Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone
By Jackie Morris
Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone
By Jackie Morris
A pillow book of poems, dreams & stories typed on sheets of gold leaf.
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About the book
Jackie started to write the pieces shortly after her father died, and for the first time ever she found herself unable to paint. The words grew out of her grief and, guided by her deep intimacy with the natural world, these objects emerged to fill the space her paintings had left behind.
This book is full of the light and wind that fills the Pembrokeshire coast where it was crafted, each page anchored to the landscape by the mechanical rhythm of Jackie’s antique typewriters. The result is a collection of individual artworks to be both looked at and read. It is poetry re-imagined by a visual artist; words transformed back into their original function as images.
Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone announces a new departure for Jackie Morris and confirms her as an artist and writer at the peak of her power.
More information
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Jackie Morris
Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. She lives in a small house beside the sea in Wales, with cats and dogs for company. She studied illustration at Hereford College of Art and Bath Academy and has illustrated many books, and written some. The Lost Words, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane won the Kate Greenaway Medal 2019. In the same year she published The Unwinding with Unbound, and they have committed to re-issuing and re-designing her backlist beginning with Song of the Golden Hare (Sep 2020) and East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Mar 2021) and The Wild Swans (Mar 2021).
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- 7th January 2023 A new venture
Feather, Leaf has been out for a while now. Accordion Books suffered a bit of a hold up but the first 2 will be published in April. More soon I think. But in the meantime my working attention is focussed on the Book of Birds which is having an inevitable shift into 'The Lost Birds' ( had to happen really) and Wild Folk.
Wild Folk launched yesterday with the rising of the Wolf Moon into a cloudy…
3rd October 2022 A Preview by Way of Thanks for All Your SupportI asked Michael Sheen if he might read a page from Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone.
He really is rather a wonderful human with a passion for justice. This is a preview of his reading. In the end he did two for me.
23rd August 2022 A filmI want you to see this first. It was made by Marry Waterson for me. Marry is a musician I worked with on the Modern Faeries project.
Hope you like it. It is quiet, and I think carries a blue note from the pages of the book perfectly.
31st July 2022 Out in the wildsFeather Leaf has been quietly out in bookshops for a while now. Last Thursday I signed a few copies in bookshops in London. Lovely to see the book here in the window of Lutyens and Rubinstein ( where they are looking for someone to work!!!!!- dream job.... bookshop.. Nottinghill) WHile we were standing outside a couple walked past and were talking about the book.... strange, curious, very odd feeling…
31st July 2022 Out in the wildsFeather Leaf has been quietly out in bookshops for a while now. Last Thursday I signed a few copies in bookshops in London. Lovely to see the book here in the window of Lutyens and Rubenstein ( where they are looking for someone to work!!!!!- dream job.... bookshop.. Nottinghill) WHile we were standing outside a couple walked past and were talking about the book.... strange, curious, very odd feeling…
20th July 2022 Feather, Leaf out in the wildThis is just to say a huge thank you to everyone who pledged when this was just an idea, and helped to make it real. I have been getting some amazing responses from people who are reading the book.
I understand that some people's names were not included as supporters names and am really so sorry about this. The Unbound team should be getting in touch and when I am home I will send small things…
27th May 2022 Almost publication dayThere's so many things I have wanted to write about over time, but there have been so many demands on my time, and I have guarded my painting time fiercely. I'm working hard on the Book of Birds, with the fear that even though the deadline is so far away I have so much to do.
I'm going to write a piece about Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone for my daughter's Peregrination. As a young writer and artist…
8th March 2022 Covers and other things.The image above is how I feel at the moment. The thing I love about images is that they are more open to interpretation than words, which pin things harder to a page, sometimes.
I'm sorry it has been so long since the last update. There has been amazing progress on Feather, Leaf, which is now heading off to the press. And I have been so busy, working on this, The Accordion Books, The Book of…
17th December 2021 Up Early, Thinking, Walking.I woke in the dark today. In the night only the few brightest stars had pushed through the moon's brightness to become visible. Moonshadows still splintered the earth beneath the ash tree when we headed out, and down to the beach, to find the light. I was searching for endpapers and thinking and looking. On the tideline remnants of Icarus lay.
