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Bev's Gallery

As promised, here is the picture of what I did with my Big Sheet from PBI.  I constructed a hanging frame from bamboo, tore the paper into three approximately equal pieces, and attached each to the frame with a running stitch of heavy linen thread. Then I got the biggest pieces of mica I could find (this rock is abundant in the vicinity of Penland) and peeled off thin slices.  Mica is wonderful stuff-you can see through thin slices, so it served well for the purpose of making multiple 'windows' in my mobile. I water-tore a hole in each sheet a little smaller than the mica piece, and then attached the mica to the back of each hole by running a thin bead of glue around the edges.

In order to make this box in one piece, I made a special mold in the shape of the box unfolded.  I then spooned strained, but still wet, cotton linter pulp onto the mold.  While the pulp was still wet, I laid pine needles, metallic yarn, and pieces of quartz on the surface, and dripped enough wet pulp over them to hold them fast when dry. After drying, I glued the sides together with methyl cellulose.  I use it as a jewelry box, and it has held up amazingly well after 5 years.