An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee

H. Crustuliniforme presents
An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee
by Ruth Marie Keffer & David J. Keffer
Illustrated in Felt
featuring finger puppets designed by Ms. Ruth Marie Keffer

Description: An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee is a spell book containing one dozen spells derived from birds dwelling in East Tennessee. Each spell is accompanied by an illustration in felt. Each illustration contains a bird-themed finger puppet designed by Ms. Ruth Marie Keffer. It is intended for both children and adventurous adults.

The Keffer family--David, Lynn, Ruth & Joseph--have previously released five illustrated books combining the three crafts of home-made felt finger puppets, local photography and narrative story-telling. An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee differs from the previous books in that all of the photographs have been completely rendered in felt.

Of neither interest nor significance to virtually anyone, An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee is the result of a non-idiomatic improvisational creative process.

Previews:
The images provided below are of two-page spreads in An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee. Click on them for larger versions.





Experimental Laboratory:
Images of the fingerpuppets that appear in An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee were posted in the experimental laboratory section of the Poison Pie Publishing House during the creation of the book. Note that in the images located in the experimental laboratory, the felt puppets are digitally inserted into photographs. However, in the book, there are no photographs, only artwork, in which the photographs have been rendered completely in felt.

Bookmarks:
A small set of bookmarks were made for the release of An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee. The bookmarks are composed of four components: red ribbon, black ribbon, a stone and a spell fragment. The stones are mostly polished Tennessee marble picked by hand from the grounds of an abandoned quarry. The spell fragments are taken from The Conjuration and Invocation to the Holy Stone, contained within Aradia, Gospel of the Witches, edited by Charles G. Leland, London, David Nutt Publisher, 1899. The full text of Aradia is available via free and anonymous access at the Internet Sacred Text Archive.

length: 32 pages containing 12 original artworks
paperback size: 8.5 in x 8.5 in
puppets designed: August-September, 2015
puppets created: September 6, 2015-August 25, 2016
photographs taken: September, 2009-August 28, 2016
artwork: August 5, 2016-September 4, 2016
spells recorded: September 28, 2016-August 25, 2017
first private printing date: September 1, 2017
first private printing format: softcover
first private printing size: limited edition of 4
second private printing date: October 27, 2017
second private printing format: softcover
second private printing size: limited edition of 60
paperback publication date: October 28, 2017
paperback ISBN-13: N.A.
paperback ISBN: N.A.
library of congress catalog number: N.A.
poison pie publishing house catalog number: PP-040-I

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