"O, the places you'll go…" for great arts and crafts!

Here in the Central Blue Ridge region of Virginia, we are blessed to have an array of wonderful galleries and shops that curate and highlight the rich, diverse art and craft being made here. From pottery to book arts, painting to textiles, wood turning, jewelry, and much more, there is a veritable cornucopia of handmade beauty to explore.

Including, we must say, lovely letterpress printed items ;-)

St Brigid Press is fortunate to be included in the artisan offerings at a number of fine establishments. We thought we'd share their info, so the next time you're looking for art or crafts for your home or for giving, stop by and see what awaits!

Not in the area? No problem. Many of these shops ship anywhere in the world.

All best to all,

St Brigid Press

* Click on the gallery and shop names below (in green) to be directed to their website *

The Barn Swallow Artisan Gallery

More than 80 artists' work, including pottery and glass and fabrics, curated by Mary Ann Burk and Janice Arone and beautifully displayed in an early-1800s barn near Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Barker Gallery of Staunton

The area's newest fine art gallery, founded and curated by artist David Barker, featuring the work of Ann Deutermann, Sharon Morris Kincheloe, William Bishop, and many more in a gorgeous loft in Staunton's historic Wharf District.

Stone Soup Books and Cafe

Wonderful collection of books (used, new, and vintage), homemade locally-sourced food (soups, salads, sandwiches), beautiful gardens, and artisan goods ~ all tucked into a 1895 farmhouse in Waynesboro.

The Market at a.m.FOG

Food is an art and a craft, too! This new market, located in Afton, offers a wide selection of local organic fruits, veggies, meats, and now artisan goods from jewelry and painting to iron-work.

Black Swan Books and Music

Excellent stock of used and vintage books and vinyl records, including local/regional authors' works and regular live music events, in a great location in Staunton's historic Beverley Street shopping and dining district.

Barrister Books

Thousands of excellent used and rare books, curated by Anthony Baker, in a sweet little shop near Staunton's historic courthouse. On display currently: miniature hand-made books from the Virginia Arts of the Book Center.

The Sacred Circle

"Enlighten the mind, nurture the spirit," is this shop's motto, and they live up to it with a space packed with handmade fair-trade artisan gifts from around the world ~ books, CDs, wood crafts, jewelry, and much more.

We're Gettin' Personal

With personalized monogrammed coasters!

Here at St Brigid Press, we are honored to have a sweet collection of historic wood type, most of which was made between 1875 and 1910. So we thought this would be a great opportunity to show off the beauty of these vintage typefaces, while offering a new custom letterpress service!

The coasters are printed on 4"-round, extra-thick stock. They are durable, reusable, colorfast, and, when the last drip of Pinot Noir finally obscures the type, fully recyclable and biodegradable. In addition to the vintage wood type letter, each coaster is embellished with a gorgeous wood type decoration, featuring historic flower-and-leaf designs from the late 1800s.

In-stock coasters come in sets-of-6, printed in luscious deep green, and available direct from our Online STORE. Currently in-stock letters: A, B, C, G, H, N, R, and S.

Don't see your letter? Need a different color? Email us! We are happy to print custom orders of monogrammed coasters, journal covers, and stationery ~  stbrigidpress@gmail.com

With thanks, and all best from the Press,

St Brigid Press

For more information about the wonderful world of wood type, check out the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum.

"Deep Peace..." Celtic Notecards

"DEEP PEACE  of the running waves to you

DEEP PEACE  of the flowing air to you

DEEP PEACE  of the shining stars to you

DEEP PEACE  of the quiet earth to you

DEEP PEACE  of the gentle night to you

DEEP PEACE  of the God of peace to you"

~

Our roots are showing here at St Brigid Press. From our name to our green-themed color scheme, we don't mind sharing a bit of our Celtic lineage. Which is why we were honored to accept a commission for notecards featuring this ancient Irish blessing. From occasions of joy to expressions of sorrow, the gift of peace is always welcome.

