Leash lines I

2023

A small edition handmade casebound and paperback printed artist book. The handmade book is an edition of 15, and the paperback book is a first edition of 50.

These books create a narrative through collaboration with scanned sheep parchment pages that have been sewn with artist spun Leicester longwool yarn in the pattern lines from the leash between Rumpelstiltskin and Tiny during a walk in December 2022.

The handmade book is archival, repairable, and compostable, made with artist made Irish linen book cloth, vintage Irish linen thread, wheat paste, 100% recycled paper pages, and green millboard, 8.25”x5.5”. This book is porous and more receptive to environmental changes, and while that has historically not been “ideal”, that is part of an ecological practice. The paperback book was printed with Lulu, a certified B Corp, on 60lb cream uncoated paper, 8.25”x5.25”. This book is perfect bound.

To purchase, please email ramorgan@syr.edu or message on instagram: @rampractice

Each version is available on a sliding scale, paperback: $20-$35 and handmade book $175-$275. Shipping included.

This poetic visual narrative is a collaboration with Tiny, my 5.5 year old border collie companion. Additionally, this manifestation is made in collaboration with/in/through sheep parchment, Leicester Longwool wool, flax, recycled paper fibers, ink/dye, nylon leash material, beings of energy, and many others not within my perception (at this time), but just as integral.

In going out for walks, a somewhat routine practice, we approach them differently. She loves to smell everything, going from one side of the trail, to the other, and off the somewhat neat path into the leaves and twigs, and decomposing and growing environments. I stay within the boundaries of the packed soil, or sometimes gravel and pavement. I go for a break in “socializing”, whereas she goes to check-in. Two perspectives, approaches, and needs, connected and archived through a leash, documenting changes in direction, influence, and reply.

Drawing from the history of the border collie breed, where emotional attunement in herding practices started, sheep parchment and wool translate our walks into metaphorical, abstracted, and re-imagined landscapes through genetic geographies. This practice is one of the ways in which as a human I am confronted, challenged, and invited to reflect on my capacity to consider the overwhelming interconnected ecologies with which we walk.