The Studio in 2000

A printing office in the region of Allgäu near the German parts of the Alps needs to get rid of part of its letterpress equipment including metal type. The town is just a one and a half hour’s car drive away from where the studio is. I spend one day sorting the metal type from various cabinets into the ones …

The Studio in 1999

The 20th century is on its last legs and nearing its end. Letterpress printing using movable type came into use proper by the end of the 15th century – greatly helped by Johannes Gutenberg. During the 1970s it quickly lost its dominance. New printing techniques were quicker, did not need as much space and would involve less staff. Being able …

25 Years of Printmaking: How it all began

Probably this way: At the end of the 1970s I bought a camera, a Nikon FM. A tough tool, for proper work. No automatic functions. It‘ll accompany me for more than 30 years: on Scottisch peat bogs, on Swedish glaciers, in the primeval forests of Poland, while touring England – the camera would be my robust sketch book always, wherever. …

Mind the gap, and welcome to the journey!

In the years of my childhood and youth I just loved trains. When I was little we lived in Aachen and I insisted to go and see the steam trains. On Sundays we‘d head for the station and watch the powerful locomotives do their work, reversing out – it was a terminal station. When I was 5, I asked Santa …

Podcast „Craft meets Culture“

„Crafts meets Culture“ is a joined projekt of the districts of Herford and Minden-Lübbecke – sponsored by Northrhine-Westphalia. Cultural coordinators currently are Niklas Bengtsson (for Herford) and Daniela Daus (für Minden-Lübbecke). Contributions and details can be found on the respective website at: https://www.muehlenkreis.de/Kultur-Projekte/HANDWERK-TRIFFT-KULTUR/?&La=1 One main topic within this project currently is why and how joung people take up old crafts. …

Journeywoman Almuth at The Fork and Broom Press

Almuth Koch has been staying as a journey woman for a stretch of two weeks. It was the third placement on her journey. The idea was to produce a series of small pamphlet stitch brochures each coming with one poem and a linocut. All would be the same size but the pages inside woud be different kinds of foldings, and …

„Journeyman Years“ in Letterpress

The journeyman years (Wanderjahre) is a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. After completing their apprenticeship craftsmen went on a journey of working lasting three years and one day. This way of additional training was widespread in crafts like roofing and carpentery but also in the visual arts like masonry, painting and in goldsmiths. These artistic jounrmeymen made a …