May Dearlove / 2026
 
Singing Bird Box is an intimate, intricate folded poem of many parts developed as an edition by May Dearlove with the press from her one-off original of the same name. A folded ‘blizzard book’, so named by Hedi Kyle, contains three poemlets – ‘A Domestic Trapping’, ‘Inner Workings’ and ‘Taking Flight’ – each on a different paper, and is itself wrapped in a poem on feathery tissue, with other elements waiting to be discovered in the outer black box. 
Its techniques include hand-cutting and folding, individual watercolouring, a reproduced hand-drawing, sewing with linen binding thread and methods of printing on to tissue paper developed specially for this work by Small Birds Press. Papers include Japanese Moriki Kozo and Satogami, and Zerkall Smooth 100gsm – an endangered paper, since the Zerkall paper mill closed. 
 
To learn more about the poem, read May’s article about it. 
 
Note that due to the hand-colouring and delicate materials, this work can be damaged by exposure to liquids. 
 
each folded box 80 x 110mm in outer box measuring 94 x 142 mm / edition of 12