From Stable to Pressroom

 

Cattle stable in January 2016

When we first came to this place the stable had been disused for at least 15 years. The cattle had moved out, the floor and cesspit had been cleaned. The floor was made of red bricks, there was an old wheelbarrow, a fork, a broom. Cobwebbs. Saltpeter. Drinking troughs.

Saltpeter

Stable outside January 2016

That was where we started in the summer of 2016.

The old oak beams had to go and with them the attached pipes and drinking troughs. The screws were rusted in, the oak beams fitted perfectly and were pretty hard to get out.

Oak beams

The floor was made with red bricks neatly laid out in a bed of sand. Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow the bricks went out on a huge pile outside. Many of them now rest in the wall of a raised bed for our herbs.

Red bricks and a drinking trough still in place

First bricks taken out of the floor and a drinking trough still in place

More bricks to go

The floor would keep us going for quite some time. All the bricks had to go. Then there was the cesspit. There was a fair amount of water in there which had to be pumped up. It went on to the compost heaps. The cesspit itself got filled with rubble and sand.

One part of brick floor done

Once the last of the oak beans had gone the rest of the bricks was easier to remove.

The sand could be roughly leveled out and the wooden doors went.

The next step would be the windows. The old simple stable windows had to make way for new ones. We decided to have long narrow windows and keep the shoulder in the wall at the bottom of the windows.

Adjusting the windows

And then came the day when things really happened: the concrete for the floor went in.

Concrete delivery

The room had changed already.

With windows

The concrete had dried and solidified. Now the new windows went in. To the right there are still the glass bricks in place. These would go at a later point to be replaced by proper windows.

With heating

Once the plaster work was finished the heating could go in.

The painters with the last touches

The painters finished in mid January 2017. Three doors had been taken out and bricked up, one door needed to become wider. The windows went in and a short ramp had to be built at the entrance. We got the all clear to move in presses and type.

First press to move in

And we gladly started shoving it all in. In October the presses and type cabinets had arrived on an articulated lorry. They had been sitting in the barn and a side room waiting for better times to come.

These buckets and machinery got snowed in. At this time none of it was needed anymore.

The studio has almost moved in. The date for the opening is set for 31 March to 2 April.

The studio will be re-born with a new name. One of the images that stuck with me right from the start was a fork and a broom on the stable’s lovely brick floor. The new name of my studio is: The Fork and Broom Press. There is a new website too. Just klick on the new name here.

As I write this a little owl is calling to make sure the place is his. The tulips are growing and the daffodils are showing first small buds. Spring is round the corner. The daisies have already opened their first flowers. A pheasant made our meadows his the other day. He was striding the place during a downpour and he got soaked.

Pheasant

Movable Type.

 

Movable type

Movable type

Moving tons of metal type and printing presses is a hard job to do, no matter what time of the year. However, there was one thing I absolutely did not fancy: having to move my type and presses during the winter months. When in August I realised that all the type cabinets might fit into our barn for short time storage, I considered moving the lot during October. The printroom is still far from being finished, but it might be ready to use some time in December. Having all the printing gear at hand, would mean it can go in there the moment the paint on the walls has dried. Dates were fixed and time went quickly. Add to this: it went cold.

Memphis

Memphis

 

First cabinets on pallets

First cabinets on pallets

I drove south again on 10 October. I had just about one week to shove all the type cabinets on to palettes and thus get them ready for transport. The articulated lorry would come to pick it all up on 18 October. Packing up stuff is a peculiar job. Each piece you pick up, shove around, wrap in bubble foil and strap to a palette comes with its very own story, be it long or short. Some of those stories you had forgotten about, others you all of a sudden realise you had not even been aware of.

