Bit by bit the pile grew. At first I had them sitting on the ground beside the table, and then the pile was in the way so I found a large flat box to put them in. Then another pile formed on the ground beside the table and I thought, this is getting out of hand, I really need to do something with ALL of Elle’s drawings!

Elle has become a prolific drawer. The paper I set out for her to draw on (the good old ikea roll) is cheap and easy to come by. I roll it out the length of the table and hold in down with clips. Elle draws wildly or gently depending on what she feels like but always, after she is done with her drawing she rips the paper. Tearing way her drawing like a true artist, as if to say I am done with this one as she casts it aside.  The way in which she does this forms long curling paper tendrils. The paper is torn into a long thin piece that curves from pre rolling. With many of these torn pieces littering the floor I had to make a decision.

I could have just looked at them fondly and proudly and then quietly slipped then into the recycling, but really could I do this with my little ones first drawings? No, of course I could not so I came up with the solution and that was to save them as scrolls. Scrolls are a simple way of keeping art work that is space efficient….and I dont need to say this, but human kind has been storing important paperwork like this for thousands of years! Surely if I make these scroll I could save them?

So to savour my precious girls drawings I sat and ceremoniously rolled each drawing and tied it with love and appreciation. I had thoughts of saving them and giving them to her again one day when she is a young adult, which in my imagination, she would use them, and be inspired by. Her first glimpses of creativity, that I her Mother had saved.

Following my romance with Elle’s artwork, and my being struck by my sentimentality, I thought that in fact if these drawings last in my cupboards for more than one year I would be surprised. Given my inherent need to declutter I might have to put them in the reycling  afterall.

With all sentiment felt, I have well and truly honored my little artists drawing.