Sugared Water #002

Sugared Water #002

Featuring poetry & prose from: Katie Berger, Jessica Bixel, Su Cho, Wendy Creekmore, Kelly Dumar, Malisa Garlieb, Lois Marie Harrod, Scott Hartwich, Yume Kim, Anna King, Christen Leppla, Rebecca McLeod, Caitlin Neely, s. Nicholas, Dustin Parsons, Marina Petrova, John W. Sexton, Wes Solether, SJ Stephens, & Steven Wolf.

Each issue of Sugared Water #002 is wrapped lovingly in a hand-pulled, four color serigraph with stencil on 100% recycled (25% PCW) 105lb stock. The edition of #002 is 195, with each hand numbered & handsewn. (Spring 2014, Porkbelly Press.) | $10

#001 & #002, our first year!

first year’s mags

Vein of Stone by Sarah McCartt-Jackson

Vein of Stone, Sarah McCartt-Jackson

Pulled by hand (screen prints), these covers are printed in 2 colors on 65# stock (the kraft brown is 100% recycled, 20% PCW). The special edition release is limited to 75 hand-numbered, handsewn copies.

These are lovely Appalachian poems about coal mining life and the ways in which it affects a specific family. The language will draw you in and keep you.

marbled end papers, each unique

multiple covers

If you’d like to spend some time reading these poems this summer, you can snag a copy of the special edition for $10.
(As of this writing, the blue cover is sold out.)

l’appel du vide by Christina Cooke

l’appel du vide by Christina Cooke

Our limited special edition release of l’appel du vide, a poetry chapbook  (released in May 2014).

Cooke pulls from a well of gender, identity, and sexuality, peppers it with a hint of Jamaican rhythm and language, and presents it to us in this chapbook. She coaxes words together in love-lust, examines the gaze, and brings us into the place of a woman-body walking over hot asphalt, the rain on her skin, and the taste of mango jam on her tongue. She does not shy away from the internal voice, self-doubt, or the anxious churning of a wanton body. // more

multiple covers

garamond is a lovely font!

shimmmery title ink

The cover features a three-color serigraph of hand lettering and a Red-billed Streamertail hummingbird (the national bird of Jamaica). The belly & title ink is an iridescent mix, as you can see from the variation in the photo. This book is available on teal and also grey cover stock. Each issue of the 55 run is sewn by hand with crimson thread.

There are under 10 special edition copies remaining in our shop as of this writing!

Bodies in Water by P. Andrew Miller (Special Edition)

Bodies in Water, cover & end paper

Bodies in Water (P. Andrew Miller) is Porkbelly Press’ first offering in a new line of chapbooks. Miller’s hybrid chap. combines a piece of short fiction with a creative nonfiction essay. The book is handsewn and numbered by hand, and the special edition cover is limited to a run of 75. | more

An excerpt from the “Waiting for Rebecca” (fiction):

Edie Carmichael sits on her back oak deck staring at the river, watching for the body. She has done this for three days, everyday since she heard about the drownings. The car had missed a curve on State Route 128 and broke through the guardrails to splash into the Great Miami River. It sank to the bottom.

She has heard on Eyewitness News that there were two people in the car. One man, one woman. She wonders if it was his wife or girlfriend or mistress.

And one from the CNF (“Skins”):

In spring, I will feel the call of the sun and the heat and the water.  In those first few days of 70 degree weather, I will give in to the call that I will hear in my heart and my blood. I will know it is spring and I will answer.

I will wait until dusk, then I will pick up my skin and make my way across the street and then walk down to where the larger creek runs under the road, pouring out and down the hill into the Great Miami. I will climb and slip down the bank to the edge of the creek…

Bodies in Water, 2 covers

Spring Fire

Spring Fire by Jonathan

After a long, snowy, sustained-cold-eek sort of winter here in Cincinnati, my buddy (Jonathan) produced this brightly colored little sketchbook. I’ve dubbed it “Spring Fire,” in honor of the bright orange and reds. It’s a one-of-a-kind creation, sewn in multiple signatures of hand-ripped bristol board at about 6.25 x 5 x 1 inches (HeightxWidthxDepth).

The binding is lightweight, but sturdy enough for everyday use. There are 6 fat little signatures for a total of 96 acid-free, 100#, smooth vellum-surfaced pages.

