Nr. 42 Yvonne Prytz

This piece of art is very dear to me. Yvonne Prytz had this tiny sweet boutiqe with antiques, presents, things she sew herself.. etc. Turns out one of the companies she orderes from is.. Agora Gifthouse! If you remember the first entry, the sticker on the book I found said exactly that. So, very kind and all, she ordered some of them for me.. more sweet, white, fairybooks to collect mermaids in! I could have a library of them I thought. And, while she ordered these.. she asked about the idea behind it. She thought it was neat, and started to tell the story to other customers. Then I asked if SHE wanted to draw, and she surely wanted to! When I came to get it she had drawn this beautiful mermaid, with a golden pen och some golden stickers for the tail, and the mermaid looked a bit like Attina I thought, from my old books about Ariel I had as a child. Next to the picture, besides her name and date, she wrote "Thanks for the confidence in me!". I trusted a complete stranger with the book, she must have felt appreciated :) Her picture was the last one in the first book, a perfect ending!

This is the store she used to have, or maybe it just moved: Butik Harmony

The beginning of the mermaid book

It all started with a visit to a market. I found this sweet sweet book, a bit heavy in your hands, white, and with a fairy on it. The sticker on the backside said Agora Gifthouse. It was a fairy, not a mermaid, but still beautiful. At the time I did not know the future purpose, but I wanted to save the book for something special. One night in 2006, I had the idea that everyone I know would draw a mermaid each, like a book for your friends, only more fun. People said they loved the idea, so I carried on. It grew larger, and today I have more than 200 and a good mix of everyday people and artists and every mermaid got its own look. Why mermaid you ask? I have loved mermaid ever since I was little. Probably because of the Little Mermaid (my dad said I got brainwashed at Disneyland in Paris) but anyhow, the love for mermaids stayed and grew, to a big important aspect of my life.

Today you won't be able to draw in the book directly, four ones are already filled! But my goal is to publish a real one: therefore it's ok to collect them outside of that book.. and of course, here on the blog (Thanks Åsa for the idea!) So what do you say? Do you want to a part of it, contribute to the collection?