We traveled up the West Coast to Oregon with a tent, our trunk of bookbinding art supplies, and our open and curious spirits ready for an adventure through nature and learning.  Darby will add here that she was also honoring Sy’s completion of their Masters of Library and Information Science. Books and learning were in our hearts.

We arrived at Sitka, driving from ocean through lush meadow to tall Mother trees – wondrous verdant environment to experience our place of learning for the next three days. Our teacher and guide. artist Iris Sullivan Daire and her grounding husband, Joe welcomed us with jars of collected pigments, and a cornucopia of inks, tools, paper, and creative wisdom from years of practice. Darby and Sy were each entering the class from a different artistic practice and perspective. Sy from a printers perspective, hoping to include more bookbinding into their work and Darby as an educator to align creativity, books and play into her teaching.

Iris brought pigment samples she had gathered for months before the course from all over Astoria. She would collect the sample and then process it, sifting and grinding down into a form to create. The sample we worked with, “Emmalita Brick” was made from brick gathered from Iris’ dear neighbor Emmalita’s chimney before her home was rebuilt after she moved away. We felt the extra meaning of this pigment. We were guided to gently add watercolor medium and rosewater to the pigment and used a muller to smooth the pigment into a beautiful brown-red paint. By the end of the day, the class of 12 had created a pallet of paints all lovingly and playfully prepared.

 We added paste prepared by Joe to the paint, and made paste paper out of the colors from nature of the Columbia River. There was time everyday of the class devoted to play and discovery with breaks taken outside with the majestic trees around us. 

Day 2 and 3 were devoted to the process of cutting paper and book binding, which was a high learning curve.  With the stillness of the Sitka environment and the supportive energy from our teachers and group, Sy and Darby stayed determined and vigorous in their goal of binding a book.  The thread we utilized, was hand dyed and made by Iris.  Darby used a curved needle for the first time.  We followed a pattern of sewing, feeling an emerging rhythm to the binding of our book.   We felt privileged to learn this new skill in the peaceful environment of Sitka from a passionate artist/teacher, Iris Sullivan Daire, and deep support from Joe.  At the end, we had created four books, and Sy symbolically stitched their seven final stitches in Portland two days later.

Onward,

Darby and Sy