By Erin Wood
Just over a year ago, on March 20, 2021, Crystal C. Mercer’s children’s book From Cotton to Silk: The Magic of Black Hair launched on the birthday of her late grandmother, in whose honor she sewed the book’s pages.
Reflecting 467 hours of hand-stitching, the textile renderings that became the book’s pages incorporate fabrics Mercer studied as part of her graduate work in Ghana, Africa, textured with symbolic notions such as cowry shells, golden and pearl earrings, enamel pins, buttons, and more.
So, Mercer’s recent partnership with Arkansas Repertory Theatre as Costume and Cultural Consultant for School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play—whose setting is a girls’ boarding school in Ghana—was perfectly fitting. In addition to hand-sewn belts and other costume elements, she sewed a dramatic 32.5 x 12 ft flag displayed in the theatre entry during the run of the play. Also on display were the original pages of From Cotton to Silk.
About the book’s first year, Mercer shares, “This book, a creative endeavor for me to preserve a family story and exalt cultural beauty, has exceeded any dream I had watching how elevated little girls and boys feel when they see pieces of themselves within the pages. It’s a different way to quilt, weaving people together: that’s the most important piece that has come from this work.”
Indeed, From Cotton to Silk encourages girls everywhere to appreciate their hair in its natural state and love themselves just the way they are. Signed copies of this 8.5 x 11 hardback picture book are available for $19.95 with free shipping at www.etaliapress.com.
Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs Et Alia Press (www.etaliapress.com). Wood is author of Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives (April 2019) and editor of and a contributor to Scars: An Anthology (2015).
