Buried Earth Book Project:
A global arts initiative to create community, share artistic skills, and connect with nature where we live.
This project began from me sharing my own fabric meditation book process on Instagram. I began burying some of my books in 2021 and as I shared them, people responded and offered to bury one of my books in their yard or in a special place. It was so touching and beautiful! I sent a few books around the world to be buried, unearthed and sent back to me. That was so exciting and connected me in such a meaningful way to incredibly kind and generous people! I then decided to post an open invitation to make your own fabric meditation book and bury it somewhere meaningful and unearth it so people could experience the entire creative process. People could take my on-demand class to learn how to make a book or just go for it and do whatever they wanted to.
We explored themes of personal and artistic transformation, letting go, healing, collaboration, patience, the beauty found in things that fall apart, buried emotions and unearthing memories through this creative experience.
I created a hashtag on Instagram and watching people share their books and their experience was so thrilling! The hashtag is still out there, #buriedearthbookproject, if you want to search for it and see all of the amazing work people did! I would love to write a book about this project.
Unearth:
to find something hidden underground and bring it to light
Here are some of those incredible buried and unearthed fabric meditation books that people have been created around the world:
Want to join in and be part of this global arts initiative? Here are the steps:
Make a fabric meditation book using all natural materials. (You can take my on-demand class here if you would like lessons and support to make one).
Find a private place you’d like to bury it in your garden or in your yard that will ideally receive some rain (so not under a covered awning, for instance). This will support the transformation process of the textiles.
Dig a hole (6 inches or so deep), enjoy the feeling of the earth on your hands and carefully place your book in the hole. You may wish to say a quiet blessing as you release your art to the earth, whatever feels best to you.
Cover the book with dirt and put some kind of marker near it so you can find it - a small stone works great or anything else you think of.
Mark your calendar for 30 days to dig up the book.
On day 30, go out and get ready for a treasure hunt! Find the place you buried the book and gently dig with your bare hands to find the book. Carefully pull it out of the ground. Enjoy looking at it and feeling it covered it dirt.
Gently rinse it off in a lake, a stream, a river or with a hose to remove most of the dirt.
Lay it to dry inside on a towel.
Once it’s dry, enjoy holding it and seeing how it transformed! What do you notice? What do you feel?
Take photos of the whole process from creating your book, to burying it, to unearthing it, to seeing it dried and send them to me at emmafreemanart@gmail.com and/or post them on Instagram and tag me @emmafreemanartist!