UNESCO World Book Day - Day of Wonder

Whilst researching information about Book Towns recently, I discovered that UNESCO had determined that 23 April was World Book Day.  I mentioned this casually to Susan one day when we were checking dates for a meeting, and said "we should do something".  So we booked it in and only started to think about it again last week.

We decided we would try to make a book or work on a book on the day, and gradually our approach emerged. We would each work on some pages, the beginning of the book, bring them along to to have the other work into them a bit and then have them returned to us to complete.

This ended up being a lovely approach. It meant we were providing some inspiration and a sense of guidance to the other, but it also meant that they would truly leave their mark on our book. By being able to take it home and complete it, by adding and subtracting elements, it also meant that we would truly feel like we 'owned' the book.

It was funny to discover that Susan shared the sheer panic I had the night before - too scared to touch each other's work and not ruin it, but we overcame that as we sat together in the studio.

Susan's beautiful etchings, some delicious get paper and warm white paper and tracing paper, that she asked me to work with.

The day unfolded gently, as we sat and stared at the work and what we were asked to work with. Wondering if this would add; would that? What could I bring; how could I link?  We made design decisions, only to toss them out; we chose materials and then figured no; that wasn't right.

 I wondered if bleed-out lines of ink would complement the etchings?

I knew I couldn't work the etching pages themselves; but maybe the tracing paper that sat over them?

Some of these ideas found their place in the pages; others didn't...

We worked in silence pretty much - but stopped and discussed how the process was unfolding. First off we were not totally surprised to see we were working with similar materials; that Susan had brought tracing paper to work and so had I. That I had collected some nice scraps of khadi paper to add - Susan had brought some with her as well.

New guides appeared as we worked - that we were both free to add what we wanted, order the pages as we wanted, choose how many to work with; suggest finished formats to each other. We each had lovely moments where we went " oh I'll go this far, but leave it to her to take it where she wants...". Permission was given for each of us to ignore something the other had done - work over it or around it when the pages were returned. We also worried at different times that our work was too much 'ours' that it wouldn't look like 'theirs'. Which as we discussed, was the whole point - we wanted to be able to see each other in the work; I wasn't trying to 'be' Susan on her pages and she wasn't trying to 'be' me. But, we also held the other and their work and style at the front of our minds, and didn't do anything that would overwhelm or work against it.

We also ended up giving ourselves a bit of a timeframe for completion.  We didn't want to turn it into a pressured issue for us and make the magic go away; but we didn't want to leave it so long the energy of the day drifted out. So next Monday we shall have completed them.

I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed the day. It was a totally new experience for me - to work alongside with somebody, trying to honour their work and yours, creating things of beauty. Both of us teach, but we weren't teaching. Both of us are students, but we weren't in class. It was a unique and special way to be that left my mind absorbed by it all, playing long after we had packed up for the day, trying this and that, dealing with the new challenge of responding to Susan's work and finishing my book..

On her blog, Susan has described it like a "Pas de deux" which goes close to describing the way we worked - there was a hint of music too - one led, the other followed, they set up a new movement, the other responded...

The serendipity of the world that finds us living near each other is a special bit of magic and it's been wonderful to discover that we work well together. Hopefully we will be able to do it again, here and there, now and then.