Annual New Year card

Each year I like to make a special card to send to friends and family around the world. Its a good discipline in the run up to Christmas to keep being creative. I aim to create a card that is simple, yet has depth, to arrest the recipient even for a moment.

2024 – 間も無く….. Mamonaku….

2024’s New Year card ended in a very different place to where it started. I suppose that’s the point isn’t it? Cassandre’s bifur will have to await for another year.

Owing to there being Wednesday night classes in the National Print Museum I was able to print on a school night. I found some lovely old large sized woodblock type and mocked up a variety of potential cards by hand. I had planned a two colour print and with my wife’s valuable input settled for a rotated setting with each number at 90 degrees to the other. I had some 5×5” card stock in ivory and recycled which suited the layout.

The first pass I did on a 5×8” Adana at home. I had hoped the blue would be a little punchier but only had a quite dark blue to mix from. Setting up register repeatedly on the Adana was a little tricky but things turned out okay after fiddling a bit.

The following week I brought my stock to NPM and set about the second pass on their 15×10” Heidelberg platen.

‘The windmill’ has always been my dream press. From the first time I saw it run, I was in love. The machine has deeply pleasing acoustics, which only become more beautiful over time as one becomes aquainted with them. Those hisses, clicks and slaps are a veritable mechanical orchestra, not to speak of the elegance of the paper feed and delivery system. I’ll spare you a full blown engineering orientated review here. Suffice to say the machine is a mechanical marvel, really the only electrics on it are the motor, everything else is mechanical or pneumatic. 

Last winter over the course of many weekends, I had been trained up on its operation by John K, who was very patient with me and empowered me to understand the machine and it’s process step by step. Initially we spent weeks moving stacks of various paper stock from left to right, helping me to form a bond with the press. I wrote up extensive operation notes in the form of checklists, much like a pilot, to make sure I missed no steps. Seeing John run the machine is truly inspirational; I remain a mere novice. 

A set of newly coated rollers greeted me for my run and I chose to run off lays as register wasn’t a huge deal given this was a single colour job. Once paper was passing through in an audibly acceptable manner, without any doubles, I set the chase up and turned my attention to mixing ink. I was determined to have a bright tangerine to contrast with the blue, mixing up 3 different shades before I was happy. Given the run was quite small, I chose to not use the ink duct to save on wash up!

I remain scared of this machine. It’s lethal and commands your respect. My heart pounded as I set about puling the first impressions. Dancing around the various controls, bringing on impression, licking a bit of paper and sticking it behind the woodblock as John had showed me.

And then it was all over, almost before it began. I ran the job at the slowest speed possible, 2000 sheets an hour. Here is a video of me running the cards

So here it is. Mamonaku or 間も無く; which translates from Japanese to means no further space, or without space, or without delay. This is a word that that is part of daily life in Japan and can be heard at every train station broadcast over and over. It felt like an appropriate name for this year’s card.

Happy New ¥ear

2021 – MMXXI

Twenty twenty one’s card posed some challenges owing to being unable to reach the Print Museum due to Covid lockdown. Having doodled quite a few mornings while sitting in the early morning light a few concepts emerged before I settled on the below. The card is a tip of the hat to old pocket watches with their Roman numerals. I took a URW stock typeface in Illustrator and tinkered with the serifs joining them up, until I was happy with the balance and overall aesthetic.

To print easily at home I chose to order a hand stamp 30mm x 10mm in size. I hoped the resolution would hold for the card itself. Registration proved to be a bit tricky but I devised a quick way to ensure I was roughly in position. Wabi sabi prevails. The batch of 50 was knocked out fairly fast, printing the front and subsequently the back in separate runs.

While I was ordering the hand stamp I though it might be useful to order a chop with the Plimsoll Press logo on it. This will be covered in another post.

2020 – Two Zero Two Zero

This card was printed in The National Print Museum. More to follow on this when I get a chance.