For those who love Italy, especially Siena, Italian Poems is the first in a series of volumes of poetry written and celebrating my travels abroad. This is a collection of original poetry that includes marbled paper I bought from the paper artist I met in Siena, as well as an example of intarsia or inlaid wood that I have inset in my cover. The poems are illustrated with designs that the intarsia craftsman gave to me in his workshop. Questo libro è fatto a mano. I sew three signatures together, first, a selection of poems, then a section of marbled paper, then a section of poems. I also orders include a colophon, essentially the autobiography of the volume.
Each volume is a treasure hunt, not only for the poems, but for suitable decorated and hand made papers to include and for a handicraft from the locale to embed into my covers.
I hand color each illustration and bind the book in fine book cloth, stamping the cover in gold leaf using a hot stamp press. The three signatures are sewn together and then cased in with archival glue. Each book takes me about two days to complete.
The Francigena Road, the way that medieval pilgrims traveled from Paris to Rome, passes through Siena. Many of our outings passed along those pilgrim sites, though the spirit of the volume is the space inhabited by current residents and pilgrim tourists. I was inspired by our initial stay in Siena to study Italian seriously. Stai bene per me. Ciao.
Product code: Italian Poems original, orders illustrated poems from Siena and Tuscany