Damp Hands Pressa zine about looking

Spore Print, issue 3: The Wet Month

move about. the plates slip. Gerald is not a precise machine.

issue 3the wet monthfree or trade

we go out. it rains. we look down. that is more or less all of it.

how to take a spore print3
five you will meet5
the forest (underneath)7
letters, weather9
pass it on12

plate 1 pink · plate 2 teal

How to take a spore print

a mushroom is a machine for dropping dust. leave a cap alone on paper overnight and it draws its own portrait. this is how we do it, on the draining board.

cut the stem close to the cap. say sorry if you like. we do.
gills down on paper. white, dark, or half on each if you can't decide.
cover with a glass. a draught will smear it. so will the cat.
wait overnight. do not peek. (we always peek.)

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Now you.

here is a cap we prepared earlier. press it and we will do the night for you.

the cap is on the paper, gills down. nothing to see yet.

the print is the spores themselves, fallen straight down from between the gills. each line is one gill. the colour of the dust is a clue, not an answer. ours comes out teal because everything of ours comes out teal or pink.

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spore print 3 · sig. b

Five you will meet

we are not experts. we are two people with wet knees and one hand lens between us. these are five we meet most months, described the way you'd describe a neighbour.

HOUSE RULEwe don't eat anything from this zine. this is a zine about looking.

The brown bun

fat stem, cap like a bread roll left out in the rain. turn it over: no gills, just a sponge full of tiny holes. we have never once walked past one without pressing it.seen: under birch, under the hedge

The shaggy one

tall white cap covered in curls, like a judge's wig on a stick. gone by thursday: it melts itself from the rim up into ink. the third colour in this zine is our tribute.seen: verges, the car park

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The shelf

a bracket on a birch, pale and rounded like a hoof or a small loaf. flat underneath, no gills. it stays put for months. you can knock on it. we knock on it.seen: birch, standing or fallen

The orange cup

the size of a lentil. bright orange cups sat on moss. (printed here in pink. we have two inks and neither is orange. imagination is free.) match for scale.seen: damp moss, wall tops. kneel.

The ring

pale caps in a circle on a lawn, a bit wider every year. the ring is the outer edge of one creature living in the turf. we walked round it twice and felt watched.seen: lawns, the football pitch

again, in case you skipped it: we don't eat anything from this zine. this is a zine about looking.

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a tree

another tree. they are in touch.

the bit we find (just the fruit)

us, looking

mycelium: the actual mushroom. threads, everywhere, tying the roots together. it was here first and has no opinion about the zine.

The forest is mostly underneath

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spore print 3 · sig. c

Dear damp hands

write to us. we write back, slowly, in pencil.

I took a spore print as instructed in issue 2 and my flatmate threw it away, thinking it was a dirty piece of paper. Is there anything to be done?Odile, top flat

"a dirty piece of paper" is the nicest thing this press has been called. do another. label the glass.

You said issue 3 would be out "in spring". It is now autumn.a subscriber (the subscriber)

Gerald had a drum fault, and then we went on holiday. thank you for being all of our subscribers.

I found one with a sponge underneath and I pressed it like you said. Why does everybody press it?Wren, age 9

nobody knows, Wren. it is the bubble wrap of the woods.

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The wet month

weather as seen from the back door, one square a day. pink cap = we found something. touch a day.

—thirty-one days. pick one.

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end of plates

Colophon

SPORE PRINT, issue 3: The Wet Month. written, drawn, folded and argued over by Damp Hands Press, which is two people and a cat.

printed in two colours on a machine named Gerald; 200 copies; stapled by hand.

inks: fluorescent pink and teal. where they overlap you get a violet we did not pay for. there is no black in this zine. we looked.

paper: recycled, with bits in. the bits are a feature. registration: approximate. Gerald does his best and so do we.

thank you: the birch, the car park verge, Odile, Wren, and everyone who traded us something. best trade this issue: a jar of damson jam and a drawing of a slug.

issue 4, The Frost Month, will be out when it's out.

this is copy no. 137 of 200

one last time: we don't eat anything from this zine. this is a zine about looking.

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when you have finished, leave this on a bus, inside a library book, or under a windscreen wiper (dry days only, so: never). go on, stamp it again.

this copy has passed through:

us (damp)
Odile, top flat

your name next. pencil is fine.

Damp Hands Pressc/o the shed behind the allotments.
knock twice. mind the step.

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