Fab couple of days printing with wilderness poet, Suzanne Iuppa. Suzanne wanted to print bookmarks in preparation for publishing a book of poems by her friend and poet Laurence James. We each worked out ideas for the bookmarks by cutting up elements of the book cover design (abstracted wave and rope images) and the Gwendraeth Press logo. Suzanne assembled the paper cutouts until she was happy with a design. She then stuck the paper cutouts in place, traced the design and transferred the outline to the lino.
We carved our lino blocks and printed the first batch in green on the Adana 8 x 5, then blue and finally Laurence’s initials were printed in gold using Univers lowercase type.
Suzanne Iuppa has published two books. ‘Well Spring’ inspired by healing wells in Wales (Gwendraeth Press) and 'On Track - Poems from Welsh Pilgrimage’ (Alyn Books) inspired from her 200 mile walk following pilgrimage routes from South and West Wales.
Well Spring
“On the morning of March 21, 2014 I started my season-long search for ten Holy and healing wells in Wales, which I continued until the evening of Summer Solstice in June. The places I eventually found have been documented in ancient texts, and by biographers of our Celtic Saints; by book writers and modern day bloggers. To assist me, I had been given some wonderful insight and information by legend-gatherer, photographer and writer Phil Cope. I had maps. I had boots and waterproofs and a hat and my trusty rucksack and the support of close friends and pen and paper, to write the start of poems which I first had a hint of, somewhere behind my held breath, whilst peering at St Teilo’s Well in Pembrokeshire in 2012, journeying on a long wet pilgrims' walk to St Davids.” Suzanne Iuppa, ‘Well Spring’ - Introduction to the Wells.
On Track - Poems from Welsh Pilgrimage
"Coming upon these poems is like coming upon the wanderer. Like Suzanne, this pilgrim would commit all he saw - beautiful, wild, Godly - to words passed down in ink. A profound and spiritual evocation of the Welsh and their landscape, captured in this latterday pilgrim-poet’s stanzas." - Clare Dudman, author of A Place of Meadows and Tall Trees
'On Track - Poems from Welsh Pilgrimage' is available to buy from Alyn Books
Suzanne will be performing her poetry in The Speaking of Nature Tent at MereFest 2017.
Merefest 16th September 2017.