Paper Buttons: Week 21: Baby Gate: Dreaming of Running the Bases

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Week 21: Baby Gate: Dreaming of Running the Bases

This week's book Dreaming of Running the Bases is part of a tripartite boxed set of books titled Baby Gate. Packages, bundles, presents... the book-of-the-week is about gifts... the sort of gifts that are natural and ordinary, and yet extraordinary in their power to produce change. An example of this is when a new baby is born into a family. With the passage of one day, all the lives connected with that birth are suddenly changed... and the whole family has gone through the Baby Gate.

The box that houses the set is an opposing-hinge box, which opens from two sides. It's covered by paper with everyday images like butterflies, postage stamps, and songbirds. The hinges are hand-dyed indigo bookcloth. Red satin ribbons are added to open and close the box lid. Inside, the box is covered with a collograph print of the sun shining through the treetops and vintage sheet music from a French songbook. Each of the three box sections holds one book. This week focuses on the middle section of the box... which houses a little accordion book with pop-out windows, Dreaming of Running the Bases.

The box that holds the set...

Open the lid of the box from one direction.... and the center section is revealed with Dreaming of Running the Bases nested snugly inside.

a little book snug inside it's box

Pull the little book out, untie the baby blue satin ribbon, and peak inside. The cover is a recycled page from a children's book... a little boy in his baseball outfit, running the bases...

a baby blue ribbon holds the little book shut

and the back cover is a paste-paper painting of day-lilies and dragonflies.

paste-paper on the back cover

Unfold the little 4 by 4 inch accordion book to view an array of pop-out windows on the zigzag spine of greens, yellows, oranges, and blues. Created as a monoprint, the paper for the accordion is vibrant and energetic with the inference of new life and growth.