Gifts for Book Geeks Like Us

It’s nearly holiday time, and that means that biblio-geeks all over Richmond and beyond will get lots of bookstore giftcards in our stockings. Not that I mind getting a lump of money to spend on books. (Keep it coming!) It’s just that I found another cool alternative right under my nose at ArtWorks Studios in Richmond.

Lorraine Hoff Meade works around the corner from the JRW offices. She’s a mosaic artist, but at heart, she’s a geek, too. Exhibit A:  Twice a month she runs the Richmond Scrabble Meet Up Group, a 280-member organization made up of people who know (and care about) how to get Triple Word glory out of words like qua (adv. meaning “in the function of.”)

When she’s not playing Scrabble, she’s playing with Scrabble. Her studio is filled with wordy gifts from as little at $10, everything from coasters made from Scrabble boards, to Scrabble tile wine-charms, trivets, and mirrors. I already have a wish list taped to my husband’s shaving mirror. Lorraine makes other lovely mosaic pieces, too, but I’m blinded by vocabulary love. What can I say?

But here’s the thing. All those tiles have to come from somewhere and Hasbro is prickly. (They tried to shut down online Scrabbulous a couple of years ago. Seriously.) So, for now, Lorraine works from cast-offs. If you have old Scrabble games, donate them to a good, artistic/literary cause. Mail to: Mosaique Creations/ 320 Hul Street/Studio 151/ Richmond, VA 23224. And don’t worry: she’ll deal with old Scrabble games the way Native Americans dealt with bison. Nothing goes to waste.

Want to see Lorraine Hoff Meade’s work?  Visit ArtWorks studios any day but Monday. Or, get to the Northside Artists’ Open Studio  in Richmond’s Sherwood Park neighborhood. Saturday, Nov 19  10 – 4 pm  and Sunday, Nov 20, 12 – 4 pm. 1519 Westwood Avenue