Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Take a Break: Creating Remembrances With Old Bibles

This activity is a direct response to a very intense discussion we’ve been having in our community, particularly our historical society. There is a collection of old bibles that are in such poor condition that they cannot be repaired and need to be disposed of. While Judaism has clear directives for what to do with Torah’s and prayer books, the Christian bible does not offer similar guidelines.

According to the American Bible Society, the best thing to do with it is to recycle it. "It should be remembered that a Bible is a book. It may be helpful to think of the ways we discard books. It would be a good thing to make it useful, and one way to do that is to recycle it. Recycling is an honorable act and that is fitting for a book such as a Bible." 

Having delved into the correct way of disposing of a Bible, I came across the idea of “repurposing” them so that family and friends can share a remembrance of the person(s) who used it through various types of art projects. Before I provide a list of projects to try, please consider the following:
• Go through the Bible and be sure there are no important pieces of town history or family genealogy.

• Consider your religious customs and/or that of the original owner of the Bible.

Using an old Bible, hymnal or even a prayer book, try some of the following projects:
 
• Frame passages that have special meaning. 

• Make bookmarks of favorite passages: There are different ways to do this:
-       Cut to size and laminate
-       Glue passage to a stiff piece cardboard trimmed to size, coat several times with decoupage glue (equal parts water and white glue). Add tassels or other decorations.

• Wreaths
- Rolling pages into cones and gluing them to a circular piece of stiff tag board, makes a lovely Christmas Wreath
- For Fall, cutting out leaf shapes and slightly tinting pages makes a lovely wreath. 


• Origami: Cutting sections to size, make simple to elaborate origami figures. You can even make bible figures, such as Noah’sark and animals.  Covered with decoupage glue, these would look great on a Christmas tree, hanging by a red ribbon. 


 Disk Necklace: Using specific passages, would make this a very special gift for someone. 


• For inspiration check out Reuse of Books=Art 

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