Letterpress printed on our 100-year-old foot-treadled presses, these "Deep Peace" cards are made of thick, 100% cotton Holyoke Paper. The typeface is the beautiful "American Uncial," which was first designed in 1943 by Victor Hammer, and is resonant of millennia-old scripts. We hand-set each metal letter and space, and added lovely penline flourishes from the Dale Guild Type Foundry for ornament. Inks are oil-based and color-fast.

These "Deep Peace" cards are now available in our online STORE, as well as at Stone Soup Books and Cafe in Waynesboro, Virginia, in singles or packs-of-three (all with matching envelopes).

For whatever occasion, these notecards offer the beauty and peace of their heritage, along with the care and craft of their creation.

With thanks, and all best from the Press,

St Brigid Press

PS: Listen to Emily Hancock tell NPR's Martha Woodroof how St Brigid Press got its name: (48-second interview)

Summer News at the Press

(Yes, we think it's so lovely here that we just camp in the front yard.)  ;-)

Warm greetings, Friends!

We are entering the high, hot summer here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia, and we've got many irons-in-the-fire at St Brigid Press. Our summer docket is jam-packed, and we wanted to give you a sneak peek at what's coming up ~

* We are in the early stages of the next broadside in our "Poetry in Translation" Series. (Learn more about this Series HERE.) Poet Jeff Schwaner will again be lending his translation skills to this project, rendering into English an 8th-century Chinese poem that will be a companion piece to "Sky Dream," the first production in the Series.

* Photographer James R. Plitt and the Press are teaming up to produce a limited-edition book that shares, in word and image, the beauty of Appalachian mountain creeks. Plitt's stunning color photography of the region will be paired with a moving original poem by Emily Hancock, letterpress printed and hand bound.

* Resident printer-poet Emily Hancock has three poems featured in the current issue of Appalachian Journal (Vol. 41, Nos. 1 & 2), published at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. For more information about that, click HERE. She is also at work finishing a small manuscript of haiku, which will be forthcoming from St Brigid Press in Fall 2014.

* If you missed the official air-time on June 6th, tune in to NPR-affiliate WMRA's interview with Emily Hancock HERE. It's a 9-minute piece produced by long-time NPR reporter and host Martha Woodroof, who speaks with Emily about St Brigid Press, bookbinding, letterpress printing, and poetry.

* Last but definitely not least, we are in the design and production phases of a host of new stationery items: cards, bookmarks, coasters, gift tags, postcards, and journals.

*WHEW!*  That's all for now ~ we'd better get back to work! We'll let you know as the above projects become available.

Until next time, all the best from the Press.

SBP

Twitter: @stbrigidpress   /   Facebook: www.facebook.com/StBrigidPress

St Brigid Press on Public Radio!

Greetings, Friends,

Last week, I had the honor and pleasure of being interviewed by regional NPR reporter and producer Martha Woodroof. For several years now, Woodroof has been talking with folks in our area (the Shenandoah Valley and central Blue Ridge of Virginia) who are creatively engaged with the world ~ from musicians to sculptors to computer programmers ~ and sharing these conversations with her public radio listeners on NPR-affiliate WMRA.

The weekly 10-minute show is called "The Spark," and Woodroof's piece on St Brigid Press will air this Friday, June 6th, at 6:20pm in our area. The interview will also be available to listen to online after Friday, at the following address: [embed]http://wmra.org/programs/spark[/embed]

In the meantime, check out the promo that is up on "The Spark" page ~ it includes a slideshow of the St Brigid Press shop.

Woodroof and I had great fun talking about all things printing, bookbinding, and poetry. Hope you enjoy listening!

All best from the Press,

Emily Hancock

"Sky Dream" ~ Poetry in Translation

Our new broadside series, "Poetry in Translation," highlights great literature from many places and many ages. We are excited to begin in ancient China, around 800 C.E., with the "ghostly genius" poet Li Ho.