movable-type-hands

I have a small number of oversized type cases. In German they are called „Brotschriftkasten“, which literally means case of bread type. The reason for this was: the larger cases held more type specimens and were used to compose long texts. It was these cases that helped the printing office make its core income, hence the name bread type: the type that payed for the bread. I kept one of these cases, housing a rather old and worn type, sitting on top of one of my older type cabinets. Normally the cabinets would have been made of beech wood. This one was made of fir or spruce and it looks rather bashed-up. My landlord helped me lifting the case off of the cabinet and place it on another to be strapped in for transport. Only when I started taking the cases out of the old cabinet I became aware of a label that was pasted on to the wood. It was an old rail transportation label stating that this piece of furniture had been on its way from the main station in Stuttgart to its destination on 12 April 1928.

movable-type-cabinets-03

This cabinet was travelling in the times of the Weimar Republic, when Kurt Tucholsky was still alive and writing, a decade before the start of WW2. It reminded me of meeting a printer once at a fair. He was running his own printing office which had been a family business for at least three generations, perhaps more. Both, his father and grandfather had seen all their type taken away more than once by the military during war times – to be made into ammunition. I could almost feel his disgust about such an utterly savage act. Type was the medium that had made possible and helped spread education, knowledge and understanding. With printed books and leaflets people could learn each others languages, could descry other peoples‘ culture and art and customs and recipes. Metal type was a means of understanding, a means of crossing borders and connecting people. „This is a printing office, crossroads of civilization, refugee of all the arts against the ravages of time …“ You can almost hear Beatrice Warde’s words (dating back to 1932) ringing in your ears. You can hardly imagine anything worse than turning metal type into ammunition to kill off people. Nevertheless, it has been done again and again.

Where The Red Poppies Dance

Where The Red Poppies Dance

Another of my very old cabinets is the one housing the small family of Trajanus, the fount I used for my artist’s book „Where the Red Poppies Dance“. It is the type of cabinet that comes with four oversized cases plus ten normal size cases and ten narrow cases for larger type. On the Sunday my dear friend Ivonne came to help me all day. A more than heartfelt thankyou goes to her. It is totally her credits that I managed to have all cabinets ready for transport by the following Monday evening. I would not have been able to achieve this without her tireless effort. We took out the large cases and discovered a nest neatly made by one of my furry visitors. What a thoughtful choice! Trajanus is one of my favourite founts and here we were: The specimens of the 9 point lower case ‚d‘ had been snuggled into a neat and cosy looking circle and cushioned with little snippets of paper – part of which had been labels in another of the cases, containing ornaments. But there was still more to come.

Somebody made themselves at home in Trajanus type

Somebody made themselves at home in Trajanus type

When we started to take out the cases in one of the other cabinets, the meanwhile homeless mouse was sitting there staring at us. It had started building itself a new nest on the floor beneath the lowest case. It was a very beautiful mouse, though, with a nice long tail and lovely spherical black eyes. We tried to catch it but with no avail. It took flight and appeard to have vanished. In this place I’ve seen a number of furry visitors and feathery ones, too. Normally I was able to return them into the wild where they belong and are happy. I have no idea what happened to this one. It might have taken its chance to travel to a new place. If so, I’m sure it will love our barn and not regret its decision to cling on. That is, at least until its first encounter with one of the martens that live here, or for that matter our neighbour’s cat.

movable-type-wine-luck

I should have known, but it still came as a surprise that there were so many cases so heavy weight. A few of them were the ones coming with Baskerville. In my first couple of years we were given the opportunity to use a colleagues Monotype caster to cast our own type. We chose to cast 10 point Baskerville. And we decided to cast more than normal, to make it our bread type, so to speak. But there were other cases full to the brim, too.

movable-type-cabinets-04

During this one week I was taking out each type case from each cabinet and putting it back in after the cabinet sat firmly on its palette. I saw them all once again. The ones that I have used often and the ones I always wanted to use and up to now never found a suitable project for. I saw all the ornaments, decoration, borders and clichés. I cut up my old worn needle felt carpet from the floor to use it as padding in the cases.

