First shipment abroad

Just shipped two books abroad, to the US. From Amsterdam to Nieuw Amsterdam (no idea why they later renamed the place to New York.......).

Hopefully many more books will follow!

For more info, please click here.

The second edition

It took much longer then I had anticipated, but here is the second edition! I am very pleased with them and I am looking forward to contacting the buyers that have waited for so long (sorry).

The fact of the matter is that book making is a craft and it takes a lot of practice. In particular positioning a sheet of glued paper exactly correct proved to be difficult, especially with the long book (Maandagmorgen). But now that I have done it a couple of time (and with the support of Brutus), I am pretty good at it. The next batch will be much much faster.

I will be have a stand on the Pure Markt in Frankendael on the last Sunday of May. Hopefully this edition will be sold out at the end of that day, at the latest. :-)

Woodwork

When you attempt to makes books yourself, it comes in handy if you have some basic tools and a bit of wood lying around.

Based on my experiences with the previous set of books, I decided to improve my rig. Firstly, I made the templates for the drilling out of MDF board again. Previously I used a piece of cardboard, but that's not really durable. It's too easy to drill a little bit next to the intended spot. Secondly, I used higher pieces of wood along the sides. In the attempt before I had a ridge of 1 cm with was barely enough to hold the paper in place. A constant struggle which I do not want to repeat.

I made the setup for the two books at once. To the left the arrow binding for 'Roltrap', to the right the larger holes for 'Maandagmorgen'.

A touch of color in the morning

The graffiti boys and girls have been busy lately; two consecutive trains had sprayed carriages. A nice break from the regular silver and blue......

Piet en Trudy

The below picture is one of 11 of the escalator series exhibited in the Outsider Art Gallery.....



....and that is where they saw themselves, in print, on the wall! How I would have loved to see their faces!

Trudy and Piet fortunately sent me an email and we decided to meet right next door to the Amsterdam Amstel Station. I gave them a print of the picture and in return they kindly posed for me. This time voluntarily......

Spring light

Finally - the days are getting longer. The sun just comes over the buildings at the moment when I am waiting for my train. It gives the nicest light.

Street art in the Platanenweg

These giant pieces of street art are tucked away in a back ally, the part of the Platanenweg facing the railway. I believe the buildings will be demolished in a few years, so admire these paintings while you still can!



Some more street art in Amsterdam is here: www.joco.me/straat-kunst

Perseverance

I often wonder if I shouldn't stop making the pictures on the station. Weeks can go by without a 'keeper'. In particular with the poor light at the moment.

And then all of a sudden an image like this one from last Monday appears on my screen. Well, I had already noticed at the time that this was an opportunity, but it's hard to predict if it actually works out.

Happy with this one, it will keep me going again for a couple of weeks at least.......

A loving 2013.......

......to all.

It's raining again

Finally - I love umbrellas.

A street photographer in action

catch lights

Click on the image for the complete image

Publication in the Z! krant

It is a special thing to see your own pictures in a magazine. So I am really happy with this spread in the Z! Krant.




Click on the image to see the complete spread. The original series is here.

ICE

click for the big picture.

The new Banksy?

Una paloma muerta

(click - with due respect - to enlarge)

Japanese stab binding

A colleague showed me a booklet he made himself using the cahier stitch. This inspired me to do research on book binding techniques. So I discovered Japanese stab binding. Elegance through simplicity.

Yet making a tight book is not that easy (I found out the hard way......). So I adjusted an interesting pattern with arrows to my book's dimensions, made a mold from wood and experimented with the best way to drill holes.

So now I have the first batch of booklets with pictures from the roltrap series (click here for the pics) and the books turned out really nice. Glad they did, as my thumb still hurts from all the stitching.

In case you are interested in one of these books, just drop me an email or visit me tomorrow the 12th of August at the Pure Markt (website) in the Amstelpark.

12 augustus: Pure Markt Amstelpark

Come and join me on Sunday the 12th at the Amstelpark!

Vanillievla

The fly