Blottentots and How to Make Them

Here is a little book that wants you to get your hands dirty with ink. First you make a blot on a sheet of paper. Then you fold, press, and twist the page until the ink spreads into something strange and wonderful - a creature with no name, a face only you could imagine. The verses that follow give you suggestions: perhaps your blot has become a rabbit, a bird, or something altogether more peculiar. There are no rules, only the delightful uncertainty of what the ink will become. Originally published in the early twentieth century and attributed to the pseudonymous John Prosper Carmel (thought to be calligrapher Raymond Carter), this slim volume captures something timeless about childhood: the magic hiding in a simple blot of ink. It is for anyone who remembers the joy of making something from nothing, and for children who have not yet discovered it.