Monday 30 January 2017

Belated Burns' Night greetings

I'm well aware that I'm somewhat late with this post - I was all set to post it on the appropriate date (25th January), but an unexpected job interview cropped up, sending me into a major panic, and pushing everything else to one side.  So please forgive the belated nature of this posting.

Burns' Night is an annual event I grew up with, having been born and raised in Scotland, although I don't think my parents (who were English and Welsh), were particularly enamoured with the event.  But I must confess to a liking for haggis, and having recently re-discovered a fondness for my Scottish roots, I thought I'd mark the significant date with a tribute to the Bard of Ayrshire, Robert Burns.

I found this lovely poem of his, 'Yon Wild Mossy Mountains', which to me conveys much of the charm of the Scottish landscape, and this beautiful painting by Gustave Dore seems to match it perfectly.

'Scottish Highlands' by Gustave Dore


I slightly cropped the image and combined it with the poem in one of my favourite book formats: the accordion book.  The tartan which covers the front and back covers was from a batch of fat quarters I had recently ordered from eBay, and I just loved the red, green and gold colours on it.  I toyed with the idea of creating a presentation box in which to house the book, but in the end, I settled on a simple sleeve which I covered in green bookcloth, to tone in with the green in the tartan, and embellished it with a silver thistle charm, the thistle being the floral emblem of Scotland.




It's been fun, and I've loved working on this project.  Hopefully next year, I'll get my Burns' Night tribute out on time!

See you next time
x


No comments:

Post a Comment