Favourites, we all have them - a book, a colour, a meal, an artwork….. a farmer may have a favourite cow. I wanted to display some of my favourite books separate to all my other books. Reading and growing your knowledge is truly a powerful thing for humans, something in which I really wished I took more seriously as a young adult.

We humans eat cows (meat), not all of us, but an awful lot of us do. I haven’t for some time now but I do still eat cheese and some milk in my tea sometimes. I must say it’s really hard to give up cheese.

The Favourites bookshelf is made with American ash timber and a leather strip that interweaves through slots in the timber. I could not cut a long enough length of leather from a hide, which is what I really wanted, so I joined two strips together. When it was submerged in the boiling hot water the stitching broke which at the time I was guttered about, as I was not expecting that nor could I do anything about it. “It is what it is” I told myself at the time, just to keep myself calm. This unexpected event gave a surprising result in the end (as seen above) that was later welcomed and celebrated.

Letting go of what I wanted it to look like and act like, and letting the leather form its own landscape was a challenge at first. But the fulfillment I felt at being immersed in a process where the outcome was unknown was an absolute joy.
Below are some images of the process for this piece:

— NOT FOR SALE —

This project was supported by Creative New Zealand: