One of the very first sonnets written in English, Sir Thomas Wyatt’s poem is based on Petrarch, the Italian master who established the form. Hand-laid paper made partly from banana tree fiber, letterpress printed, with a stenciled monoprint. 4.5 x 11.5″.
$12.00 order here ($2 shipping)
Ted Pope is a stalwart and beloved fixture at the Black Mountain College conference held each year by the BMC+AC. His installation will be part of Appalachia Now!, the show that opens the newly renovated Asheville Art Museum. To celebrate, the Paper Plant published this broadside.
Fish. broadside by Ted Pope. Letterpress printed on hand-laid paper. $10.00 order.
80 pp 8/12 x 11 stapled trade paper with hand-laid paper cover printed with block image and letterpress. $15.00 ISBN 978-0-929170-17-6
order directly here ($2 shipping)
Also available at Quail Ridge Books and So&So Books in Raleigh
The Natural History of Raleigh contains 16 chapters and 30 illustrations that depict nature lore and potential nature adventures inside or near the Beltline. Written by Paper Plant publisher John Dancy-Jones, a Raleigh native and retired environmental educator.
selection of illustrations
Posted in Publications, The Paper Plant
Tagged Clyde Smith, John Dancy-Jones, Michael Godfrey, publications
Above are the first hundred sheets of ONE THOUSAND I will eventually make for the covers of my new book, The Natural History of Raleigh, which will arrive from the printer soon and be out by Mid-November 2018. The sheets are made of high quality scrap and cotton linters, with bits of dried oak leaves suspended in the pulp.
The sheets are 12 1/2 by 20 inches, formed on wove screens of medium coarse silkscreen. I use two screens for extra draining time before couching (laying off on to the wet felt) each sheet.
When I’ve got a stack of a dozen or more between felts, I slide my hands under the stack and lift it into my big press, which is framed by 4×4 lumber and powered by the lovely jack you see (another story sometime). After a good sqeeze and another later, the sheets are ready to lay on boards – or in this case, washed glass.
They dry with the pieces of dehydrated oak leaves down on the glass, which makes that outside cover surface extremely smooth and perfect for printing. Each sheets uses up a good sprinkle of oak leaves and I add pulp and fresh oak leaves between each sheet. I pick a batch of dark un-scarred leaves, sandwich them between screens in a 105 degree dehydrator for a couple of hours, then shred the pieces with my fingers. The project will require many, many pieces of oak leaves.
The Natural History of Raleigh will be published by The Paper Plant Press and includes over 30 line drawings by me, the author. I have worked on this book for over a decade and can’t wait to share it with you!
Folded cover with letterpress block for back
Cover with scored spine and polymer block for front
The finished project is HERE!
Posted in Book Arts, Hand-laid Papers, Publications, Studio, The Paper Plant
The Uninvited Guest. Billy Odom. Illustrated by David Larson.
These six short stories represent the best of the many stories with which Billy brought down the house during the Paper Plant Thursday Night Readings in the eighties. Billy makes no apologies and pulls no punches as he takes on witch-burning, execution by electric chair, and what could be described as pornography from the Twilight Zone. Readers always have a strong reaction to Billy’s work, and these stories are illuminated by six wonderful drawings by David Larson, whose black and white work continues to wow viewers on band posters, zines, and cd covers after twenty years of outstanding and award winning work in the area.
ISBN 0-929170-12-1 $7.50. order
The Orphan. David Wilson. Illustrated by David Larson. 2018. Published by Hastycraft. $15.00 order.
This novel, first published as daily blog entries around 2008, is a coming-of-age tale that will (says John Kessell) “remind you to care for the orphans that we all are.”
The Broken Swan’s Neck. David J. Kelly. 2013. Peloria Press.
