I wanted to make something very special for my first grand child. I did not know the gender and I am not of a particularly practical bent but had fairly clear ideas about what I wanted my special creation to say. It was to convey profound love from grand parents who lived a long way away. It was to provide a new mother with the knowledge that her own mother was always there at the end of the
phone, sending love, remembering those first crazy months.
I am one of two girls and had two girls of my own so struggled a bit to imagine having anything but a grand daughter. I hoped that if the baby was a boy, at least his mother would appreciate anything a tad too feminine! On a run, as has been the way lately, the image of what I 
wanted to make came clearly and I loved the very meditative process of making my angel’s wings/ arms. Laying each feather with a thought of love and a wish for joy for our new little person and the new family. I used some of Helen Breil’s texture stamps and clear Kato liquid mixed with a little acrylic for the glaze which I applied after the preliminary baking. She was mounted on Nepali lokte (daphne) paper;
Our precious new angel, Zoe Margaret, is now just under one week old and I have been living with her and her besotted mum and dad since her birth. I have one more
week of this bliss and then will rely on the wonders of modern technology for a while until my next visit. I was describing to my daughter how we would have to take photos, take the film to the processor to get them developed and post them to far away family to share those precious moments and I think it was genuinely hard for her to imagine a world where the connection was so slow. We sometimes bemoan modern technology and social media but four great grand parents are now asking for more pictures, more videos, more Instagram shots of this amazing little girl.
This blog does not usually contain family photos but as every grand mother I know would understand, I am now a totally biased, somewhat boring, overwhelming Zoe-centric human being. I do not for a second take for granted my good fortune in being here to meet and get to know this little angel; to hold her and to see my daughter radiantly in love with a daughter of her own.
Priya Zoe, swagatam.
