THE LIFE OF ROBERTA MAE
This project created a biography of Roberta Mae Dunsmore, my maternal grandmother. This biography was made into a small, self-published book that focused on important memories from her life, such raising her children, her work as a ceramic-maker, and her experiences growing up. It included pictures of her, her siblings, her grandparents, her children, and her ceramic work. It also included her most famous recipe, her “Fantasy Fudge.” This small book will allow her family and friends to remember her and learn more about her life through her own words. This book will last a long time after she has passed away, ensuring that the invaluable memories and knowledge that she has does not die with her as well.
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When I initially wrote the abstract, I titled it, “Mother, Artist, and Giver: A Biography of Roberta Dunsmore.” However, I changed the name of the book to “The Life of Roberta Mae” and so I changed this in the title. I also made additional changes to the content in the book, so I reflected that in the abstract. We didn’t talk about her quilting, so I edited that to just include ceramic maker as that was what was put in the book. As a significant portion of the book is dedicated to my grandma’s childhood, I also edited the abstract to include that. When I initially began the book, I was going to collect some of her famous recipes. However, I elected to include her most famous one: Fantasy Fudge, so I edited the abstract accordingly.
GOALS
For my EDGE project, I created a written record of the stories and memories of my grandmother, Roberta Dunsmore. It is a book in a form similar to a scrapbook that contains stories and photos. The final product is a book that is approximately 37 pages long.
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I achieved this goal by working on the project in little steps consistently. In January of 2018 I went and interviewed my grandma for two hours. In this time I was able to get enough stories and photos to fill 37 pages. I then worked on transcribing the interviews, which took a lot of time. After transcription, I worked on creating individual pages for each story and selecting appropriate pictures. While this wasn’t particularly challenging, it took a lot of time to select pictures and then adjust and edit the text so that it fit aesthetically on the page with the pictures.
OUTCOMES
By creating this book of my grandmother’s stories, I was able to expand my writing abilities to include biographical writing.
By designing the pages and format of this book, then I will become more familiar with Photoshop, which will be a useful skill to have for future jobs.
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Throughout the book are stories that my grandmother told me from her life. As a creative writer, I am used to fabricating stories from a mix of life and imagination. However, the stories that my grandmother told me came from her and writing her stories down helped me to learn how to focus entirely on what she was telling me and relating that in the best way possible. The book is all told through her own words, and that is seen on each page in the book.
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My second outcome of using Photoshop and becoming familiar with it was uncompleted because I didn’t end up using Photoshop. I chose to use Shutterfly, an online design system which is similar to Photoshop, but is a little bit simpler to use. Through using Shutterfly I was able to focus more on the design and I didn’t have such a learning curve that took a lot of time. In the future I would like to learn how to use Photoshop, but for this project Shutterfly worked really well.
DELIVERABLE
Upon completion of my EDGE project, I will turn in a physical copy of the book containing the stories, photos, and recipes of my grandmother. I will also include pictures of me working throughout the process of interviewing, designing, and creating the book.
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My original proposed deliverable included not only the book about my grandma, but it also included photos of me working on it. Because I worked on this so much own my own and the vast majority of it was done on a computer, there aren’t pictures of me working on it. However, I do have the original interview videos so I will submit links to those interviews.
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Because my deliverable is a physical product, I emailed Professor Johnson-Davis to set up a time to give present my deliverable.
PROCESS
My process of creating this record of my Grandmother’s life was a long-term process. In January of 2018 I went and interviewed my grandma for two hours. During these interviews, I tried to ask her crucial questions, but I also just let her tell me stories. I was afraid that if I was so focused on getting certain stories, I would lose more unique stories. Because I did this, I did get some stories that I never would have had questions that found it. During each of these interviews I also took time to take pictures of the pictures she had from her life. For the first time I was able to see a picture of her father who had abandoned her mother when she was a child.
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After the interviews, I edited the photos using Google Photos, which allowed me to crop the photos and edit them for clarity and color. I then worked on transcribing the interviews, which took a lot of time. I worked a little bit at a time, which helped me to not get overwhelmed by the process. After I had transcribed the interviews into text, I then began the process of creating each individual page on Shutterfly. I had to upload the photos and then insert each section of text into the page one at a time. I had to create an outline for the book so I would be able to keep everything organized, instead of just throwing everything in random order in the book. For each individual page I had to find pictures that worked with the story that was on the page and then make sure the text was proofread. Then, with the pictures and text on the page, I worked on making sure that the text and pictures were away from the edges of the pages and that they were spaced appropriately on the page.
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During this process I also worked on keeping the designs on the pages consistent. I chose embellishments that worked with the fonts I had chosen in the book and a background that was aesthetically pleasing to me and fit the majority of the photos. After I had gotten each page completed, I then had to proofread them and review them one at a time with the help of my mother to make sure they were ready for printing. After they were approved, I submitted the book for printing.