Austria

Grüss aus Salzburg, Greeting from Salzburg. Today I show you an old bookmark from Austria ♥.

Indonesia

This handmade bookmark was bought by a good friend, who always remembers my collection in his trips (Thanks Hagay!). This bookmark is so pretty and so exotic! It seems that is made of paper (I thought that) but, looking more information on the net, I found that these kind of bookmarks are actually made of a very thin cow skin.

The figures make reference to Wayang Kulit, a shadow puppet theatre typical in Indonesia, that was designated as a "Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO in 2003.

This bookmark is beautifully handmade, a pretty component of my collection ♥. 

Mexico

This is one of my favourite bookmarks, which has been in my collection for more than 10 years. It is a handmade painted bookmark from Mexico. As you can see, it is a very beautiful and colourful bookmark ♥. It is one of my treasures.

The paper is a very special one. It is called "Papel Amate" (Amate Paper) and it is made by hand from the bark of three different trees: Amate, Jonote and a mulberry. The craftsmen use a millenary Mexican technique. I encourage you to search more information, for example this video, to see this amazing process.

Argentina

This Argentinian bookmark brings the sound of a tango, can you hear it too?. Thanks to this beautiful bookmark I discovered the Batik technique, which I have not heard before. If you have curiosity you can find lots of videos in youtube, like this amazing one.

This bookmark has been painted in a fine fabric and glued to a card. It is beautifully made. I love it ♥. 

It was a gift from a friend. Thanks Hagay! :)

"Hecho a mano" means "Handmade"

Latvia

Although Latvia is an European country and it shouldn't be difficult to get a bookmark from there, it was not so easy (for me, at least). I don't know if collecting bookmarks is an usual hobby there but I have not met any collector from this country in all these years I have been collecting. But, luckily, I found a couple of shops in Etsy and I was in love with this linen bookmark with a typical Latvian garter.

By the way, I have just visited the online shop, Linenquality, and she has added some new and very pretty bookmarks ♥.

Zimbabwe

A beautiful and friendly girl from Zimbabwe sent me this amazing bookmark from her country. I absolutely love it ♥.  I am very grateful indeed for her kindness and her time. Putting it in my project's album made me so happy :).

Vietnam

Yesterday morning I received this pretty handmade bookmark from Vietnam. I don't know if it reminds me the paper dolls I played with when I was a child, but the matter is that, when I opened the envelope and saw the bookmark, it was love at first sight ♥. 

The women who made this bookmark have a very good selection of bookmarks in their Ebay's shop. I recommend you to take a look :). You will love them.

The welcome speech

There are many things that connect and distinguish us through the thousands and thousands of km the earth has. Our features are different, traditions, habits, time zone, way of dressing, music, language, scripts, meal... many are the differences. But, among the things that connect us, among so many things we are similar  concerning books. There is not country in which there are not books. So, in this way, like one of those childish jokes ... what a Spanish and a resident of Samoa, Oman, Armenia, Chile and Kazakhstan look alike? Or from Cuba , Cambodia and Suriname? ... They use an element to mark the pages of a book: a paper, a train/bus ticket, .... or a ♥ bookmark ♥ . 

The objective is this: get a bookmark for each country in the world and complete an imaginary globe in which the countries are represented by the colors and textures of a bookmark .

I start with optimism. I think today I have 68 bookmarks from 68 different countries. It won't be easy, but I will keep a very high optimism :)