These two textual practices had the simplest materials, that I enjoyed! I had not tried either of these practices before this and I enjoyed the simple DIY aspect of both. These practices felt (somewhat) accessible and seemed like two that I would carry into my personal life.

A blank piece of paper can feel daunting sometimes, so it was nice to have a goal of trying to center it towards something in class.

I have never been known for my “amazing” handwriting, so my expectations for the outcome of my practice was very low. Originally I tried looking at some examples of alphabet charts written in calligraphy, but I quickly realized some of them were not beginner friendly.

In the end of this practice I wrote a quote from one of the readings that we had this semester from Boyer’s article, “Sewing” from Garments Against Women (2015) that said that “Every morning I wake up with a renewed commitment to learning to be what I am not. This is the day in which I will sew a straight seam, cut a piece of fabric precisely, follow the directions written by the pattern maker: stay stitch, clip notches. I will not presume to know more than the experts. I will always iron. No more jumping ahead, rebellion, Daydreaming.”  (Boyer, p. 26) The first part of me has really stuck with me throughout this semester and I wanted to try to make a little letter that I could stick on my cork board in my room.

I was super excited for Chapbook making! I was used to the process since it is similar to creating zines, I really liked the fact that it added thread, it made the process feel more intimate somehow. I think this feeling of intimacy may come the fact that I have really only ever sewed at home (usually to repair something me or my family needs fixing). I think the my connection to home, made it feel like an intimate creation.

For this practice, since we had read some of Emily Dickinson’s work for class, I decided that I would create a mini chapbook of three of her well known quotes. These quotes can be found at:https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00003636

The first two pages read, “If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way.

(letter to T. W. Higginson, 16 August 1870)

“Hope is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
and never stops—at all—”
(‘Hope is the thing with feathers’, c. 1861)

This is my letter to the world
That never wrote to me.
(‘This is my letter to the world’, 1862)

(The images had to be cut due to WordPress image size limit.)