Little Wing – Modern Heirloom Book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modern Family Heirloom Designed for Coming Generations

Illustrated with magically convoluted line drawings, Little Wing is a fairy-tale for all ages about following dreams.  A stuck wing means flight is impossible if the idea of unsticking it seems incredible.

Claire Delaney is a full-time artist. She runs her own art practice, and tutors 50 students a week at Time for Art, her studio in Riverhead, Auckland, New Zealand.  Engaged to teach Illustration on the 2017 Corbans Estate Arts Centre summer school, Delaney is a role model for artists who dare to dream.

At the interview for the Arts Foundation Diploma, the Dean enquired why she wanted to attend Art College. Innocent and forthright at 16, she said she wanted to write and illustrate children’s books. He laughed, saying  “You, and everyone else”.

It was a throw-away comment but it stuck, and its memory stopped Delaney from doing what she really wanted, opting instead for a BA (Hons), in fine-arts-based Textiles and Fashion (St John Moore’s University, Liverpool 1992).

Thirty years later, the recent success of her book, Little Wing, is a dream come true. Teaming up with Willy Coenradi of Dendrocalamus Publishing, who collects and restores antique printing presses, Delaney was convinced to produce the book as a collector’s item. The hard-bound 38-page book was produced using traditional printing and binding methods. Coenradi printed the heirloom book on a vintage Heidelberg KSD Cylinder press and won the gold medal at the NZ Pride in Print 2016 Awards in the (Letterpress) Process Category.  Little Wing also won the gold medal in the Specialty Products category.

Printed on 140gsm Betula Woodstock paper using Trinite typeface, each of the 200 First Edition books is hand-sewn, with embossed fabric covers, bound at The Binding Studio. The bindings have the effect of a flourish in creating the fine quality timeless classic which can be handed down for generations.

Delaney had exhibited two paintings, each a wing, in the 2011 Depot Artspace Member’s show, Two Halves.

“I wrote a story underneath about a girl with one wing, saying two were needed to fly. During this phase most of my work was painted with story-starters…just enough words to hint at the thoughts behind the work, yet leave room for viewer interpretation.”

Sarah Elworthy, an award-winning book designer who worked on Margaret Mahy books, read the story-starter and offered to help turn it into a children’s book. Little Wing is the culmination of four years of exhausting work and learning. The story was undressed by editor, Sarah Matthewson, and rewritten 13 times.

“After three years,” Delaney says, “I was ready to publish, but on an illustration course with Sandra Morris and Nina Rycroft, I realised my drawing style was too inconsistent for illustrative continuity throughout the book. I learned the simple technique of creating Little Wing characters as 3D models so I could draw them accurately from every angle and get image consistency. I had to start again to make the book that now wanted to emerge.”

Delaney then met Coenradi and was intrigued by the old-fashioned printing processes that are his passion.  Deciding to print the book with Letterpress meant Delaney had to sacrifice colour.

“I’d always relied on colour, but the Letterpress printing process was too complex, and expensive. I found that stripping the drawings back, and not hiding behind layers of mixed media and paint, made the work both vulnerable and strong. “

Little wing is available at www.clairedelaney.net/. Each book comes with a separate hand-coloured, high quality, limited edition print of a Little Wing character printed by Dendrocalamus Publishing on one of two antique hand presses, the Albion made in 1851, and a Columbian Iron (1830).

https://www.ceac.org.nz/classes-workshops.aspx

 

Copyright Theresa Sjoquist – November 2016