Where Wings Gather – an Artist Book

Birds can pull me out of whatever I’m doing.
The encroaching cries of the yellow-tailed black cockatoos.
The chorus of a family choir of magpies.
The riotous cackle of a kookaburra.
All of this reminds me how alive the air is above my home and studio.

Where Wings Gather is a way I can honour that everyday theatre. With this artist book, I wanted to share the quiet excitement that falls over me when black cockatoos chatter and dance across the eucalypt crowns and white cockatoos screech in conversation as they forage for their feed.

This artist book is a quiet, reflective, long-term field study of the birds that visited a grove of gum trees on my property. The book is a place where readers can pause, look up through paper “leaves” and maybe feel the restless rhythm of wings and branches overhead.

Below I share some of the behind-the-scenes of making the book. You can click here to jump to photos of the final produced artist book here.

The Making Process and Materials

I started by eco‑printing sheets of paper with leaves from the seven towering eucalypts that once bordered my home. Their imprint felt like a memory or shape and colour pressed into paper. Using those sheets, I lasercut words and delicate silhouettes of branches and foliage. The foliage references photos from those towering giants. Behind each cut‑out, I layered montage photographs of yellow‑tailed black cockatoos, sulphur‑crested cockatoos, kookaburras and tawny frogmouths – all related to the trees that once stood beside my home.

The biggest challenge was achieving the sense of depth I imagined. After much testing, natural beeswax became my “aha!” solution. Wax melted into the paper gave the pages a subtle translucency. When pages overlay, sky‑blue papers show through the bird photos, and the cut‑out text reads like leaves in the breeze. Multiple spreads become one shifting experience … much like looking through the canopy where outlines of branches overlap and separate as you change your point of view.

The choice of every paper material and the clear acrylic covers was intentional. Kozo papers are made from (mulberry) tree bark; strong yet thin to facilitate breeze-blown movement. Sky Kozo is a marbled Kozo paper, like clouds and sky intertwined in a dance.

To keep the focus on the imagery and poem, I chose a straightforward paired‑needle coptic binding. The exposed stitches disappear into the design, while the clear acrylic covers extend the theme of transparency, inviting viewers to peer through multiple layers right from the start. Every decision, from beeswax finish to thread colour, supports, I hope, the feeling of standing beneath trees and glimpsing birds beyond branches and leaves.

The Words

I’ve written poetry on and off since my teens. My artist books have become an opportunity to give those words a home. In this piece, the verses aren’t printed; instead, individual words float as cut‑outs around the birds and trees. For those who’d like to read the full text, here it is in one breath:

Wind‑whispered leaves
Framed by sky
Branches brush the wind

Birdsong rises
In the shared canopy
Respite

Feathers brush the air
Silence turns to song

Roots interwoven
Gentle giants
Quiet pillars

Seasons shift
New perches sought
Where wings gather

Where Wings Gather is my way of capturing the fragile, ever‑changing beauty overhead. Trees grow and fall, seasons trade places and the birds keep returning … reminding me to notice the sky, breathe and adapt. I hope that everyone who opens this book feels a moment of that same calm, and perhaps steps outside to watch their own slice of sky for the next gathering of wings.

Colophon

Papers
Kozo Heavy 42gsm, impregnated with beeswax
Sky Kozo (Blue), impregnated with beeswax
Awagami Bamboo 170gsm, eco-printed

Covers clear acrylic

Printed
Digital pigment prints and lasercut words and cutouts

Structure
Paired needle Coptic binding

Edition Size – unique state

Completed April 2025