I’m resisting the urge to buy it from him myself. 😀 Just. Barely. | $35 via WLH

Spring Fire’s button & twine closure

Alum Feature: Nicci Mechler

NKU English Department Blog

One of our newest alums, Nicci Mechler (MA, 2013), shares her latest project:  creating an exciting new literary journal, Sugared Water, which had its first issue released this week.

Why was Sugared Water created?   What gap do you feel it fills in the lit publishing world?
Sugared Water is meant to be a place where genre meets literary work. We consider all kinds, and choose what strikes us in the moment, mark it for later, and come back to it in a week or four. If we just can’t let it go, there’s a good chance we’ll accept the work. Things that grab on to our minds can be anything from beautifully lyric and richly visual poetry to flash speculative fiction, or experimental forms of creative nonfiction. We dig humor and sass, and we’ve found, as writers, that combinations of all of these things can be difficult to place.

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Sketchbooks, sketchbooks! :)

One of a kind sketchbooks are amazing. I love seeing them in use in cafes, in the park, or even in an actual art-school setting. I love it when people have the audacity to rock the brightly colored book instead of your standard plain black sketchbook (don’t get me wrong, I have some of those too!). Black and white is classic, but sometimes you want something a little more eye-catching.

This is a wholly one of a kind sketchbook assembled from handmade parts–there’s a unique cover paper handcrafted from severa layers of pigment, water-based dye, tissue, gold leaf flecks, and muslin (among other things). It’s wrapped around a flexible, sturdy little matrix that’s pretty lightweight for carting this baby around your city. The spine is wrapped in deco paper, and shows the signature sewing right through it. (The paper is Japanese and features a parasol motif along with some beautiful metallic gold details–I didn’t make that paper, but I purchased it with glee. I love how it looks against the ridiculously vibrant orange & green combo.)

The closure is a simple piece of ribbon, which is totally removable should you prefer a different closure. The cover wraps closed to protect the ends of your paper, and there’s enough wiggle room in the binding that you can easily paste or collage into this book, which, by the way, is filled with hand-ripped Rives BFK.

Rives BFK is a fat printmaking paper with a deckle edge, and will take layers and layers of media. I love hitting it with some gesso to follow up with watercolor, acrylic, inks, stamping, pasting, and hand-written, dip pen letters.

This book measures 8x6x1.5 inches (20.5×15.5×3.5 cm), and holds 112 pages sewn into a multiple signature binding. You can find items of similar size here: wickedlittleheart.etsy.com.

Aubergine & Tangerine

Closure Detail

Cranberry & Tangerine

Back Cover Detail

Sugared Water #001

Nicci

Sugared Water issue #001 was released this past week, and let me tell you, it’s amazing to see the magazine winging its way across the world to new homes. A copy is right now on its way to Mexico, and another to Canada, not to mention a posse of little fish headed all over the US.

SW was printed in a limited edition of 240. Each copy is handsewn and numbered. The cover is a hand pulled screenprint with stencil.

You can grab a copy on Etsy from Wicked Little Heart: wickedlittleheart.etsy.com.

Sugared Water is currently in its second reading period. If you’re a writer, poet, artist (comics too!) please have a look at the guidelines: http://sugaredwatermagazine.wordpress.com

Sweet mentions elsewhere:
Northern Kentucky University’s English Department Blog: Alum Feature: Nicci Mechler

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Starry Night, OOAK journal

A journal inspired by a nightscape scattered with golden stars. This multi-signature book is bound in one of a kind, handmade paper (built of many layers of ink, paper, tissue, muslin, acrylic paint, and glue). The wooden spine is wrapped in screen printed Japanese paper with gold details. Guts are bright white, text weight paper (acid free, of course). Book arts! 🙂

I sold this one over the weekend, and will be sad to see it go, but happy it’s found a good home.

Spine Detail, Starry Night Journal

Handmade Books & Upcycled Vintage Dictionary Bits

Vending these & other books at Art Off Pike in late September! 🙂

Nicci

Hand sewn, one of a kind, miniature books. These blank books measure about 2.5 x 4 inches, and contain 32 pages of bright white, 24lb paper.

Each is made with upcycled papers, and many feature illustrations from the 1960s. The spines are flexible but sturdy, and the books close with ties made from ribbon, twine, or yarn. They’re great for pocket notes, gifts/favors, or as a home for haiku and other short works.

These and handmade notebooks/journals and sketchbooks will be available from my booth at Art Off Pike, Sept. 29, 2013 (11a – 5p), in Covington, Kentucky.

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