9 March 2024
The binding of For Dust I Am, a beautiful little poem book—written, designed, typeset, printed, and bound by my 18 year-old daughter during her final year of high school as an independent study (under my tutelage)—is nearly complete. For Dust I Am will be published on 31 March 2024.
Pre-order now to reserve one of 44 copies at a 40% discount ($90).
26 January 2024
Understanding This Book is now available for purchase through Etsy.
The focus of activity for the past month in the Klubhaus has been redistributing all the type from previously printed book projects, and coaching my daughter through making a book for one of her poems as an independent study during her final semester of high school. Next order(s) of business are completing Hail, Holy Queen and getting started with the design and creation of book(s) for new poems by the masterful and previously published David Steingass.
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27 December 2023
The second trip to England for the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair is now in the rear view mirror, and Understanding This Book is completed and published, with a few copies sold and a few remaining for sale. Projects moving to the front burner are a tiny rosary prayer book illustrated with a collage featuring drawings by JoAnna Poehlmann (to be finished by Mother’s Day 2024), new poems by David Steingass and Just My Type (with the goal of finishing both before the next trip to Oxford in 2025).
29 November 2023
The Oxford Fine Press Book Fair is fast approaching—the 9th and 10th of December, yes 2023—and it has been nothing but totally mental in the Klubhaus trying to complete Understanding This Book before it is time to leave the driftless countryside for merry old England next week.
With the surprise early date (thought it would be in March 2024), cemetery season closed ten days early so I could begin finishing (yes, begin finishing) setting the remainder of the type for this spontaneous book project, print it, and bind it within one month.
The endeavor to stand up every last sort from nine California job cases of Franklin Gothic for cleaning and printing wrapped up on 15 November, and a six-day printing schedule, all of which carried on late into the evenings, ended just before guests arrived at home for the Thanksgiving holiday. As of this typing, the covers are not yet printed, but it seems reasonable to believe the project can all be completed with maybe a day to spare. Yes, maybe a day to spare. You can read more about it here.
4 June 2023
OPEN STUDIO DAY 2. It was nice to meet and talk with so many interesting people yesterday and am looking forward to another day of the same.
I regret not having any paper out for people to leave names and contact information. If you were a guest on Saturday and would like to remain in touch with updates or casual correspondence, please contact me. Thank you.
31 May 2023
OPEN STUDIO! The Heavy Duty Press will be participating in the Winding Roads Art Tour, Saturday & Sunday, 3-4 June 2023. Stop by 10am-5pm to visit and see things in progress.
Thank you for waiting so patiently for this update. Winter passed with less productivity than anticipated, but the ball is rolling on a few new projects. The first is a small accordion book featuring the prayers of the rosary, and a collage of drawings by JoAnna Poehlmann and bird stamps from her personal collection. The second project came by surprise after beginning to work with the Franklin Gothic type on a new broadside (project temporarily abandoned). After finding the type miserably dirty and frustrating to set, the process of emptying and cleaning several cases of type began, which led to a press bed full of clean type, and the inability to resist the desire to print it, followed by the vision of the proofs of clean type as page spreads, followed by the idea to make a book about the process of cleaning type and type cases and a celebration of Franklin Gothic. And perhaps this is why productivity seemed so low, as if it became a winter of shop maintenance…and then came the announcement that the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair, expected to be in March 2024, has been moved up to early December 2023. Plenty to do before then in order to have new work to show in Oxford at the end of the year.
There is one new broadside from this past winter, at least…the Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. Copies are for sale via Etsy and the Viroqua Public Market.
22 March 2022
The Oxford adventure lived up to everything I had hoped it would be, and more. Made a few sales, met a few people, and received an award for the Jerome K. Jerome print. A full report will be posted at a later date. I tested positive for COVID-19 the Saturday of my return to “normal life,” and ten days of quarantine provided time write a solid back story for the new 8t Bags book, and a much more thorough About page. Cheers!
27 February 2022
Reporting from Sudbury, Ontario: 44 copies of 8t Bags About The Natural World are bound and covered, ready to pack in the carry-on for the debut trip of The Heavy Duty Press to the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair in jolly England this coming weekend.
20 January 2022
About 3 weeks into the post-Christmas creative season, and work is progressing nicely in the Klubhaus. All type is set for the evolving 8t Bags book project, the annotation numbers have been added to The Pleiades miniature broadside (not posted here or for sale yet), and the first impressions of black ink have been printed on the Jerome K. Jerome broadsides. Hopes are that there will be enough time to finish 8t Bags and Jerome broadsides before crossing the Atlantic for the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair in March.
24 March 2021
It has been a good winter. After three years dedicated to the Typesetting on a Winter’s Afternoon project, home improvement projects and general organization of everything took top priority through January, leaving a little over a month to work on creative projects. The Les Cocobopros project is done. Many copies remain available for sale.
In the United States, things are looking promising regarding the virus, but we also know that this is a pandemic, and other countries may still be struggling to get it under control, and the virus mutates. Please do your best to take good care of yourself, and your neighbors, whatever that means to you.
16 April 2020
Working/playing in Der Klubhaus on Les Cocobopros, a suite of five collaborative collage book projects. Intended to have it done in time to show at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair in England at the end of March, but no, COVID-19 forced a postponement until late November. Also printed a few new broadsides to take to the fair, along with copies of last year’s Typesetting on a Winter’s Afternoon.
Please take good care of yourself, and keep your distance accordingly. Peace and love be with you during this difficult and transitional time.