The first of three sessions in the printmaking studion, starting with experiments in monoprint.

From subtly shaded landscapes to whirls of string and studies in complex patterns. As always, the personality of the maker seems to find its way into the work.

The assignment is to make twenty prints each. That seems like a lot in the beginning but usually everybody easily hits that target. It helps that I don’t allow prints to be thrown away.

Two reasons: 1) you don’t decide in the moment of making. 2) even the crappiest piece can be used as a starting point for next weeks session. Which is all about letterpress with wood type.

Want to try as well? Join the Print & Play sessions at Grafisch Atelier Hilversum.

When you share, with whom are you sharing? With the others in your (social) network, sure. But with the owner of the platform on which you share your work as well.

Change share into publish and content into work: don’t share content but publish your work.

Yes, you can take it that seriously. So. Where do you publish your work?

Vorige week in opwelling gekocht in de lokale boekenwinkel, vandaag begonnen te lezen: Over het verdwijnen van rituelen door Byung-Chul Han.

Ben nog onderweg, maar alleen al de notie van rituelen als symbolische technieken om thuis te raken in de tijd maken dit boekje zeer de moeite waard.

Was al weer even geleden dat ik mezelf de rust van in de stoel zitten en te lezen gunde.

Nou, bingo:

Aandacht is het natuurlijke gebed van de ziel - Malebranche

Herhaling stabiliseert en verdiept de aandacht.

Drempels transformeren. Aan gene zijde is het andere, het vreemde. Zonder de fantasie en betovering van de drempel bestaat alleen de hel van het gelijke.

Prettig weekend!

Volgend weekend, 10 & 11 mei is het Waddenvogelfestival in De Cocksdorp op Texel. Er is dan van alles te doen over en met de vogels van de Wadden. Dit keer met extra speciale aandacht voor de duinen als kwetsbaar leefgebied. Daarom de Tapuit als mascotte dit jaar.

Ik sta dat weekend met een stand op de BirdFair en neem een aantal vogelprenten, boeken en ansichtkaarten mee natuurlijk.

Er is ook een loterij voor het goede doel (die duinvogels dus), en daar zijn heel toffe prijzen te winnen. Daarvoor heb ik een pakket samengesteld met het Print & Play boek, de zine Van de kneu en de drieteenstrandloper, een set van 12 ansichtkaarten en nog wat extra dingetjes.

Zaterdag om 11 uur vertel ik over het 50 vogels project met een presentatie in de grote tent op het Waterplein.

Dus. Voor wie zal ik alvast een prent van de Tapuit meenemen? 10% van de opbrengst uit verkoop dat weekend doneer ik aan het goede doel van het festival.

Tot daar!

If I’d write a blog post today it would be about following your interest and really pushing that as far as possible. Niche, more niche, no even more. And there, right on the edge of things, you’ll find you can apply that specialty anywhere. Your expertise in some hyper specific domain becomes a lens through wich you can bring a unique approach to related or even wholly different topics.

Brought to you by:

• “Expertise doesn’t scale. It sharpens. It concentrates.” – Joan Westenberg
• The World of Rare Books – An Evening with Dr. Paul Dijstelberge in The Amsterdam Antiquarian Bookstore.

Five things for this week:

We document the biographies and works of women graphic designers, typographers, book designers, and illustrators from the years 1865 to 1919, before Bauhaus, in German-speaking countries.

Submit your idea of a typographical project before the 15th of May and get the chance to have it released on Velvetyne and receive support from our team and a tuition of 1800€.

An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write. Writing is your job. Nothing else.

We want your inner noise. Just push the gas on your own ephemeralism and launch us into the future.

The Guild of Medievalist Makers - A society for medievalist academic and academic-adjacent practitioners of creative-critical work. With the Creative Critical website as an interesting link in the suggested reading section.

Enjoy!

Groetjes,
Roy

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On the day of the funeral a dead Blue tit lay on the ground. Right in front of the door through which dad would leave his house for the very last time.

The title is Small things because of his motto. Whenever he’d done something with a bit too much enthousiasm, or made a clumsy mistake: Oh well, you’ll always have small things (that go wrong).

A few years ago we were all making things in the printmaking studio. Family outing with mom, dad, brother & wife, and the four of us. Dad set and printed his motto in wood type. This March, it made it onto his funeral card:

Making the print of the Blue Tit is both processing and a way to get back into the groove. It was good to be printing again, working in the studio. I printed thirty and will donate 10% of the proceeds to the oncology department of the Radboud UMC.

With the 600 Characters project Grafisch Atelier Hilversum joined in on the 600th birthday of the city of Hilversum. We made a series of 40 posters, each poster using a grid of 5 by 3 squares. 5 times 3 is 15, and 40 times 40 is 600, you see.

All those characters were made with people from Hilversum. Visitors, school kids, students and passersby.

I designed one of these posters as well. I cut up photocopies of the letters A, B and C. These were proof prints made from the wood type collection of the printmaking studio. Some real beauties in there! Through cutting, moving things around and pasting them (a.k.a. ‘collage’) all kinds of figures showed up. Characters!

See, like so:

The Proloog organisation, coordinator of cultural education in Hilversum was excited about the project, about this and other posters. After some significant additional development that all turned into these lesson boxes (warning: Dutch! Linkedin!)

And that’s how the one project begets the next.

Another month, another edition of Print & Play in the printmaking studio.

During the first evening we work on abstract monoprint experiments. Shape and negative shape, on a black and on a white background, working from high to low contrast.

Then, composing with wood type. Initially on new sheets of paper to see the direct results.

After some adjustments, maybe use it as a second layer on one of last weeks’ prints as well.

And then there’s multiple colors as additional design aspect to consider!

Such a talented group, again. Looking forward to what will be created during the third session.

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Explore the basics of monoprint and letterpress printing in three evening sessions with the Print & Play workshop. It’s an accessible introduction to printmaking techniques. We work in a small group of max 6 participants. The ideal (re)start for your own creative practice!

Welcome to join! More information on the Grafisch Atelier Hilversum site.