His fabulous poem Sky Dream, translated here by Jeff Schwaner, looks at the moon (a "toad's eye," a "jade wheel") and at what the moon might see from its vantage point high above earth's beauty and trouble.

Our broadside, 10" square, was designed, hand-set in metal type, and letterpress printed here at St Brigid Press. The text is set in Bembo, a venerable typeface descended from 15th century Venetian originals, with title and author name in Garamond Italic. Sky Dream is printed upon tissue-thin Unryu paper, which literally means "Cloud Dragon Paper" and is made from the fibers of the kozo plant. The Unryu is backed by light grey Stonehenge paper, and framed by a night-sky-colored mat. This broadside was produced in a limited edition of 32 numbered copies. $15 each.

To order, please click HERE to enter our online store.

For more information about the poem, the poet, and the translator, please click HERE.

With thanks, and all best,

St Brigid Press

It's NOT a Small World, After All ~ Introducing the St Brigid Press "Poetry in Translation" Broadside Series

Contrary to the popular maxim, there are ways in which the world is very large, indeed. And there is a LOT of great poetry in it.

The depth and breadth of literature (oral and written) through time and across cultures is astonishing. In honor of the wonderful poetry happening in many ages and places, St Brigid Press has begun a series of letterpress printed broadsides featuring in English the work of poets writing in diverse languages and time-periods. Throughout the coming year, we will be offering limited edition, hand-set prints of poems-in-translation, from 5th century Chinese classics to 21st century Syrian classics-to-be.

Thanks for journeying with us. May these poems enlarge your being and your world, as they have for us!

All best to all,

St Brigid Press

~

For more on the art of translation, see the following websites and posts:

Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine

Poetry Translation Centre

Poetry of China (with a section on translation)

Jeff Schwaner on translating from the ancient Chinese

Maggie Duncan on "The Translated World" (and the myriad meanings of "translation")

PEN International: a global community of writers

Poetry International

Everything Falls In Place

We are honored to announce the release of a letterpress printed broadside of Jeff Schwaner's poem "Drop Everything."

A moving meditation on the small moments that make up our lives, and the intimacy of truly knowing another being, "Drop Everything" is a poem of quiet beauty and power. Author of numerous volumes of outstanding poetry, Jeff Schwaner lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

We had the pleasure of setting his poem by hand, letter-by-letter and line-by-line, to manifest its loveliness in metal, ink, paper, and to share it with you. It is composed in Centaur type, a venerable typeface designed in 1914 by Bruce Rogers, and accompanied by accents in its companion italic face Arrighi. The paper is sumptuous "Holyoke," a very thick, cream-white cotton paper. Each broadside in this limited edition of 45 is numbered.

For more information about the poem (including the full text) and its author Jeff Schwaner, click HERE.

To order, click HERE.

With thanks, and all best, St Brigid Press

St Brigid Press at the Library

We are honored to be the Artist-of-the-Month at Waynesboro Public Library, in Waynesboro, Virginia, for April!

If you are in the area, please stop by to see our extensive display in the front foyer of the Library. Included in the presentation are St Brigid Press handmade books, broadsides, block prints, and more; a selection of type and printing and binding tools from our collection; and an array of photographs from the shop.

Many thanks to Mary Ann Hayden, Adult Services Librarian, and the Waynesboro Public Library for their invitation to St Brigid Press, and for their generous support of local artists and artisans!

POST-A-POEMS! Celebrating National Poetry Month

Greetings and Happy Spring, Friends!

Just in time for the start of National Poetry Month on Tuesday, St Brigid Press has created pre-paid postcards featuring three wonderful poems by Emily Dickinson. These cards are hand-set and letterpress printed in lovely colors on our 1909 Golding Pearl treadled press. The back of the USPS-compliant cards have plenty of space for your personalized note, and include the postage stamp.

To order direct, click HERE. If you are in the Waynesboro, Virginia area, pick up these postcards at Stone Soup Books.

Share the gift of poetry this month  ~  POST-A-POEM!

All best to all,

St Brigid Press