There are some estate sale finds that I ruminate on for a long time, taking them out once every couple of years then tucking them back into a box in the closet. I can’t part with them  because I just KNOW that at some point an idea is going to bubble up. This summer was the time for the 40-some booklets of “green” stamps that I’d bought about a decade ago. There were all sorts – green stamps, blue chip stamps, and lots of brands that I’d never seen before.

Each of the books was dismembered, then the stamps were soaked off the acidic pages and adhered to Kitakata with wheat paste. Luckily, many of the stamps were still intact in perforated but un-torn blocks, but many floated up loose, or in strips of four or five stamps. 26″ x 20″ sheets of the Japanese paper were filled over the course of several weeks.

It’s rare that I plot out a book and follow my own sketches. My usual m.o. is to make drastic changes as one idea doesn’t work out, bobbing and weaving my way to something that feels satisfying and resolved. This time, however, things went pretty much according to plan, although I did print the prose twice, being unhappy with my registration on the first try.

Six of the seven copies are now available for sale. See the details here.