A year or so ago, Fergal’s father gave me a box of old books he was throwing out. Amongst them were some gorgeously old books, with yellowing pages and many with the old Gaelic font. I also got a few copybooks from his time in school with his beautiful cursive handwriting, a veritable treasure trove!
As I was sorting through the books, I found some real finds: some of the books had belonged to Patrick Ryan, Fergal’s grandfather, who was part of the Garda Síochána (this is translated as “Guardians of the Peace”) On one of the books I found his signature and handwriting, and on another, his official Garda stamp and the date 1935. My sister-in-law, Deirdre, the genealogist of the family, had given us copies of old photos of Patrick Ryan from over seventy years ago. I then pieced together a collage of all the bits and pieces I had, photos, Garda stamp, handwriting and added in an old Irish stamp and lace.
I love using ephemera, especially that which has an emotional energy to it! I am working on four more memory boxes and a few paintings. Hopefully pictures of those soon.
Have a great weekend from a very sunny Ireland (at last!!)
Wow Em, that is beautiful 🙂 Great job. I’m sure Fergal loves it. 🙂
What a wonderful idea! I want to do this though I don’t know if I have any handwriting samples of my grandmother from a long time ago. But I think I have some letters she wrote me. You did a beautiful job!
OK, firstly, I had to look up the meaning of ephemera, what a lovely word in the singular or plural! Emily, this is just gorgeous, how wonderful for your children to see the past, their past, displayed like this. I am blown away by it!
Thank you Erin! It is such an enjoyable thing to do: I spent a while organising where everything needed to go, that takes the longest time, but I highly recommend it!
Thanks Joanna! (Didn’t know the meaning of ephemera until rather recently too!)
This is just beautiful and I love the idea of ’emotional energy’ something I’m drawn to as well
Gorgeous, Ems!!