The Book

I started a book about my daughter’s life on our farm, illustrating it with finely detailed pen and ink drawings, when she was about ten. It just wasn’t coming together, so I abandoned it for almost eleven years. During that time, I started working in scratchboard, and created a calendar and notecards in this medium. I was drawn to scratchboard because it has the look of woodcut, which I had done, but greater detail was possible. A scratchboard is a cardboard or masonite panel coated with a thin layer of very white clay then washed with very black India ink. So the panel starts out black. To create a line, a sharp needle or knife point is scratched across the black surface, exposing the white clay. Larger areas of white require more and more scratched lines. Unlike regular drawing in pencil or ink, where lines are drawn in black on light paper and the more lines that are drawn the darker the piece becomes, on scratchboard you start out with a black surface and work toward the light.

I decided that the book would be better in scratchboard, so I redrew the drawings, added the missing ones, changed things a bit, and had it just about completed when my husband died unexpectedly. He was the center of the farm, the story, and our lives, and I couldn’t look at it. I abandoned the book for another ten years.

Two good friends pushed and prodded me to finally get it together and publish it, and I am forever grateful to them. Things have changed on the farm. Of all the animals, only one parrot remains. I am no longer the young mother I was, my children are grown and my son has children of his own. But anyone who ever visited us will recognize this place, that time, those people.

Shipping Info

Dimensions: 12.75" x 10.5"

Weight: 1lb 4oz

Ships domestically (for a flat $5 fee, included in the price of the book).

Please contact me to inquire about international shipping.

Order Now

Price $29.00 plus tax (includes shipping)

Order Now