Overwintering process

Of all the things I have done of late, this wee book is one of the ones that at first, looks like nothing much; yet I know how many processes went into it and how much I thought about them all and how hard I tried to get them to work subtly and without distracting from each other.

I hope at second glance some of this is apparent.

From the start, I wanted this to be a book where I tried to bring together a range of processes. I did that and I think/hope it worked.

I began back in January with the covers.

The words are about ruddy turnstones, the birds, and I loved the description of them turning over stones to forage for food beneath.  The cover is a simple, embossing, white on white. I prepared a collagraph plate and just never inked it.

The back ground of the pages references the indentations made in sand by sting rays.  I had seen these myself at Heron Island, and I converted some images to solar plates and worked hard to print subtly, in the colour of sand.

And then, the words themselves.  I knew I wanted it to be small book, that could be held in the hand - delicate if you will.  And I took possession of some tiny 8pt Granby Light type earlier in the year and thought that would work perfectly - the lines just fit across the pages.

The ink I mixed to be a ruddy/rusty colour to reference the birds.

Rather than putting a verse on a page, I chose to put one line on each page, which sort of encourages you to read the the book slowly, but also involves turning the pages, like turning the stones...

At some point in the process I decide the shape of the inside pages holding the words could be different. It could be circular like a compass, and then within the book, the words of the poem would be set apart and made special.

Of course working out how to cut a circle and leave enough to stitch through the gutter/spine meant a few trials!

Lastly I wanted to reference the compass marks of the poem and played around with inking and printing them; or using lead type and stamping them on by hand.  As ever, I ended up going for the subtle approach.  Perhaps its too subtle, but I stamped N, S, E and W on the circular pages in the position they are on a compass. One on each page as you move through the book.

I made sure to leave some breathing space pages between the cover and the words, and letterpress printed the colophon on the back of one page and we were done.

So despite its apparent simplicity it is a complex wee thing. My favourite kind of simplicity!

I shall post a bit more about the finished book once I am confident it has landed at its destinations across the country and the world.