Prints 8 & 9 are finished

Just before the holidays I finished printing the editions of prints 8 and 9, and I got a good test print of print number 10. This is a good place to take a break and take a few days off. I've come a long way since last December, when the ideas for this project were just starting to percolate. I never imagined then, that it would grow into such a big project that would take me longer than a year to complete. But, as we say in German, "Gut Ding braucht Weil" (good things take time). 

Text Pages

Earlier this week I got the English text pages digitally printed at Martha Street Studio. They turned out beautifully! A shout-out to the wonderful graphic designers Thomas Neutze and Gabriele Rudolph in Germany for the beautiful text design and for your patience to polish and shine all the small details until everything was just right. We opted to print the text excerpts in subtle colour. The excerpts of Indigenous voices are printed in greyish blue, resembling the blue figures in the prints. The excerpts of Mennonite voices are printed in terracotta red, the colour that represents colonial elements in the prints. The excerpts of the Anglican missionary voices are printed in dark grey, again, like the figures in the prints. I'm very happy with the choice to print the text in colour, as it provides a visual thread and orientation guide to the different voices. The font for the headings is Berlin and the text font is Utopia. Printed on German Etching paper. Paper size is 24"x24'. (Text Detail below. I can't for the life of me photograph a white sheet of paper properly). 

Printing Days II

For the past month I've been printing in the studio like a maniac every morning while my dear husband takes care of our little M. (M. turned two last week, so there was another milestone reached!) I am pleased to share that I have finished seven of the twelve prints (Yeay! More than half way done!) and three more will be done in the next week or two. (Gah! Two prints I still have to figure out what to do with...but I have a few ideas that I think might work). Some of my prints have between ten to twenty different plates printed on them, so it always takes a while to get them printed since I can only print one or two layers per day to prevent the ink from offsetting too much. 

Today I also ordered the custom made museum cases that will contain my artist book and I will head to Martha Street Studio in a bit to get the English text printed. I'm excited! It is so satisfying when a project nears its completion and things are coming together. 

Beautiful Details

I've been printing so much in the last few weeks and it gives me so much satisfaction to see the prints coming together. While the content of this body of work is rather heavy, it still gives me great pleasure and joy to look at the intricate little interactions between the different layers of ink on the paper every time I lift the paper. Here are some of my favourite moments from the past week in pictures.