I couldn't sleep, my mind was swirling so I got up and wrote down a plan for a book; at its heart was the importance of nature and sensory play to children and it took the shoreline as its setting.
Through this past lockdown winter, working on the book became my 'happy place'; it drew together my love of nature, looking after and raising children, researching, design, choosing colour palettes... And the book grew, and grew but with growth came shoulds, I-would-need-tos, if-I-do-this-I-will-have-to-do-that and a staleness crept in. But then I recalled zines, the independent publishing movement and felt reinvigorated. This project didn't need to be a book: it could be much less formal, more adaptive.
Pocket-sized, it can be a tool, to have with you to spark some creative play or conversation. It is made of recycled paper carefully chosen to be tactile and a nice medium for your personal notes. I have illustrated and hand-stitched the booklet and I like to view it as a lovely object in itself, something that would make a nice gift. Being pocket-sized brings limitations and so I decided that it would be linked with this blog so that there would be room to share a bit more.
My loose plan for each booklet is that they cover at least one of each; an idea for creative play, word play or communication, science, nature and wellbeing, along with a peerie coarn of something unique to Shetland. The seashore is the setting because of the vast range of play and learning oppertunities but also because in Shetland we are all so close to the shore, it felt accessable to all.