Small Collects 3: Blue

Small Collects is what I once wrote on a box of stuff that had either been sent to me over the years or I'd found or bought on travels. This is a subset of infrequent posts that feature my personal collection of ephemera and creative publishing outputs.

Into the Blue Again: Damien Warman, Adelaide

Once upon a time I was sent a parcel from a lovely guy in Adelaide, someone I think I hadn't actually met at this point (forgive me if I had, D... memory and I have a strange relationship) but who was working with a mate to set up a letterpress workshop in Adelaide after sourcing a stonking amount of equipment from an old printer. The parcel had a bunch of zines in them, and while the letterpress was charmingly rough, the design of the zines was wonderful. This is one of those zines. 

I scanned the front of the zine (above) and the back (way below) and the inside: but scanning does not do it justice. 

It's a single sheet of light paper, not quite onionskin, but a lighter bond paper than contemporary photocopy paper. Actually, it's two single sheets glued together to make a single fold structure. The outside sheet has been printed on both sides with text in a grey-blue, similar to Payne's Grey, one of my all-time fave colours. The second, inner sheet, also has the grey-blue, but in a circle shape and with abstract patterning, almost like it's been frottaged, or rubbed against an uneven inked surface. And here's the genius: before the two pages were glued together, the inner sheet was papercut in even rows across the centre circle and then folded in the opposite direction to the outer sheet. Yes! Pop-up origami! Love it. 

So here's the killer bit: There's text on the front, in large lowercase Gill Sans Extra Bold, saying, as you can read above: 'into the blue again'. Slight tugs on the memory. Then you open the pagespread and the strips of paper move from splayed to tightly shut as the pages spread, revealing a tantalising glimpse of more text inside before... shut! And it's gone. 

This is the wonderous thing about material objects. The best ones just can't translate digitally, because they involve the hand, the eye, the sensation of moving something for yourself. 

As the paper strips open and close, I can just make out the inner words... again in Gill Sans Extra Bold... 'into the silent water' and BOOM! My head explodes with the multifarious rhythms of Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime. And all the memories of that song, and all the insecurities it exposes. And yes, into the blue again, coping with the sensory rush. All from a smidge of ink and two pieces of paper. 

Colophon: Damian Warman, Into the blue again, date unknown. Letterpress and papercut on paper, single-fold 4pp booklet. 150 x 120mm (closed), 150 x 240mm open.  Printed at Stone & Quoin, Adelaide, edition unknown.