Lonna Cunningham - More Beautiful Than Before

Copyright 2014 by LonnaCunningham
All rights reserved.

Published electronicallyby
Apple Jack CreekBooks

ISBN 978-0-9938186-0-8

Smashwords Edition, LicenseNotes

This ebook is licensed for yourpersonal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or givenaway to other people. If you would like to share this book withanother person, please purchase an additional copy for eachrecipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, orit was not purchased for your use only, then please return to smashwords.com and purchaseyour own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of thisauthor.

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For all inquiries
including information about workshops based on this material,
printed copies, or permission to reprint all or partof
More Beautiful than Before
please contact
Apple Jack CreekBooks
info@applejackcreek.com
www.applejackcreek.com
PO Box 111 Darwell AB T0E 0L0

~

for those whose love has

mended my broken places

~

~

Long ago in ancient Japan, thestory goes, the emperors favourite tea bowl was knocked to thefloor and shattered into pieces. The emperor sent the bowl away tobe mended, but the results were disheartening: the repairs wereunsightly and the emperor was deeply unhappy. Hearing of thesituation, a local artisan offered to try again. Although no onereally expected that much could be done, the bowl was sent off, andweeks later the craftsman returned, kneeling before the emperor topresent a small wooden box. Uncertain what to expect, the emperorremoved the lid and gasped in amazement. He lifted the bowl upand turned it around, wonderingly. The tea bowl had been completelytransformed.

The outline of the each of thebroken pieces now glinted in the light. Rather than trying to hidethe broken places which was impossible anyway the craftsman hadhighlighted each mended seam with gold, transforming the scars intomarks of beauty.

Repaired, the bowl was far morebeautiful than it had been before it was broken.

Kintsugi is the art ofmending pottery with lacquer and gold, and is still practiced byartisans today. Items mended in this fashion are highly prized fortheir unique beauty: a broken and mended vase or bowl is worth farmore than one without any scars at all.

Life knocks each of us to thefloor sometimes.

We have all been broken andcracked: through the pain of grief and loss, through the trials ofillness and suffering, through the challenges of growing up andfinding our place in the world. We each bear the scars of our past:marks on our bodies, on our hearts, on our minds. In a world thatvalues youthful beauty and perfection, it is tempting to hide ourpast, to be ashamed of our imperfections and our stories butreally, it is our past that makes us who we are, and our storiesmake each of us unique and beautiful in a way that no one else canbe.

This book is an opportunity toreflect on the ways in which your life has shaped you, aninvitation to find the beauty in the marks you bear.

We are not damaged, orshattered, or broken.
We are unique and lovely, each with our beautiful golden scars.

Writing with an actual pen, onactual paper is a valuable tool for finding your way back toyourself, to healing, and to wholeness.

You see, there is a kind ofmagic in the ink.

It really does make a differencewhen you write your words on a page written words have adifferent resonance than words that are spoken aloud or leftunvoiced. Writing your thoughts as they come to you draws you intohonesty, and working with the old fashioned tools of pen and paperopens a door to places you might otherwise be unable (or perhapsunwilling) to see, a place quite separate from our everydayworld.

Perhaps you already write in ajournal on a regular basis. Perhaps you only write sporadically.Perhaps you arent even sure where in your house one might find apen. I am going to encourage you to find a nice pen I am quitefond of fountain pens, but you should use whatever calls to you - aplastic ball point from the last trade show you were at or theengraved silver fountain pen you were given at your best friendswedding, it doesnt matter. As long as it has ink, writes easilyand feels good when you hold it, its going to be fine.

Words are one means of conveyingour thoughts and feelings to the world, but sometimes, words arenot enough. Colour and texture and shape give expression to ideas,too painters and sculptors and artists of all kinds giveexpression to the human condition through their work.

I have found fibre arts to be amost comfortable and comforting medium in which to work. I have noskill with wood or clay or paint, but fibres of all kinds sing tome and come alive in my hands. Wool is resilient and renewable, itis available in every imaginable colour, and the variety ofpatterns available in knitting and weaving have given me theopportunity to express myself many times over, combining andrecombining design elements to say what is in my heart.

Wet felting is a fantastic artform that requires no previous experience or particular skill set,just a willingness to play with colour and texture and to get alittle bit wet. The resulting objects can be functional ordecorative (or both), and are simply shaped with your hands, somesoapy water and a bit of scrubbing. This book will guide youthrough a wet felting project and then well be making feltedkintsugi to celebrate our beautiful, once-broken-now-mendedselves.

In addition to this book, youneed: a length of narrow gold silk ribbon (a metre or so should belots) and a sewing needle with a large eye; about 100 grams (4ounces) of readily feltable wool in a variety of colours(Corriedale or Merino are good choices, just make sure it isnot superwash, as thats been treated so that it wontfelt); and two pieces of bubble wrap, each the size of a kitchentea towel or thereabouts (you want the kind with the smallbubbles).

You will also need some liquidsoap (just regular dish soap), a bottle with a spray nozzle (likethe kind used for cleaning windows), a piece of sturdy plastic(such as a milk jug or a heavy duty garbage bag), scissors, sometowels, and a place with ready access to hot and cold water and awork surface the kitchen table would be a great spot.

Youll also need a new, blankjournal book of any size, and a three minute timer: it can be aminiature hourglass, the alarm on your phone, or a simple windupkitchen timer. The writing prompt word cards can be downloaded forfree from Smashwords .

The fibre supplies, silk ribbonand word cards, as well as a lovely kintsugi-themed journal, areavailable from the Apple Jack Creek Books website.

I have discovered thatjournaling with single word prompts reveals and releases a lot ofinteresting things. When I write in response to one interestingword, just letting the pen flow across the page, one thought afteranother, no stopping, no editing, not even fixing my spellingmistakes when I let the words just flow from deep within me, Ifind the most amazing ideas and thoughts.