Boy meets girl under nearly ideal circumstances. The catch in this Southern love tale is a remarkable haunting. What is remarkable is the strength and humanity of the main ghost, a grief stricken architect who is literally channeled by our architect protagonist. The ghost, teasingly revealed in ever more fully realized form, is human enough to be convincing in the fiction, and surprising enough to remain slightly spooky. This ghost story has some of the fine character analysis you would expect in a Henry James story, but also injects you into a strongly practical and contemporary world that captures your empathy. The close identification serves to make the truly convincing ghost story all the more powerful in raising your hackles. Before we meet the dead architect, we see his ill fated wife appear to the new owner of a historical Southern residence. Miller, who has purchased the house not least in order to come to terms with his own architectural vision, is joined effortlessly and smoothly by Alicia, whose appearance in his life is nearly as implausible as the ghosts that start appearing to both of them. Miller and Alicia use their shared visions to build a relationship, while solving the problem of the ghosts.
The history and motivations of the ghosts serve as a perfect foil both to the real life romance and to the crisis in vision Miller experiences with his work. The male ghost makes physical alterations in his drawings and forces him to be braver in his projections of style. The female ghost serves as the catalyst and eventually the emotional vortex that threatens the new relationship. Even a hard headed cynic who thinks the ghosts are in the characters’ heads will appreciate the wonderful weavings of risk and reward that face Miller and Alicia. In the disbeliever’s interpretation, Miller works out his creative angst with a Doppelganger architect whose taste in style reflects and surpasses his own. Alicia comes to terms with her classic Southern femininity by seeing it projected into the past doomed romance. The story falls pat, but what of the ghosts? The resolution is rich and nuanced.
The Broken Swan’s Neck presents a strongly believable contemporary setting. Southern cities are really just big towns, and the old neighborhoods are enclaves of that town atmosphere. This book puts you there, then melds old and new into a seamless story of both. The numerous accurate and dryly witty local references are a delicious treat for any old Raleighites still out there. The lasting impression of the book is the genuine plausibility of the slowly revealed ghostly presences, and Miller’s quiet conversion from doubter to believer. This reader found himself growing to the idea of ghosts as Miller does. Certainly they work very well in this story. And in this day and age of ghoulish media excess, these ghosts aren’t creepy at all – just sad. Maybe that’s the way they really are.
David J. Kelly is a Raleigh writer and publisher. The Broken Swan’s Neck is available at Peloria Press.
The Little Heel. Lee Moore. illustrated by David Larson. 2004. $7.50 order
The Little Heel Lee Moore, Illustrated by David Larson
This quaint and quirky tale is for divergent-thinking children of all ages. Originally published as a serial in FARCE, the cultural newsletter of The Paper Plant bookstore, this chapbook presents the entire story with the hitherto unpublished conclusion. Five illustrations by David Larson illuminate the Little Heel’s memorable misadventures.
ISBN 0-929170-16-4. $7.50
Translations from the Unconscious. Clyde Smith. 1985. Winner of the 1987 Southern Books Competition special award for alternative publishing. $7.50 order from Amazon
Translations From the Unconscious Clyde F. Smith
32 pp. chapbook with handlaid letterpress cover
This title won the Southern Book Awards prize for alternative publishing in 1987. Clyde F. Smith is a Raleigh native who studied dance at UNC-G and received a doctorate in Cultural Studies in Education from Ohio State University.
ISBN 0-929170-10-5. $5.00
Non-Fiction Poems. Bob Rogers. 1986.
By The Blood. Ralph Dunn. 1986
DOUBLE CHAPBOOK _ TWO FOR ONE COMBINED – 40 total pp. with hand-laid letterpress cover. $8.00 order
Non-Fiction PoemsBob Rogers & By The Blood Ralph Dunn
40 pp. chapbook duet with handlaid letterpress cover
Bob Rogers operates a word processing company in Raleigh while continuing the jazz and radio work he has pursued for over twenty five years. Ralph Dunn enjoyed great notoriety as the Taxicab Poet of Raleigh until his passing in summer of 2001.
ISBN 0-929170-07-5. $8.00
The Bibliophile- book arts & bibliomania 