Check It Out

Do you remember the days when we had pockets in books? When a stamp was applied to a card in the pocket? When we had to sign out names on these cards? When we had to learn about the Dewey Decimal system?

I remember these things from elementary to high school. I was even a library assistant in fifth and sixth grade. My job was to stamp the cards and enter student IDs in the school library computer. I liked my job so very much because I loved reading. And in high school when we had to do reports I remember looking through the cards in boxes, making sure I was citing everything properly for my long bibliographies. I wonder if kids still do this.

I had forgotten about those days, those ways, until I got an email from Emma yesterday. Emma is a cool and innovative jewelry artist who is using these library remnants to make wonderful jewelry, bobby pins, drawer pulls and wine charms. Her shop is so cleverly named The Written Nerd and I so urge you to stop by. I cant wait to see her work in person and include it in an upcoming Jewelry Affaire.

I love how we can keep things from the past alive by turning them into jewelry. My boyfriend's mom works for a library. She is forever reading. We got into a discussion recently with a few other people where we pledged to always check books out from the library. I will never download a book. I will forever want to sign, stamp and look up. I will forever want books to be something we hold onto, with pockets to hold our signatures and smeared ink.

Thank you Emma for bringing these memories to the foreground. Now, go, check out her shop.