One day I left the city life and my hectic job as a journalist behind and moved with my family – my husband and two boys – to an old wooden house close to the Baltic Sea. You have to cross a fragrant pine forest to get from our home to the beach. I became completely obsessed with this place, mostly with the sea.

I come from a family of artists, actors, and architects. To create is what I truly believe in so soon I started to ponder, what could I create right here in this old house by the sea.

Three years ago I opened a Sea Library here with books from all over the world about oceans, seas, islands, lighthouses, whales, pirates, and mermaids. Readers from near and far donate books and borrow books. The Sea Library is my dream-come-true.

To support the shelves with more books for younger readers, I have started to weave Sailor's Bookmarks.

I learned to weave during the pandemics inspired by techniques that Navajo people have been practicing for hundreds of years. In that way, I figured out how to weave so I don't have to cut the tapestry from the frame but just take it off when finished. The warp yarn is never cut, it continues throughout the tapestry as a thread of a long story.

I learned to weave blankets and carpets, and soon had an idea to do some bookmarks too.

A Sailor's Bookmark is a special souvenir from the Sea Library, a talisman for a book lover, and a great gift for any reader. Black and white stripes at the tip of each bookmark symbolize marinière, the sailor's shirt. Each reader is a sailor sailing the seas of imagination.

The best thing is that with each sold bookmark I am able to buy one new book for kids – my favorite visitors – about the sea.

PS It is possible to order a bookmark inspired by a book YOU choose. Just contact me and I will weave a unique one for you or your friend.

Greetings from Jūrmala,
Anna from the Sea Library