A few weeks ago at a party, Sonia, a dear friend of mine (and my best woman), asked me to help her with a little project. She told me about these poems her dad had written about a friend — his name is Peter.
I kinda forgot about it, since it was a long, boozy night. But when Sonia’s email pinged a few days later with a Word file attached, I thought, “Ah—yeah, the poems!”
I opened the document and read through the “Peter-Gedichte”—11 warm and funny poems about Peter’s life.
As I read them, I remembered Sonia wanted to make a little book, and maybe—she had said—add a fitting picture to each story on the opposite page.
“That’s it!” I thought. I mean, a poem about a poet who gives up and drinks beer instead? That had to be illustrated! And I’d already had this idea in my head to make some collages anyway. So I grabbed my iPad and started cutting, copying, and pasting.
First one done! I was really happy with it and couldn’t wait to do the other ten.
But how would it look on paper? I made a little mockup and did a test print—looking good!
While I was still working on the collages, I went to the art supply store around the corner and got some nice paper: soft drawing paper for the pages (so it would feel good!) and thick dyed paper for the cover.
Back at the studio, I sent Sonia a PDF with a few finished pages. “OMG FRITZLI, amazing!”—that was her reply. I took it as a green light for printing.
Printing, folding, stapling, cutting—done!
I couldn’t really decide on a color—I mean, I don’t know Sonia’s dad’s favorite color—so I made three different versions.
They sat on my desk for a while since Sonia was in New York. She got back this week, and we met yesterday.
You should have seen her smile when she held the booklet in her hands—priceless!
That’s why I love being creative and crafty: things you make with your imagination and your hands can bring so much joy to people.
