July BJP Page

Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how it was that they began; all she remembers is, that they were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her; and still the Queen kept crying "Faster! Faster!" but Alice felt she could not go faster, though she had no breath left to say so.

The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and other things round them never changed their places at all; however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. 'I wonder if all the things move along with us?' thought poor puzzled Alice.

And the Queen seemed to guess her thoughts, for she cried, "Faster! Don't try to talk!"

Not that Alice had any idea of doing that. She felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath; and still the Queen cried "Faster! Faster!" and dragged her along. "Are we nearly there?" Alice managed to pant out at last.

"Nearly there?" the Queen repeated. "Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster!" And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.

"Now! Now!" cried the Queen, "Faster! Faster!" And they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy.

The Queen propped her up against a tree and said kindly, "You may rest a little now."

Alice looked around her in great surprise. "Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!"

"Of course it is," said the Queen, "what would you have it?"

And that is exactly how our month of July went here in sunny, southern New Mexico.

After three tries, my July page finally morphed into its present form. First try was to make a red and white chess board in perspective in the foreground out of peyote stitch -- hated it. Second try was another chess board in black and white in the foreground in backstitch -- didn't like this one any better! Reprinted the illustration on the fabric in red ink, turned the illustration 90 degrees and said the heck with the chess board, then added the challis print border.

Found the red and clear mirror tiles a week later and said, hmmm -- maybe this would work for a chess board pattern of sorts. Hence the stylistic approach to the chess board. Since the birth stone for July is a ruby, I used ruby colored glass stones on the Queen's crown and scepter. The secondary stone for July is the black onyx and black charlotte beads were used for the border trim.

I had always assumed that Alice Through the Looking Glass was written in Victorian times -- it was actually written in 1871. I tried to make the border trim reflect the jet jewelry that was worn from Civil War times through the turn of the century.

Alice and the Red Queen was printed on white cotton fabric with an inkjet printer.