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| The Hwy 311 Flea Market near Sofia, NC |
The book-of-the-week for this week, 29 Dresses, is about a collection. Some days the bustle and hubbub of life seem to rise in a crescendo through objects... Whether it's chinaware, furniture, a certain child's toy, or a rack of sequined ball gowns... each has its own story.. signifying a sort of chapter in the book of a person's life. Recently, an outing to the Highway 311 Flea Market in rural North Carolina illustrated that same energy and narrative. While walking through a labrynth of clothing, chinaware, furniture, toys, military memorabilia, old tools, and more... the fullness of life was oddly displayed in the discarded remnants and the cheap merchandise.
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| The cover |
The cased-in cover of 29 Dresses has hand-dyed indigo bookcloth and marbled cover paper. The title plate is letterpress printed with Antique Caslon typeface and indigo blue ink. Looking down on the book, the 29 dresses, glued onto the stiff pages, give the book a slightly rumpled, textured effect. One by one, the dresses tell a story...
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| the glued-on dresses and indigo bookcloth spine pieces. |
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| Dresses of a child's book and a pastepaper painting |
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| Dresses of a Paris map and gardening seed catalogue |
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| Dresses of notebook paper and Japanese cloud paper |
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| Dresses of a magazine page and a monoprint in pink |
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| Dresses of a collograph print and a peacock feathers print |
Each of the dresses in 29 Dresses has it's own story... just like the racks of clothes and the tables of goods at the Highway 311 Flea Market.
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| Inside the labyrinth of things |
To make paper folded dresses, check out the You-tube video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp3Aehoo-w.
