Gather 5 of your possessions, objects that mean something special to you. Photograph or scan them and experiment with image treatments. Put them in a drafted book layout and arrange them with text and other elements of design. Be creative. Include an introduction, a colophon, and a book cover. 

I first took amateur photos of my 5 objects in rather flooded lighting. I created image treatments in Adobe Photoshop, but I didn't like them. I felt like a natural look would suit the theme I was planning for my book, so I took my objects outside and photographed them in the grass in good light cast by the sun. Then, I exported the pictures into Adobe Illustrator and created my book layout there, because InDesign would not stop crashing on me. I arranged text bodies, image traces, headers, page numbers, and other elements together, trying to create something unusual while still maintaining a pattern or uniformity all throughout. Finally, I printed my pages out and cut them accordingly. Some of the pages are different sizes. I created the cover out of ordinary materials: some sturdy cardboard, fabric, puzzle pieces that me and my siblings had painted, yarn, some decorative stickers, and lots of superglue. I bound it with the Japanese Stab Binding Method. 

This book was written in memoriam of my best friend, who passed away several years ago. It talks about 5 objects that are special to her memory and thus of great significance to me. 

The cover was created using cardboard, yarn, superglue, decorative paper and stickers, painted puzzle pieces, and fabric. Japanese stab binding was used to bring the pages and cover together. I superglued my fingers together a couple times along the way. 

I chose to use fabric because me and my late friend loved to sew and create costumes. It's reminiscent of one of our favorite pastimes. 

I chose yarn to signify that however strong a link in life may appear to be, it is still subject to being tentative, to being broken, because earth is temporary. 

I used puzzle pieces because to me, they signify that in this life we are not going to have the whole picture. We will fight to figure things out and we will puzzle through dilemmas. Things may happen and we don't know exactly why they must, but we are called to go on, because I believe that in the end the whole picture is completed and we finally see what all our efforts have come to. Pieces may go missing along the way, but in the end, everything comes together. The only thing I can see now is that death and loss are purposed to make us stronger, to teach us to hold on dearly to the pieces that we do have and to never forget the ones that we have lost.