In time tide moved and beach grew, opening…
28th November 2021 How time passes too swiftlySo much happens each week, some things that I can share, others that must remain secret for a while longer. That is how my small corner of the world is. In the wider world also so much happens and so much uncertainty swirls around what might happen at Christmas and beyond and I do not wish to worry, only to live, and try to enjoy each moment. So, long overdue for an update, I will try not to miss…
1st September 2021 Progress report ( for want of a better title); or sending foxes across the world.It will soon be time for Alison to work on the design for Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone. In advance of this I wanted her to see and hold actual pieces from the book, and also to have in her hands an accordion book. I owe her hugely for all the design work she has been doing on various projects. I know she is paid for these things, but always feel that it is never enough. So, I wanted to make her pieces…
10th August 2021 About many books, design, old paints and things.This is the first update on the Accordion Books page, and I've copied it here because of the relevance of talk about design, Alison, Feather , Leaf etc. So, if you are one of the 164 who is supporting Accordion Books it may be familiar to you. It's really wonderful to have you here as early adopters of the newest of my ventures. I'm going to mirror this posting on the Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone page…
2nd August 2021 And the sun shinesIt's quiet here. I can hear the sheep in the fields, insect buzz and birdsong. So many finches, it's beautiful. My studio is scented with white sage. And I am tired. Last week was a hard week, with much painting. There was some shaping of the Book of Birds, some writing, and much painting for two new projects. Both of these involve foxes. In a way perhaps the one grew from the other, which in turn…
14th July 2021 The UnwindingStrange times we are living in and through. The rescheduled Unwinding retreat was cancelled due to covid restrictions, as was the book signing, but we had hired a big house in Dulverton, the amazing North Moor House, and Chris, Davina and I had loads of work to do, on films for Spellsongs and for a new project, coming soon with Unbound. So we tested ourselves and travelled to Northmoor.
John…
13th June 2021 SilenceIt's been very quiet here for a while, but that is because my focus, for now, is elsewhere. The manuscript for Feather, Leaf has been with John, my publisher, and he has edited and also restructured the end a little. Like many of my books it wasn't linear, can be shuffled, and between us we have been trying to gather together the leaves, bark, stones etc into the right order. Part of my work today…
9th May 2021 JourneysThe past three weeks have been like stepping outside of time. The weeks running up to that revolved around working through the pain of an absess and having a tooth out. I have much to tell you. My focus will be on the good things, as always. (Also, tooth gone, pain now gone, after four weeks and too much antibiotics, thank you St Davids dentists for sorting this for me before I left home).
Those…
4th April 2021 Finishing the book for the third time.Over the past few days I have dipped in and out of Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone. I wrote a final piece and it brought back to mind some of the why and the wherefor of making this writing in such a way.
Today I walked to the top of the hill, to think, to look, to visit the places where stones have been for almost a year. The lane to the top of the hill is still, warm, heavy scented with gorse…
25th March 2021 Partnership, play, practice, painting.For spring Unbound and I have partnered with 'oh' magazine to see if this idea might work. Inside the beautiful pages of the magazine there are three spreads devoted to The Silent Unwinding. The first is a little about the book, and some prompts for what comes next. The next two spreads invite you to write, paint, draw in the magazine, as you would in The Silent Unwinding.
When…
11th March 2021 How to finish a book.I don't know how it works for other writers, but there are so many times with a book where I feel, 'right, that's it. All done'. I thought I was at the end of Feather, Leaf, but now I find a need for about another seven double spreads. So, time to make space again to get typewriters out, to think and to shape and to play. Meanwhile.....
I have been drawing foxes( practice for the Natural History…
27th February 2021 A difficult week where much work was done.....There is much 'noise' around at the moment that steals the time that could be spent in making work, real work, but is also work. This week I have somehow managed to complete the writing ( I think) and compiling of, Feather, Leaf Bark & Stone. This, because of the curious analogue way I chose to make this work, involved much scanning.
The book is now scanned, with each page in the order I feel…
14th February 2021 Thank youI would like to thank everyone who took part in this giveaway. I drew the winner, by random number selection and it is Jennifer Green. She's a printmaker it seems, from Cornwall, who lives in a similar landscape to my own, and uses watercolours. We've not met, but perhaps some time in teh future we will. And I hope she will work her own images into the book and share with us.
This has been…
6th February 2021 Foxes in the Deep Deep LightThere are ways to write updates for crowdfunding projects and ways to write blogposts, according to some folk. This posting will work against all the 'rules'. Which is the real way to write....
Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone is fully funded and growing. The manuscript has moved from my hands to John Mitchinson's and back again.
