Coptic Stone Bible

Coptic Stone Bible
This is a photo of a little stone Coptic bible ( it is about 6 cm wide and 11 cm high) I bought in Brussels last year in an African artefact shop that had to die for kuba cloth- this was all I could afford- but who could resist such a thing? Just the whole idea of a bible being made out of stone and consisting of a total of three pages- each page carved. It dates form around the 1960's and was made in Ethiopia. It is hinged with nylon fishing line. I don't know which saints are depicted but I am sure that their depiction is stylised. I would love to print with the pages, but another part of me can't.It is actually a lovely thing to hold and gives out a sort of warmth- hard to describe really, but it feels more living than stone.

The photo below is of the long and narrow piece I worked on all day. It is 24 cm wide by 165 cms long and I stitched it to within a degree of its life. This of course caused stretching, and so it doesn't hang all that straight. I don't know what I shall do with it, but it reminds me of prayer flags or some such thing- don't know why- perhaps it is because it is long.