globe dye works

Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 10/25 and 10/26


I will be opening my studio up to the public from 12-6pm on October 25th and 26th as part of POST, Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. This yearly event is hosted by The Center For Emerging Visual Artists and it is a great opportunity to meet working artist's in Philadelphia and get a rare glimpse at the studio's in which they work.

This year, I was so lucky to be interviewed for Paperclips215 by Aimee Gilmore and have some beautiful photographs taken of my space by Keristin Gaber. I really enjoyed my conversation with Aimee, an artist herself. We talked about the history of letterpress and about language and about the tools I use in my shop and what they do.

So I hope you'll come visit the Huldra Press studio the weekend of October 25th and 26th at Globe Dye Works. I'll have a small exhibition of recent projects up on the wall and a little something on the press to print and take home. There will be many other interesting studios to visit in the building and in the neighborhood as well, you can see a list here.

And you can view a little more info about my studio and the address HERE.

Hope to see you there.



Photographs by Keristin Gaber of PaperClips215

July!


:: summer in the studio ::

Hello! I hope your summer is going well!

:: handmade bookbinding tools, handmade by me ::

I just got back from a two week workshop at Penland School of Crafts in toolmaking for book artists. The workshop was taught by Shanna Leino, who makes beautiful unique handmade books and tools. It was amazing, challenging, fun, and incredibly satisfying to make a set of tools that I will use every day. I made a paring knife for thinning leather, with a blind tooled leather handle and case. Working with leather is incredibly fun, I would love to do more.

Let's see what else, this post is a bit of a catchup post to share projects that may have been overlooked.
I mentioned a few weeks ago about an unusual opportunity, me and my studio were filmed for a commercial. That commercial finally came out and you can see a peak of the Huldra Press shop and desk in the footage. Here's a link to the video on Youtube.


:: I was in a commercial! ::

That was a crazy day. I've also been keeping busy in the studio, making books, cards, working on a collaborative and custom projects, making new little things...


:: books all in a row ::

:: a new design, leather business card holder ::

:: a custom portfolio for a talented photographer, Katrina d'Autremont ::

I got to visit artist Gerard Brown, the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts run by Amanda D'Amico and look at the giant presses and chat with Gerard about his amazing signal flag inspired print in progress.

:: Gerard working on the registration for his offset edition print ::

:: me, photo courtesy Gerard Brown ::

I had a piece in a group show titled Facts and Fictions in New York at Recession Art Gallery. This same print, Red Fire, will be included in the Penland School of Crafts Annual Benefit Auction.

:: a piece in a show in New York! ::

The biggest thing on my mind though has been my upcoming residency in Iceland at Herhusid in Siglufjörður and the Due North exhibit in January. Due North will be an exhibit in conjunction with Philagrafika projects. I've been reading and collecting images, thoughts, ideas, theories, in preparation. One book I read was Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. There was a passage in Arctic Dreams that particularly struck me. where the author observes that the Arctic ecosystem is the youngest ecosystem, the last to develop post Ice Age, and that is why it's unvaried and simple relative to other ecosystems like the jungle. What he posits and what I keep thinking about is his observation that the Arctic ecosystem and landscape as we know it today is the same age as us, modern man. So we are in a way evolving, figuring it out together...


:: Siglufjörður, photo by Andres Thorarinsson::



OPEN STUDIO!




Next weekend I'm going to be opening up my doors as part of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

My studio is located in Northeast Philadelphia at Globe Dye Works, a beautiful old factory building converted into artist's studios. There will be a half dozen or so other exhibiting artists in the building, painters, boat builders, photographers, and more.

If you're live in or happen to be in Philadelphia next weekend, I really hope you can stop and say hello.

I'll have some new work to show you and you can see the new up and running press, type collection, and other neat things. There will also be refreshments.

See you there!

Nostalgia

Today, I kept seeking out images and things from the past. A picture from 1909 a block from where my studio sits today from the wonderful Free Library of Philadelphia archives...




... Those red bordered labels that I use as if they were made of gold.




And the map I scanned today, from the geography text book that belonged to one of my ancestors a long time ago.



The most pleasant surprise was to discover that a company, named Esselte, still makes beautiful, sewn, acid-free ledgers so that, as they say on their site, you can "Be certain that important records stay in tact for a long, long...time!"
Esselte Ledger

That makes me happy, deep down in the cockles of my bookbinding heart.


P.S. I also wanted to say thank you to Ellie of the Mint Design Blog for her lovely feature about Huldra Press, and say hello to some new readers too. Hope you enjoy.

Adventure Adventure

Adventure adventure...both on screen and in real life. Exploration in new lands. That is the theme of today's post.

:: from the Carter Studios website ::

Yesterday, we went to visit my good friends Mike and Jess of Carter Studios. Jess and I were roomies in college. It made me very happy to see them again. They are both incredible designers and artists, working in a variety of materials.

industrialness.

They took us on a tour of their incredible studio/live space in the old Globe Dye Works factory. The place is in the midst of being converted into artist's studios. Very exciting.

On screen, we've been watching hours and hours of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Michael Palin: Pole to Pole. I fondly remember watching Pole to Pole on PBS years ago (I was a huge Monty Python fan in my teen years) and now realize how indebted these newer travel shows like No Reservations are to this classic. They're both guaranteed to make you long for exotic landscapes (the fjords!) and very very hungry.

:: anthony bourdain ::

:: michael palin ::

And what do you need to go on an adventure? A good satchel. I've become smitten with the designs from two etsy shops, Cotton Petal from Scotland and Wooly Bison who makes wonderful bags out of recycled wool clothing. I'm torn between the choice of getting a smaller bag or something that will carry my laptop. Any thoughts?

:: cotton petal ::

:: wooly bison ::

Once I have my satchel, it's off to the fjords for me.