2018
21st-Century
Scrapbooking
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Art, technology add
to age-old custom of
preserving memories.
details
Leslie Rott can be reached through
boxesandshadows@gmail.com,
boxesandshadows.blogspot.com/?m=1
and etsy.com/shop/BoxesAndShadows.
Murray Goldenberg can be reached at
26645 W. 12 Mile, Suite 102,
Southfield and (248) 350-2420.
Rob Hoffman can be reached at
122 S. Main St., Suite 110C, Ann Arbor,
(734) 219-3916, PricelessPreservation.com
and www.facebook.com/Priceless
Photo Preservation.
L
eslie Rott is a keeper of mementoes, but she doesn’t
believe in simply storing them away. She wants them
close at hand and in sight in innovative displays.
Years ago, Rott decided to make scrapbooks and framed
wall hangings of pages designed from scrapbook materials.
Early projects captured her travels throughout the United
States. Soon, gifts for relatives and friends became a way of
helping them document special events.
In recent years, Rott, of Beverly Hills, turned her hobby
into a part-time business — Boxes and Shadows. It is a side-
line that showcases her artistic talents, quite different from
her full-time work as a compliance officer for a home care
provider.
“Everything I do is very customized,” says Rott, who has
worked with people celebrating bar and bat mitzvahs, birth-
days and anniversaries, among other events. “Each page I do
has a theme, and when there are multiple pages, the pages
have a progression.”
Working around pictures, she uses multimedia to give
decorative effects. Sometimes, she finds appropriate stickers,
and other times she uses objects tied directly into the people
and event being recognized. One client liked Scrabble so
Scrabble tiles became part of her design to mark a milestone
birthday.
“What I include depends on the objects people have and
what they want to save,” says Rott, whose family attended
Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park. “This is all about
preserving memories.”
Rott began her business about 10 years ago when she was
in graduate school at the University of Michigan earning a
doctorate degree in sociology. To expand her customer base,
Rott put her information on Etsy and has been contacted
through that platform.
Closer to home, she fulfilled two separate requests for
friend Rachel Sisco, who wanted to purchase a bedroom wall
hanging after each of her two children were born. While both
youngsters have designs with newborn pictures and birth
statistics, each has different colors and decorations.
“If my work is for friends, I really like going into their
homes and seeing framed pages on their walls,” says Rott,
who wound up gifting the Sisco projects. “I like being
reminded of special events.”
MODERN PHOTO BOOKS
Murray Goldenberg has been a professional photographer for
40 years and has moved away from photo albums of the past
by using digital effects. Classic Photography, his Southfield-
based business, provides versatility not available with the
singular use of film.
For weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, his albums have
been expanded to offer enhancements somewhat reminis-
cent of scrapbooks but very modernized.
“Pictures, captions and colorful accents are presented in
chronological order and have a storytelling impact,” says
Goldenberg, designated a master of photography by the
Professional Photographers of America.
continued on page 36
C34
celebrate! • 2018
jn