Old carpet as padding

Old carpet as padding

On one day I came across two cases that were amongst the first I had bought. The owner had been a photographer, running his own shop and, in a way, publishing house. He produced a number of series of postcards. One edition pictured locations where hill walkers and hikers would go to, particularly the pubs or snack bars there. The other edition was of famous people of the time, singers and actors mostly. He would take the photographs produce the prints from them and then print a small text on the back of the postcard. The text would either be the name and details of the person or the place and elavation of the location depicted. He also produced autograph cards that would be signed by the singer/actor.

movable-type-stars

Since he was neither a printer nor a composer he used his type in a somewhat unorthodox way. He compsed the text, printed it and kept it for using it again. Basically this is what printers would have done. But a printer or composer would not have used cellotape to keep the set type together. He did so, with the effect that over the years the glue became somewhat half-solid and almost un-removable.

movable-type-cabinets02

Add to this, while keeping all his old text bits, he gradually ran out of type. He must have kept ordering more over the years or decades, but at some point the type he had started off with would be out of stock at the foundry, or given a re-design. Quite obviously he decided to take one similar to the one he had putting it in with the rest of the old. After so many years he ended up with at least three or four different sorts of 8 point type in one case. We had tried to sort it, but given up on it. There was no way of ever working reasonably with type like this. I had kept these cases solely for the reason that they were amongst my first. I saw clearly that this was the moment they would go to the scrap metal merchant. Back then I had bought two cabinets from his stock, one of which was a smaller, almost delicate nice little furniture. However, the photographer being a smoker and handling chemicals obviously at the same time, there must have been an explosion of some sort on the cabinet and you can still see the spill of the blast.

The evening prior to loading

The evening prior to loading

 

Proofing press on forklift truck

Proofing press on forklift truck

So many stories. Still far from all being told. On Tuesday 18 October early afternoon the articulated lorry reversed back into the yard and parked in front of my old studio’s doors. A forklift truck packed the cabinets and presses one by one on to the truck, which was said to measure 22 metres in length. We agreed to meet again Thursday 8.30am.

Type cabinets safely arrived at their new home

Type cabinets safely arrived at their new home

I was on my way back all Wednesday covering 560 kilometres to our new home, hoping all would be fine. On Thursday the truck was late, stuck in a traffic jam. It got to our new place in Westphalia just after 11am. While the forklift truck was unloading the cabinets and presses it started to drizzle, but never rained. We just so managed to pack almost all cabinets into the barn. Three of them had to go inside with the two proofing presses. There has been no frost so far.

The old place: almost cleared

The old place: almost cleared

As I write this it is cold outside with the occasional shower. Earlier today I have put protective foil to the windows in the printroom-to-be. Tomorrow the plasterwork on the inside walls will start. A number of young shrubs and bushes are waiting to be planted where our garden is going to be. However, I won’t be able to stay that long – the last odds and ends will have to be collected at the old place – this coming weekend.

Autumn evening at the old place in October

Autumn evening at the old place in October

My Workplace 2004-2015

 

Korrex Hannover

Korrex Hannover

The place where I have been working all those past eleven years is currently in a sleeper mode. It sits in waiting for me to come and get all the presses, the type racks and type, the paper stock, the bookbinding presses, tables, tools, ink tins, brushes, jars of pigments and all the odds & ends that make up a book artist’s workplace. I’ve got to be patient. We need to find a new place to fit everything in fit for working. So this seems to be the perfect moment to look back thinking of what it was like to move in here and work here on a daily basis, designing art work, cutting blocks, setting type, printing sheets, binding books.

