Jacob's Ladder Book

This is the Jacob's Ladder Book that is our latest exchange project with the art group I am involved with. Minori lives in Japan and I asked her what theme she would like her book to be. Since she said that she did not have any particular wishes, I decided to make a book about Oklahoma and Tulsa. (She already probably knows more about this state and the area of country I live in than I do but I could not resist)! The western theme goes well with Oklahoma. That's me at age three.....being the cowgirl.

The first stop I made was to the Lyon's Indian Store to purchase postcards. We have the Five Civilized Tribes here in Oklahoma, but they only had postcards for four tribes....darn! I may check back with them when their stock has been replenished before I send the book to Japan. But right now, there is one tribe missing.

The other aspect about Oklahoma is the number of horses we have in this state. Did you know that Oklahoma has more horses per capita than any other state in the U.S.? We have over 300,000 and the variety of sizes and colors of the horse population adds to the mosaic of the Oklahoma landscape. (This information was on the back of the postcard).

I decided to make a box to fit the book. My first thought was just have the postcards mounted on heavy cardstock and there would be enough weight to play with the book structure....but I was wrong. So I had to take the book structure apart and make matboard tiles to hold the postcards. The size of the book was dictated of course by the postcard size....so it is now very heavy - the complete opposite of what I started with!

I purchased a belt several years ago at a garage or estate sale to use later in my artwork. I completely took the belt apart and salvaged the parts that I thought I'd use "someday". Well, doesn't the closure for the box work perfectly with the rawhide strips - completely unaltered!

I really love my new western stamps, too. Stamp Diva has a great selection. So I will now show you the book structure and let you enjoy the photos without my comments.













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