Wednesday, August 05, 2009



The latest off the production line.

Go to http://stickypagespress.blogspot.com/ for more details.

2 comments:

walrus said...

Blimey,

I'm away for a bit and a great flourishing takes place . . .

Hampton Armpit, eh? A parody of life in Hampton Wick? I had no idea this was bubbling under. I shall surely order a copy. Care to elaborate on method of composition, Ms Barp?

Congrats on finishing Material Comforts too, which I'd also like to see (the promo was spellbinding -- "a new Warhol", they said). Will these titles be worth a small fortune one day?

Why Sticky Pages Press? Sounds like an early name for the Olympia Press . . . I like it though.

Congratulations on your own chapbook factory. This is something I should do. What kind of machinery do you need?

AND Earful Symmetries -- does this gather some of the poems you were working on earlier -- like a Selected?

Well, some serious industry here. Turn away for a second and it all goes mad.

Félicitations,
Walrus

belgianwaffle said...

Hi

Yes, it's all rather a surprise to me, too.

Essentially, there's about two more weeks before the Chalkface looms again. Around this time I get really agitated & bad tempered & start feeling that (once again) I've not accomplished anything. So, pulling things together as little books salves my conscience a bit. Also, the sheer mechanics of setting up pages & printing off is do-able with kids around & interruptions etc..

I suppose I'm also taking a leaf out of Luc Fierens & Geof Huth's books - just shut up 'n make something & send it around. & maybe someone will send you something back. & so the world/word goes round. A parallel 'economy' of sorts.

I really, really enjoy seeing the book-as-object - kind of what the little video is about. Its 'thereness'. Another Thing in the World of Things. It leads me to even consider abandoning the main Blog & focusing my energies into making books & stuff which I'd offer to distribute on the Sticky Pages site. Obviously you can put up some texts on Blogger - but there's something qualitatively (existentially?) different about having It in the hand.

Machinery: i) iMac; ii) basic Canon printer; iii) stiffened card for covers; iv) ordinary copy paper for the text; v) long arm stapler to reach a folded A4 sheet - but you could stitch. (Wild Honey Press has good tips on making a chapbook).

I set up Word files - you have to do a bit of juggling for sequencing - and then set the printer at either 2 or 4 pages per side. Print. Reverse sheet, do the same. Then assemble. Material Comforts, I suppose, is a 'folio', Earful is a 'quarto'.

I did mention to Mrs Waffle the idea of buying a printing press (c 1,700 euros here in the Art shops) & converting one of the basement rooms into a proper printing works ... however this was not met with great enthusiasm ... Did Blake suffer similar obstacles I ask?

As for Sticky Pages ... this has a long pedigree stretching back to my days in Bristol in the early 90s. I did a grimy little book in honour of my visit to Out to Lunch in Leeds and his impending visit to the (by then) very sick Zappa. I called it 'The Shabbiness of Intent' after Sinclair's 'The Shamanism of Intent'. It was a Pritt & collage job - you see, I'm nothing if not consistent - and I devised the 'imprimatur' (if that's the word) accordingly.

This book then did the rounds of Ben's Cambridge Prynneites plus - eventually - Iain Sinclair. According to Ben it's been lost in the Loop. (I'm not sure IS found it so funny). Since then the dribs and drabs I've done have had the same Press.

Also, I do loads of one-off birthday cards etc. & it's amusing to make them look professionally unprofessional.

As for compositional methods - I'll say nothing for the moment. Have a read of Hampton Armpit first. It'll be fairly obvious, anyway.

I should get the package off today (Friday) so a in couple of days it'll be with you.

Enjoy!

The C.

April Fool?