The secret gallery’s blog

messages in paper boats

I have been making paper boats, this started off by writing  little messages then folding them into boats and leaving them in the secret gallery for people to open out like fortune cookies! Not sure if many people did but our children loved them! A friend of mine commissioned me to make some as wedding gifts, so the last couple of days I have been experimenting and turning these flimsy boats into something a little bit more lasting but still delicate so I dipped them in melted bees wax and paraffin wax which gave them a slightly golden glow. (Take care if you are melting wax, as once I was melting wax and it boiled over and caught fire over a gas cooker, I ran out of the house with a child under each arm while James tackled the blaze! Luckily everything was ok!) They are also waterproof and ready to sail! I love the way wax makes paper look; the boats are almost transparent  and now the words are kind of sealed into them, but you can still read them, they emerge over time. I write using a pen and ink for drawing, and like to think of the drips and irregularities as adding freshness to the pieces. I believe that technology is really useful and important for many reasons, though I would never have said this before! But, the hand made and hand crafted, the hand written letters, I hope they will always be written, for they bring something to our lives that technology cannot replace. As well  as the messages, I have been using repeated words over and over, mantras such as: Love Laughter, Truth Trust, and Love Unity and writing them on the boats. I really enjoy the lightness of these little boats; turning something two dimensional into a hand held object. They can be flattened again. I like the idea of posting them to different destinations.

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