I asked John to send me a picture of him editing, but he sent…
4th February 2021 Have a listenI was asked to do a Podcast for Scotland Outdoors a couple of weeks ago.
This is the result.
Have a listen. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p095w2ng
Spread the word.
More coming soon. I need to get to my drawing board. I love how they've put this together. Beautifully paced.
8th January 2021 Working hard, thinking hard, hard times.These are hard times. Hard to keep a focus on work when it seems that so much is threatened. So many people are suffering such huge loss. My friends who work in the NHS are struggling to keep heads above water. It's been almost a year now, of isolation. I really feel for musicians, whose lives are wrapped around performance. And meanwhile, in America.....
And I try to focus on the beautiful things…
1st January 2021 Working, walking, stone, gold, light and rainbows.It's growing dark. Rain is singing on the roof. The chimney sweep came, so I've a log fire burning, and soon I wish to sit beside it and read into the evening. The house is quiet with sleeping creatures.
I've been painting, working my way tentatively back into work. An idea has grown for a new pledge point as Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone shapeshifts towards completion. I am making small pieces…
31st December 2020 The Evolution of a BookThe special edition of The Unwinding is in the post at the moment, travelling to the winner of the draw. It will live in the Netherlands, and I cannot tell you how disappointed I was to have to fill in a customs slip for it as its journey will cross into our 'new' relationship with Europe.
These are hard times we are living through. I was supposed to be working next week with the Spellsongs group…
26th December 2020 Something for ChristmasAs the storm rages outside here's something to listen to. Robert Macfarlane and I were invited on to Backlisted Podcast to talk about The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I've had a wonderful few weeks lost in these five books that make up the sequence. Now the pocast is live. So get a cuppa and settle in by the fire, because, outside, the dark is rising.
For Christmas I was given a copy of Piranesi…
21st December 2020 Thank youThe best way for me to say thank you to all of you who have given your support to this book is to continue to work to make it the best it can be.
In the last week The Space Between has moved from 88% funded to 104%, ensuring publication.
This book is such an unusual creature. It doesn't contain the kind of images that I am recognized by. The words have become images. It is quiet, contemplative…
12th December 2020 Some weeks are harder than others.This week has not been easy. Why? So many reasons, not least being the realisation of the permanence of death. It's always there. It doesn't go away. There is no re-run. Trying to work through a year of coming to terms with loss, well, it's hard. The weather inside my head this week has been a fierce, harsh storm, but through it all I have been moving slowly, trying ( and failing a bit) to be kind…
8th November 2020 The organic growth of a bookI am lucky enough to be working with a publisher who is open to the movement of a book. At the beginning of a project you present one thing, but in the making of it the book begins to change, turn in new directions. It's part of the joy of working with Unbound.
So, this book began with random typings onto gold leaf fragments, and now has moved to looking for other things on which to type. Including…
2nd November 2020 A curious turning.26th October 2020 Finding peace in the spaces betweenDays are spent in quiet reading by fireside, walking with dogs and painting. And thinking and playing. And while lockdown suits my soul I am well aware that it isn't the same for others. I've friends with shops who have stocked for half term only to find themselves closed. Solva Woollen Mill have copies of all my books in print, signed, as well as beautiful rugs and woollen items and also, oh my,…
17th October 2020 Day to day: an invitation to join me, from a distance.For a while I wandered the land, but now I am home again. There's a peace to be found here. I'm settling to work, though still busy with events, mostly would around the launch of The Lost Spells in the UK and in USA. Our next event is with Ottawa International Writer's Festival, 25th October and will be at 2pm Canadian time which I think is 7 pm BST. Robert Macfarlane and I will be talking about…
24th September 2020 TimeThis time last year I was in Dulverton. My dad had just come out of hospital, but was frail. I was about to do an event with Number Seven to launch The House Without Windows. I was tired, worried, and had one painting left to do for The Unwinding.
Back in Dulverton again, because I was supposed to be doing an event with Robert Macfarlane in Dunster, for The Lost Spells, because I wanted to round…
31st August 2020 Welcome to the Space Between.How do we begin?
I wanted to make the first update today. Waking in the night, feeling good, then a dream of my father knocked me for six on second waking. Beautiful to feel so close. Sad to feel so far away, separated by death.
Outside the air was cold autumn, sharp, sun rising, birds singing. Light, bright, cats in the kitchen.
I'm away from home tomorrow and too many things to do…
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