Recent Acquisitions

Recent acquisitions from the used bookstore. A vintage issue of Exposure, the journal of the Society for Photographic Education. The theme of the issue is photo-offset printing and included a portfolio section.

 :: todd walker ::

 :: scott hyde ::

:: cover ::

A beautiful little bound copy of the Life of Tom Horn. Steve McQueen read the story of Tom Horn and felt a strong personal connection to Horn, a loner and one of the last of his kind in the disappearing Old West. His film Tom Horn is one of my favorites. 

I love the scale and feel of this book. I have been working on an edition myself and am now thinking I might downsize it to a more handheld size. 

 :: cover ::

 :: title page ::

Guests and Projects

I had a guest at the studio last week, the great Kevin Mercer of Large Mammal fame. He brought some gifts, which was very much appreciated and a super cool thing to do. We had a great talk about printmaking and art making in general and even did a little bit of collaborating, which there will be more info about soon. But for now, I just wanted to say...Thank you, Kevin, that was really fun.

 :: gifts! ::

 I also had the chance last week to make a couple of prints.

One for my own amusement,

 :: TVC15 ::

And one as part of a larger body of work. This one is titled Scythian. Letterpress on cotton paper.

 :: Scythian ::

I've also been digging around into my old work because I'm starting a project that will incorporate old writings, and I found some work from 2004. I was so happy to see this work again and to see how much I've changed and yet there is a strong narrative that runs through it all.

:: Untitled, photographic work from 2004 ::

Neighbors and Books

I went to Delaware yesterday to drop off some work for a show, "Neighbors" at Project Space.
Wilmington, DE. This group show is an eclectic group of artists, who have all been neighbors at one time or another. I feel very lucky to be part of this show, which includes the work of Catherine Maloney, Ruth Ansel, and Sutton Hays.

If you are in the neighborhood, the opening details are:

Neighbors
Project Space
2003 West 17th Street
Wilmington, DE 19806
Friday, February 1st 5pm to 8pm

Should be a great show.

While I was there, I went to the thrift store and found this treasure. 

:: mushrooms and magic, yes please ::

 :: title page with sweet little mushroom drawings ::

:: I see russulas, morels, boletes, and more! ::

I also went to my parent's house and dug out a few of my own children's books, I'll be posting more of them later. This one is Rocks and Gems. I remember looking at it many times.

 :: I love that little earth core slice ::

 :: rocks and gems ::




The Iceland Book

Making progress on the design for my new book. I've spent the last month doing sketches of sorts. Little pictographic drawings, imaginary maps, experimental prints, etc. to get a feel for what I want the look and feel of the book to be. It's getting there.

The inspiration for the book is Iceland. New worlds. Far travel. That's all I'll say for now.

 :: drawings ::

This will be the first time I've digitally designed a book before letterpress printing it. The editions I've made before this have been handset and the imagery hand-carved or manually produced some other way. This book will include many drawings, but I wanted to incorporate photo imagery and to use a typeface that is not available in metal. So InDesign it is.

:: first draft - computer printout ::

I finished my first draft and printed it on a laserjet to get a feel for the scale. Boy does it look different than on screen! 

Everything needs tweaking...


:: first draft - computer print out ::

I've wanted to go to north for years, since I read Bulfinch's Mythology and of The Hyperborea, the land beyond the Northern Wind. I know this book will bring me there, in some way, shape, or form.  

:: Islande ::

New Year, New Projects

I have a new print available for sale now on my website, titled Small Fires. The composition is set using wood and metal type (no polymer plates). It's inspired by pictographs from arctic cultures.

This print is also a part of my design process for the new book I'm working on, which is about my personal mythology of the north, an idea I started back in the summer and mentioned here. I'm excited to finally be working on the design and writing of the book in earnest now, my sense of purpose renewed.

:: Small Fires, Letterpress, 2012 ::

 :: detail ::

 :: detail ::

Available here

For Sale!


All these things are available for sale, and if you hurry, it can be there in time for the holidays! Just visit my Huldra Press Etsy Shop. There's more too! More cards, more books, more prints...

 :: Handmade Leather Pocket Journal ::

:: Letterpress Card ::

 :: Handmade Leather Pocket Journal ::

:: Letterpress Card ::
 :: Handmade Leather Pocket Journal ::

 :: Letterpress Notebook ::

To the Huldra Press Etsy Shop!

The Mushroom Collector

I made this book recently and am very happy with how it turned out. I like the icy blue bookcloth. It's called The Mushroom Collector. It's available here, on etsy. 

:: vintage book illustration of mushrooms ::

:: cover ::

 :: vintage nature photograph of a beaver on a library card holder ::

 :: 100% cotton paper ::

 :: top of the book, light orange headband ::



It's Time for Crafty Balboa!


Yes, it's time to buy handmade for the holidays and the best place to do that is at Crafty Balboa!

:: I'll be there, for all you book and letterpress needs ::

::there will be books! ::

So if you're looking for the perfect gift for the guys or the ladies, please come visit! I'll have a selection of letterpress prints, cards and one-of-a-kind books. Thank you and see you there!

It works.

Today, I printed on my Vandercook. After many months of fixing, tweaking, searching for parts, getting bad parts, returning parts, etc...it finally works. It works. It really works. And I feel really good about that.

:: pretty pretty vandercook ::

 :: and I looked at my sketchbook ::

 Last weekend, I spent the weekend in Silver Springs, MD at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair, which was great and inspiring and super fun thanks to my coworkers.

:: common press ::

:: our table looked so good! ::

Chymia

This is where I've been hiding for the last month, in this book!

This beautiful book is a collaboration between my coworkers and I at The Common Press. 



Chymia, a collaborative Common Book designed and printed by Marc Blumthal, Marianne Dages, Matt Neff, Ivanco Talevski, and Tricia Treacy at The Common Press in 2012. A limited set of letterpress prints using original blocks from the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library’s Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection accompanies each edition.


:: letterpress portfolio of original blocks from the collection ::

 We will be debuting this book at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair this weekend in Silver Springs, MD. Please come and say hello!



:: slipcase, book, and portfolio, binding design by Marianne Dages ::


:: silkscreen endsheets by Marc Blumthal ::


 :: left, silkscreen by Matt Neff, right, letterpress by Marianne Dages ::


 :: letterpress by me, Marianne Dages ::


:: etching by Ivanco Talevski ::


:: silkscreen by Marc Blumthal ::


:: silkscreen by Matt Neff ::


:: letterpress by Tricia Treacy ::


Connection Daemon

The text of this print was generated using free translation software, feeding the program my written text and translating it into different languages multiple times. The repeated translation creates a "telephone line" effect, that produces a reinvention of my text along with spontaneous new content,  like a story told over time.

Error.Output.Quiet.Clear.Forget

Connection Daemon, letterpress, screenprint, and Risograph by Huldra Press

 :: close up of the letterpress text ::

:: poem text, also letterpress ::

A coffer full of words

:: A coffer full of words, 2012, Huldra Press ::

This new print was printed on the Risograph at The Common Press. I hope you like it. I'm very excited about the direction my new work has been taking and hopefully will have more to show you soon. I am also posting now at my new tumblr page, Tiger Feathers, which is about the things I think about. I'm going to keep posting here to show you new work and talk about the studio as well.