52 Weeks -  Photo-Artist's-Book in collaboration with Marianne Midelburg (AUS)

52 Weeks – Photo-Artist’s-Book in collaboration with Marianne Midelburg (AUS)

I moved in here in February 2004. Back then everything was new and dusty and the walls were bare. We set out to paint them white. I cannot recall just how many buckets of wall paint we ended up needing. Again and again we went to get another one or two. We were lucky in that there was hardly any snow that winter once we started moving press & type. With the help of dozens of friends we managed to have all in place right in time before the opening in March. Our late friend Harald Goldhahn (Harry Hirsch he called himself) came to play us his wonderful Blues. In the previous year he’d asked me to print the sheets for the booklet for his new CD „God Moves on the Water“. Visitors were squeezing in. The whole place was buzzing with life and Harry’s songs until after midnight.

Booklet and CD "God Moves on the Water"

Booklet and CD „God Moves on the Water“

 

The artist at her press

The artist at her press

I had bought my first proofing press back in 1998. It is a 1956 Korrex „Hannover Hand“ with a printing size of 50 x 70 cms; all hand operated, cylinder as well as rollers. The rollers were a bit worn and one of the spindles was slightly bent. For years I could not afford to have them fixed, so until far into 2006 all inking had to be done by using hand rollers.

Tita (1992-2006)

Tita (1992-2006)

Two years after I had moved in we had to say Farewell to our good old dog Tita aged 14. She had been a true and brave companion for more than 12 years. When we went to collect metal type from somewhere, she’d guard the cases piled up in the van by making herself comfortable right on top of the pile. And she’d look all impressive up there.

Metal type: Unger

Metal type: Unger

Alphabet card: Unger

Alphabet card: Unger

Over the years the stock of founts grew. I had started off with one case of Victor Hammer’s Uncial. By now I can choose from some 100 founts of metal or wood type. There is a good choice of ornaments, too. In 2012 I decided to print all my founts as alphabets on cards. It took far longer than expected.

Ornaments

Ornaments

Ornaments: Christmas

Ornaments: Christmas

The type came from all sorts of places: printing offices that had kept it but now needed the space for new machinery, trained composers who had saved some type on retirement, schools giving up on printing. Each and all of the cases came with their own story.

Tools and add-ons

Tools and add-ons

composing-tools

Some came with the most fascinating of tools, with a handful of composing sticks and awls, or with a pile of old tins with ink. Basically, half of the place is filled with presses and type racks, including three platen presses, one of which is an Adana 8×5.

Adana

Adana

prints-drying

Prints can be hung up for drying or left in a metal drying rack. In 2010 a second proofing press completed the team. This one is a mid-1960s Grafix press, its cylinder still hand operated but the rollers motorised. It is slightly smaller in printing size but very smart to work with.

Grafix proofing press

Grafix proofing press

 

Woodblock

Woodblock

Linocutting

Linocutting

The rest of the studio houses the area for cutting blocks from lino or wood, the paper stock and all that is needed for binding books.

Bookbinding

Bookbinding

Board shear

Board shear

I had been luckky to find an affordable board shear in 1999. It might be the eldest tool in the studio being over 100 years of age. It is somewhat special in that it is fitted with a wooden worktable. I have been to a number of bookbinding workshops, basically between 1998 and 2005. I learned a variety of techniques including how to prepare inks and dyes.

Bindings

Experimenting with Binding Techniques

Calligraphy

Calligraphy

For a few years I was given the opportunity to learn Chinese Calligraphy from a Chinese teacher, until she left for going back to China. I consider myself extremely lucky for this wonderful chance to widen my horizon.

brushes

Repeatedly I have used my own dyes prepared from soil pigments to paint sheets prior to printing for both books and broad sides.

from the series "Soil Letters"

from the series „Soil Letters“

Since the late 1970s I have been into photography. I got started with some very simple camera, at one point was given my parents‘ old Contaflex with a separate photometer, and finally had my own Nikon FM camera. I have changed over to a digital one a couple of years ago.

