Hope you can make it a good one.

I’ve added a simple calendar page that lists upcoming exhibitions, fairs and the like. I’m no good at planning things far in advance, but apparently it’s a grown-up thing to do! See you there.

Zine making become an important part of my creative practice over the last couple of years. Last February/March we organised the sixth edition of VOLUME. The subtitle onderzoek in oplage translates as research in circulation/edition. It still inspires to apply the many sides (hah!) of printmaking as image generator, incitement and theme -in-itself.

Still, not much zine work done this year. My entries for the VOLUME #6 exhibition were:

• Of the Common Linnet and the Sanderling. Notes on the design and printing process of two bird prints.
• Release 1. A printed catalogue, in an edition of just six copies, of this series of prints, which became part of the special edition of Print & Play. The Art of LEGO Letterpress.

Zines 2025

I’m especially looking forward to create a new edition in the Bildung zine series, using a similar approach as in the first edition. A collection of my own writings, sketchbook pages, project documumentation and inspirations from the last few years. This worked really well in Bildung 1, both as a retrospective of and a compass for my own work.

VOLUME #7 opens Sunday, January 2nd in Grafisch Atelier Hilversum.

2024 was the second year of making so-called Koppermaandag-prints. Two even. One for the printmaking studio, one under my own name.

These ‘Copper Monday prints’ originate from the time of the (Dutch?) guilds. At the start of the new year, printers and engravers made a print to show off their capabilities and promote their wares. A happy new year wishing card and business gift in one.

Out with the in, new with the old

The one for Grafisch Atelier Hilversum. The text is a reordering of ‘out with the old, in with the new.’ Meaning: don’t be distracted with the trend of the day, but make the new yourself, within the rich tradition of printmaking.

Hol’m aan de geng

Loosely translated as ‘keep (it) going’. Printmakers saw ink-rollers of a printing press. Keep printing. That should definetely happen, but the image is based on another idea. It’s through intensive treatment that my father’s cancer is kept under control. But for how long? That question keeps playing up at every check on go/no go for the next treatment. ‘Keep going’ has become our standard greeting. The circles visualize a heartbeat. Twelve times for each month of the year. The hope, wish and encouragement to at least keep it going for this year. (Mission accomplished).

A thought, made tangible

Main starting point for these prints is that I’ll use my own text. What is the message? What’s my wish for the receiver? How to express that? Concisely? Which design supports best that? Technically, both were early experiments in using more or less transparent inks. All in all a complete exercise in writing and design, setting and printing. A thought, made tangible.

Koppermaandag 2025

I’ll be making two for the upcoming year as well. The second one is for Stichting Drukwerk in de Marge, the dutch foundation for letterpress and other printmakers, celebrating its 50th birthday next year. Process notes on that one are here, here and here. All to be revealed on January 13th.

Some reminders don’t fit on a sticky note. You need to see the bigger picture. On a poster for example. In your own design, printed by you.

On Friday December 27th I would love to work with you to set and print that text using the wood type of Grafisch Atelier Hilversum.

Preferably no wisecracks, but a meaningful text. A motto, slogan, an extra large note to self.

Grafisch Atelier Hilversum maintains a special collection of wood type that we can use on this day. Which style fits your message? How and where on the sheet? Plenty of detail to geek out on. Simple is not that easy sometimes!

Would you like to join? Still two spots open. Can do half a day or a full day. More info (in Dutch) here.

The third and final print run uses good old black for the colour. This was the most complex forme of the three. Indeed, the challenge was to learn whether everything could be made to print nicely and evenly within this single form, because it combines small, thin type with the solid surfaces of a brick-forme (LEGO) and some more type of different sizes in between these two extremes. Eventually we made that work.

We also switched to a different press. From the manually operated Vandercook to the electrically operated Grafix. A smaller and faster press that may just be a bit better suited for this more demanding forme.

It not only needed tweaks to get everything to an evenly printed height. Some final layout changes needed to made as well. Calculations made while building the forme turned out to be slight miscalculations. A few points of lineheight needed to be shifted around to get things aligned correctly.

With an electric press the printing is definitely much faster than setting again. It took only 1,5 hours to get half of the edition printed. Another effect of large editions: you need a lot of space in your drying racks.

• Getting 700 sheets back out of the drying rack and stacking them is work, too. Nothing takes only a little while with these numbers.
• Set up the forme for the second print run in the Vandercook press. Exactly 12 ciceros from the top.
• Top is bottom, left is right, high is low. Mirror thinking and setting remains challenging.
• You will get the sheet including the part that has the small dents made by the paper grippers. That’s (within the) margin as well. (That’s cryptic yes, for now.)

And because I had to look up that they’re called grippers that I found this site with all the info about Vandercook proof presses.

A project: printing almost 700 sheets of A3 paper using a minimum of three print runs. Manully. So that we may have 650 good ones in the end.

The first print run consists of a single pinkish red line, 1 cicero width, positioned exactly 25 cicero from the left long side. Speed of printing is three plus sheets per minute, so around 200 sheets per hour, or 3,5 hours of printing in total.

Setting, proofing and correcting the exact layout usually takes longer than the printing itself. Even with an edition of this amount, ’the printing itself doesn’t take that long’ still holds. Likely because I’m not that experienced a typesetter yet. I’ve really honestly started to rely more on calculating and counting to get things in the right position on the sheet, but am still easily seduced into the ways of trial and error.

Even after more than 600 prints that same line still stands the same 25 ciceros from the left margin. The combination of a massive thousand kilos of proofing press and the very exact precision in adjustments and production that can be achieved with it is fascinating.

Of the Common Linnet and the Sanderling is a zine with notes on the design and printing proces for two prints from the 50 birds series.

These prints were made towards the end of the series. The complexity of the designs had increased quite a bit by then. More and more print runs for a single design were the result. All those details had to be figured out before production could start. For these two birds I explicitly kept more notes than I would normally do to record all the considerations that come into play.

28 Pages with thoughts, proofs, production and assorted predicaments.

Wannahave? Send electronic mail message.

Well that was fast. 25 people have already added their info for next years Koppermaandagprent. So, alas, but thank you for your interest!

The design process and the thirteen color separations to produce the Eurasian Hobby were quite time intensive. So it was quite pleasant to return to more familiar, smaller, terrain for a bit. Without the constraint of a 15✕15cm frame I could pay more attention to the exact position on the paper. Of course, most of the complexity was in all those colours around the throat and chest. Getting the length and direction of tail and feet just right took some time as well. Quite the perky stance no?

View the Bluethroat