A day out on the Thames

My surprise find of fossil sea-urchin. St Paul’s Cathedral and the Millennium bridge in the background

Thames swans ( they all belong to the King, technically, as an old rule says he’s the only one allowed to eat them. ) Pigeons also and a few black headed gulls. Blackfriars bridge in the background. What you can see is actually the train station platform windows

Looking back from those windows, you can see the banks of the Thames along Southbank, and the little bit of beach where I found the fossil. Further along is the Tate Modern Gallery

And a wider view from the station window at Blackfriars. Sitting on the bench waiting for my train home, I could hear the waves of the Thames crashing beneath me as the tide came in.

I loved her so much

My contribution to Margin Releases

A few years ago, I started making a piece of typewriter art. I am so grateful to the editors of the final edition of Cold Hard Type for selecting that work for inclusion in Margin Releases. It feels like the perfect place for the artwork after years of not being able to decide how to get the pieces out into the world.

I don’t want to give too much away, because I hope that people will buy the book and enjoy all the contributions fresh, with no big spoilers.

And so I will just share some photos of the machine I used to make the artworks.

The machine itself became part of the artwork.

The week I acquired this machine, I received the results of my dna ancestry test. The results, showing that I have European Jewish ancestry contributed to my desire to make the artwork.

Insurgency: operation postcard art hijack

There is a big stack of these postcards on my local train station book swap shelf. If you leave things out for free, anything might happen.

Treasure in Bexhill

£20

(The woman at the till was so pleased that I was buying the typewriter. She told me she had taken a Pitman’s typing course, many years ago, and had struggled on a “big old huge thing” )

Edit: the hashtag is hard to find on typewriters in the U.K. I realise some readers might be confused about why I was so happy with the typeset!

Over breakfast this morning I discovered a thing…

Which is the odd one out?

Chess!

The original notation was slighty messy

Yes, I went out and picked up that set after typing the pages for this post. How can you resist the sight of these knights?!

On the Thames

My first zip on the cable cars yesterday. I do not have a head for heights so taking photos was a good distraction.

Getting my land legs back along Southbank, we met these guys. It was so good to see poets with typewriters again. I asked for a poem, and received a lovey response.

I love the fact that the word “unbroken” is the only word here with a typo. The poets blog included here at the top of the image 🙂

Variations

Cover design 1 in progress. Gold foil on maroon book cloth

Cover design 2. Ink on grey book cloth

Cover design 3. Silver foil on midnight blue book cloth

Jacket-slip typed on Smith-Corona Classic 12 6cpi

Pretty satisfied with the way this project has turned out. Now on to the next!

Printing without a press

This is the first test this evening of a bookplate design. A lino cut of my Underwood 5, and text printed by hand using some type I bought off eBay a few years ago. I made the text block by clamping the letters and spaces together with duck tape. I’m using oil based block printing ink, and rubbing the back of the paper with a bone letter opener. The text block is simply stamped on by hand. I do love making things completely by hand. Don’t let the lack of a printing press stop you from making prints at home.