Concertina Album: With Love, Bluebear

I was hoping I could get through this pregnancy without falling sick, and there I was, almost the home stretch with 7 weeks to go, I got sick! A cold, but it was still annoying enough that made me short tempered and cranky like hell. The worst is over, I hope, I'm just dealing with a stuffy nose, phlegmy, occasional cough and unexpected sneezes when it gets too cold.

Despite being sick, I managed to start and finish making this album. Made me feel better too.

This was a commission from a friend in Australia, who used to catsit her next door neighbour late cat who passed away at 17 years of age and very much missed by his human parents. As a parting gift for her neighbours as she's moving away, she asked me to make an album in memory of the cat, who was named Bluebear.

I chose a stripy material to remember the joy Bluebear brought to them, and used red as the joint for the spine and the ribbon closure for the album, and holding the photos down are red skinny ribbons at the corners.

I used the same material throughout the whole album and a handmade red woody paper for the end sheet. I like this shot, you got the zig zag of the concertina and the vertical stripes of the pattern of the material.

I used red for the spine joints and it echoes beautifully here with the pattern of the material, and then you get the diagonals of the skinny red in the corners. The album was about 9 by 7 by 1 and a quarter inches, and the photos were 5 by 7 inches.

This was the bit that almost made me cry, I'm a cat person so I could relate... and also this pregnancy is making me very sentimental, things just trigger me off...

When the photos were passed to me included was this button, a blue bear, I sewed on the lower part of the spine with binding thread so it will stay on nice and tight as the spine was slightly curved. On a whim I decided to put a red heart on top of it, thinking love... and that was when it hit me, this album was like Bluebear's last 'letter' to his human parents, a memory of him for them, his love for them and their love for him. I was floored, and added on two hearts to represent his human mom and dad.

When my Aussie friend came to pick it up, she was really happy. Now I wait to hear what Bluebear's parents have to say when she gift it to them...

More pictures of album and content can be viewed here.