I speculate all the time what these biographical subjects would like or how they feel. I can’t stand to read a lot of that fluff though, but I thought I’d get out all my fluff in a book…

A glue book!

Or scrapbook…collage book?

Whatever type of book I put together is, it’s part of a genre I call speculative bio.

This book’s official title is called, Catherine’s Collage Collection: The Life of a 17th Century Queen.

The front and back:

The literal base of the book is a composition book. The page trimmings I included were mainly lace, pearl, Washi and beads tapes. I used some scrapbook paper here and there. I’d include some stickers, very few magazines clippings, but I printed off the majority of the pictures myself. (SO many talented artists!)

The book can close thanks to velvet headbands with bows I attached to it. I also added pearl clips and bobby pins. These hair decorations were reflective as the types of outfits the Queen wore (the lace tape is also a callback to Catherine’s outfits, but that stuff was more pricey than the dollar store classy hair accessories!)

I expressed to a friend I probably have all my thoughts and speculations wrong. She pointed out that whatever the case, she was sure the Queen would appreciate the project.

So hopefully the 17th century Queen would enjoy it-and notice that I mindfully didn’t include flower embellishments. Too bad because I love flowers. Though Catherine of Braganza portraits feature flowers, she didn’t always appreciate them. I heard something about how her husband gave bouquets to his girlfriends, and flowers gave her some sort of PTSD. One could hardly blame her.

Though reading about that and her other trials make me so depress, putting together this book was a good antidote. It was actually both really fun and spiritual.

While I did this collage book for and of Queen Catherine, I got the feeling that things worked out for her.