Small, Significant Things

Within the pages of Small, Significant Things, time is always right now. Watka’s essays-in-miniature capture moments that are only small in their brevity and scope. Then they begin to expand into whole worlds before our eyes. With each piece, she compresses and then magnifies the fleeting joys that build an extraordinary, ordinary life. A small boy’s haircut. Mice in the rafters. Toes dipped in a cold ocean. Each one mundane in another telling, but significant - and captivating - within Watka’s layered scenes. Each one an invitation to notice our own Small, Significant Things - the essential ingredients of a life worth cherishing.

The creation of this book - this piece of art - is as much a collection of moments as the essays within. The words were pressed into textured Arturo paper using time-tested letterpress machines found waiting in an old New England barn. The ink is the color of grass that grows and dies each year, often more than once. Before releasing the books into the world, Watka – a lover of process – stitched each one together with needle, thread and caring hand, folding each page twice over.

In the summer of 2022, she collected several small, significant things from where Maine’s land and sea meet, and had them cast in bronze. Their time and space partner with the words. Stones rolled softly by the sea, mussel shells coated in old barnacles, driftwood with buffed seams. Cast in one moment by a trained hand, an heirloom for life.

Designed by Ashley O’Brion

Printed by Gus and Ruby Letterpress

Bronze casting by Harrison Casting

Limited edition of 200

**Shipping for these orders will begin on December 14th.