Contaflex and photometer

Contaflex and photometer

Over the past eleven years I haven been making quite a number of prints and books here. There have been Open-Studio events at least on a once-a-year basis, often one in summer and one in winter. Many people have come and seen the place. Some have taken the chance to have a go at the old proofing press and print a sheet with their own hands feeling the wheel and cylinder move. Some came and gave me their last case of metal type, covered in sheets of dust from having been down in the basement for decades untouched. Some have told me the stories of their working lives in printing offices. I have had a stunning scenery lying just beyond my studio’s windows. Almost everybody was blown away by it when visiting me. Next step for me will be to get the studio ready for shipping once we found a new place fit for working in.
(Plans to enlarge the industrial area haven been more or less approved, so there will be substantial changes to the scenery here in the near future.)

July 2012 - outside the studio's windows

July 2012 – outside the studio’s windows

 

 

My Workplace

 

Among the objects of cultural value, mutually exchanged between the nations, next to artillery shells come books.“ Kurt Tucholsky, 1931

 

scenery-feb-DSCO1143

My studio is situated in a rural area. Almost everybody visiting me falls for the view through the back windows. These windows are large and face east. Since I moved in here in 2004 I have seen many breathtaking sunrises and thunderstorms, I have been watching the local pair of Red Kites circling the sky for prey. I saw the farmers plant rapeseed after maize after barley and I watched snippets of golden straw dancing in the wind after the fields had been harvested. I have seen people of all ages walk their dogs of all breeds and mixtures. I have seen downpours and whiteouts, crimson coloured full moons rising and whitefrost making the scenery look totally unreal. But first of all I have been doing my work here: cutting wood blocks, printing metal type, folding sheets of paper, binding books.

compositors-tools-DSD_4123

My first proofing press is 100% hand driven: it is a 1956 built Korrex Hannover I bought in late 1998. It printed most of my books, the first one in 2001 by the title „Little Niak“, which has sold out some years ago. The photo shows me inking the rollers.

work-proofingpress-_MG_6082
Image by Fabian Schroebel, 2011

proofing-press-DSD_7777

In 2010 I moved around most of the type racks to make space for a second proofing press. It is a 1964 built Grafix press on which the rollers are motorised, so to speak, but the cylinder is hand moved. On this press I printed my two recent books „Cumbria“ and „52 Weeks“.

woodcut-block-DSD_5177

Friend you stand on sacred ground, this is a printing office.“ Beatrice Ward, 1932

trajanus-proof-DSD_8787

I have some 100 type founts on stock from which I can choose, mainly metal, some wood type. They are stored in racks of very different ages, some rather old and worn. There is also a fair share of ornaments and lines for printing and some quite sophisticated tools.

metaltype-goround-DSD_3030

metal-ornaments-DSC_0806

work-typecase-_MG_6254
Image by Fabian Schroebel, 2011

From the total of 15 books I have made so far, 10 have been made here at this workplace. Apart from books I print broadsides, woodcuts and linoprints. Texts are being handset from metal or wood type. Next to the presses the board shear is one of the most needed helpers.

boardshear-DSD_8639

With binding books an XXL working table comes in handy especially for folding large sheets.

work-folding-GDSCN8434

prints-drying-DSD_0718

And a space for drying prints hot off the press is needed. There is also an Adana platen press which I use for printing labels and invitation cards for events in the studio.

adana-DSD_8809

Occasionally there is an Open Studio and everybody is welcome to come and be fascinated. Sometimes I show how the presses work or binding is done. During the studio’s 10th anniversary in 2009 people could have a go at inking a linocut and printing it themselves with the old proofing press.

artist-2009-P1020778
Image by Denny Boehm, 2009

 

metaltype-bk2010-DSCO5076

If you are into metal type you might want to have a look at my webspace. Most of my metal type is listed there together with the names of the respective type designers. There is one website in English and one in German.

scenery-sep-DSD_8779

This is what the scenery east of my studio looks like in early autumn. The mountain is „Hohenstaufen“. The village is called „Wäschenbeuren“, some 50 kilometers east of Stuttgart, in the southwest of Germany.