flotsam & jetsam (2016)

Mar 5

to the bay of fundy, and the highest tides in the world

flotsam & jetsam was my very first physical book of patterns, created between 2015 and its publication in september 2016. it was inspired by my second home in nova scotia, on the banks of the north atlantic, and was the first co-creation with my dear one, samson learn. we’ve gone on to create more books together, but the road trip we took for this one keeps a special hold on my heart. here is an excerpt from the introduction:

this collection was inspired by the many hours i’ve spent in my life meandering along the
shorelines of the bay of fundy in nova scotia, picking up shells and rocks and sea glass,
always with an eye out for an elusive fossil…
what i did not expect upon my return to the east coast was to find how much it had
changed. and how much i had changed since the last time i had walked its red beaches.
the road trip we took for the photoshoot, between my old home of halifax and my family’s
homes in parrsboro, became a pilgrimage of sorts. and this collection, with these photos,
has become more like a love letter to nova scotia than anything else. a love letter to its
constant evolution, its eroding sands, its soils full of bones, its deposits of quartz and
amethyst and sandstone, its rusted remnants of ships and polished shards of broken
glass, and the kindness of its inhabitants, regardless of who comes or goes. the
maritimes is a place where you can walk down the street and smile at a stranger while
looking them in the eyes without fear. where neighbours know one another by name,
and where the crows keep track of their allies. it is a place of red suns at night and red
skies in the morning, and ocean waters as blue as the sky, and ancient mountains carved
by time into rolling hills. it is a place i still call home, although perhaps not quite as
predominantly as before. and it is a place where i can always ground myself by the salt
water’s edge, no matter how much it, or i, have changed.