Saskia Tatum has turned the simple everyday practice of keeping a scrapbook into an art form, and an attractive way to hold precious memories together. She said she started it about five years ago when she saw a girl at a church youth camp doing something similar.
“I thought it was fascinating. I’ve done two for my sister’s wedding and made others for other events with family members.”
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Saskia Tatum and Rocky Edwards display
scrapbooks with a difference |
She starts with the pictures and then chooses the colour scheme for that page based on what blends with the photographs. The pages are decorated with items that she buys from a craft store and adds her own touches based on the theme of the page.
For example, for her grandfather, Captain Keith Tibbetts, a well known sea captain, she found a miniature rope.
The collage for her grandfather is just a single page and reflects his life at sea and all his maritime experiences, and the fact that his name was given to the Russian destroyer that has become Cayman Brac’s most famous dive site.
The book she enjoyed most was one for her grandmother, Marjorie Tibbetts, who recently passed away.
“I started doing this before she died and I know she would have enjoyed it. She always liked my craftwork. When we were younger, all my cousins and I would walk along the beach with her. She taught us to look at things more creatively.”
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| Jewelry features sculptures from polymer clay |
The display at the Heritage House in North East Bay included some of Ms Tatum’s hand-made jewelry made from beads and shells and tiny sculptures made from polymer clay.
She experiments with her jewelry and might one day make it to sell, but for the moment it is worn only by herself and her little sister.
This week’s exhibits also features ornaments made by her boyfriend, Rocky Edwards, and though both of them use driftwood, they use it in different ways, Ms Tatum explained. Mr Edwards tends to make it into practical pieces – bases for picture frames or clocks – while Ms Tatum makes purely ornamental works, decorated with flowers, ribbons, beads and shells.
Also on show was Mr Edward’s coin collection, which he said began with a Jamaican $20 coin necklace, and now includes coins and paper money from the Caribbean, Britain, France, Israel, Greece, Japan, and the Philippines.
Mr Edwards, a shift engineer with CB Power and Light Co, set off this week to Illinois to do a course on Caterpillar Engineering, and Ms Tatum is a student at the International College of the Cayman Islands.
