Designing the Storyteller Collection helped me through darkest phase of my life when I was feeling hopeless, blocked, not just creatively, but also spiritually. I do believe they are intrinsically connected.
After months of cancer treatment and several interviews with my mortality, I was feeling hopeful and excited once again.
I’d found my creative spark, belief in my abilities to continue to seek beauty, especially in bleak times and the belief that indulging in my creativity was a way to heal. I honestly feel like it was Edna May looking out for me, sending me a little nudge from beyond to keep going.
Over the years I have added new journals to the
collection that tell a little story of my life,
made for others to fill with their art and writing,
for the poetry of their life.
Each journal in this collection is made to order and can be handbound with heavy cotton rag watercolour paper or medium weight Hahnemuhle writing/sketching paper for use with fountain pens, pastels and other dry media.
The Storyteller Collection is offered just once a year on pre-order.
Each journal is made handmade for soulful, creative storytellers out there.
They are keepsake journals my customers love to collect. The can be ordered on their own beautifully packaged in a gift box, or they can be ordered with a handcrafted glass and copper display box which makes these journals a beautiful object to display when not in use and to spark creative conversations.
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Painting the artwork for the Hibiscus Storyteller.
STORYTELLER DETAILS
Available in 3 sizes. A6 - A5 - A4.
The small and medium size can be made with either watercolour or writing paper.
The largest size [A4] will be available with watercolour paper only.
Option to add-on hand applied gold gilded edges to the watercolour journals only.
Option to pre--order a glass and copper display box for the small and medium size only.
Save 10% when you order a trio of best sellers or the full library of Storytellers.
I will combine and refund any shipping overages where applicable for multiple orders to the same address.
Pre-orders take 12 weeks and will ship at the end of October.
Worldwide standard tracked and courier shipping options available.
These journals are elegant with a hint of rustic cosiness, they are like vessels of self-care, encouraging time for creativity.
I’ve put a lot of work into redesigning the entire collection, I hope you love it! I especially love that the front and back covers now have the same print as requested by many collectors who write in a language that flows from right to left, now they too can enjoy these charming journals in their full beauty.
Here are some of the Storytellers filled and cherished by collectors.
Follow #lotusblubookartstoryteller on Instagram to see more beautiful creativity by collectors, from paintings, poetry, daily journaling, sacred geometry and even embroidery!