Might work...

I got a Kindle book reader for Christmas, from my very sweet daughter and son-in-law. It was totally unexpected, a complete surprise and probably my favorite gift! (sorry, other people in my life—your gifts were great too, but I am still stunned by the "perfectness" of the Kindle).

I have purchased a book ("The Calling," which Joanne was reading awhile back and intrigued me) and I have carried it around the house and tried it out in all the chairs and reading places and even took it to bed last night. Even though I had heard all these things, I was comparing it to a paper book—readable? Yes! The print is crisp and clear and much more like reading from paper than reading from a lighted screen. Easy to use? Yes! Obnoxious reflections? No! And it feels good in one's hand. Really, it does.

I started looking at covers online. I think it needs a cover. I don't know how durable that screen is, but I don't want to take a chance that it will get scratched. Also, good, I think, if I am toting it around in my bag to have it cushioned a bit. There are plenty of options for purchasing a cover, but I am thinking I might just make one.

Pondering possible designs, I remembered the book covers I used to make to sell at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. They were designed to fit the paperback versions of Shakespeare's plays sold there. I silk-screened a quote from Hamlet ("What do you read my Lord? Words, words, words.") on fabric that I sewed them from. They were an odd little item, something I would never use myself. Really, does anyone need a cloth cover for a paperback book? But I sold hundreds of them. I could barely keep up with the demand and grew so sick of them I finally quit making them. But it occurred to me that the screened quote might be kind of charming on my Kindle cover.

This morning Ray helped me locate the big box of old silkscreens out in the shed and I dug out the screen. It appears to be usable and amazingly, it is the perfect size to fit just right on a cover.  The design may look a bit longer than the Kindle, on the right, but it is an illusion. It is perfect. As if 29 years ago (my copyright mark is dated 1982) I could see into the future and know it would work for a yet-to-be-invented reading device. More likely the makers of the Kindle based its proportions on a standard paperback book size. Anyway, you will see it if it all works out. Even all these years later, I'm not sure I want to see that design again!

And a little about the screen, if you are interested. At the time I made this screen I was making other products for the Shakespeare Gift Shop—screened aprons, totebags, nightshirts and the book covers. I made permanent screens for each of the designs because I used them over and over. They needed to be sturdy, so I built them myself from 1x2 lumber, and stretched the special fabric (actually polyester, not silk) and used a photo emulsion technique for the screens, using sunlight or some strong lights I bought for that purpose. You can see, in the photo that I sealed the space between the wood frame and the fabric with paper tape that I varnished. This is the way it used to be done. Now I use duct tape. Much easier. This edge not only keeps the ink where you want it, it provides a place to put the ink, before spreading it with a squeegee across the screen. This screen even has a little "kickstand" for propping the inked screen up so it doesn't get ink on whatever it is laying on. I have probably 30 or 40 screens in different sizes that I haven't used for a long time, but I can't bear to get rid of them. You just never know. I might need one of them again sometime!