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DEPT STORE

I have been thinking about starting a webshop for a longer time now. The only problem was that I usually always made digital prints and the ones that I had, I only had a few editions of.

The idea to make actual products which I can sell makes me very critical about my own work. I want people to get the best work of me whenever I sell something. Besides that I think I am very modest about the prices I ask for my art, seeing how much money and time I invest in getting better. It actually costs me more money than I get out of it. I make art because I need to, not because I want to make money out of it. Having this state of mind doesn't really help me in getting more commercial, which I really bumped in to when I agreed to sell my stuff through the Dept Store.

First of all I decided which products I could sell and produce easily without making too much costs out of it. This happened to be a postcard pack, a collage print I made last month and a silk screen print. I printed the postcards at IVA groep because it would only cost me more time if I would do it myself and the print studio in school was only open for one week before the summer stop. The digital prints I wanted to print at the print studio in school and the silkscreen print I wanted to make myself at an external studio.

The printing of ten editions of one digital print actually took me one whole day because the printer was not available the whole day and Jasper (the coach) was too busy to help me out. Also with digital printing: colors on the screen always appear differently than on the print itself, especially when the composition is made with colored paper. To get an even, flat composition is really hard and means photoshopping with every test print you make. This led me printing, adjusting colors, printing, adjusting colors, printing, adjusting colors the whole day. 

After the printing day I hurried my way to the IVA groep where I left my postcard assignment. It happened to be the printer had an error so they were not able to print my postcards, but they also did not wrote down my telephone number so they couldn't reach me. Well thanks, IVA. 

The next day I gave a friend of mine the assignment to get the postcards, but the printer still had an error so they didn't print it the next they either.

In the meanwhile I prepared the one layer screen print I wanted to screen print. On the internet I found a place, AGA lab, which is a hands on do-it-yourself studio in Amsterdam West. I thought my composition could easily be printed in one layer because it only exists out of black and light grey. Foolish of me to not proper look at rastering the image. I actually did not know how this works so I rastered the image too fine. I planned out to print on saturday, my only day off.

When I arrived at the print shop where I wanted to get my film, the man behind the desk was very impatient. The first print was wrong already because it had all lines in the rastered part. He decided to change the raster - this time the raster came out too fine, but he told me I could just expose the film because it would work out. Note to self: in these situations I need to be really critical. If I already know it is not gonna work, I need to be very clear to other people because a wrong film can fuck up the whole printing session (which it did!!!!). Good preparations are half the work (if not even all the work).

After getting 300 grams 50x70 paper and arriving at the print studio I got a little introduction by one of the volunteers. There were a few differences within their working method in screen printing. For example: the way they mix paint (with distilled water) and the amount of time they expose (always one minute). I got a little refreshing with registering my prints too. Because the film was too fine, not everything in my screen print was exposed on the screen. The background color appeared empty but the volunteer told me it was best to just start printing black and I could always print light grey layer another day if I would register it very tight. Note that this is printing the opposite way around, namely light after dark color instead of the darkest as the last one.

Because Stephan was helping his friend out I was able to print the other layers on Monday. It happened to be that I registered everything wrong (or do I just not understand registering?) because every print I made, I printed the light grey part wrong. This got me very annoyed and I was running out of time, so I failed at printing the screen print in two days. Meanwhile I was paying for the materials and the time working in the studio - it costed me so much money that I decided to just pause the idea for now and get to work when I am sure what I am gonna do and that I am gonna make it in time.

When I arrived on Tuesday to get the postcard it happened to be that half of the postcards were still printed wrong. There were irregularities in the colors in the file but I was unable to see those on my computerscreen, so it was not totally my mistake, neither theirs. They told me to come back and get the prints later but by this time I was so annoyed that everything took me so long, that I told them to print it right away and make it work. And this actually worked, so half an hour and some money later I walked out of the door with the right postcards.

Besides making the actual products, the way of sending it is also takes a lot of admin. I got to search for the right way to send my products abroad and all the costs that are linked to this. 

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WEEK 11 & 12

Week 11 and 12 were all about failing and learning. In these kind of weeks every creative plan fails and does not work out as planned time- and money wise.

We started the Monday in Club Nyx Amsterdam, where Stephan had the assignment of making a mural in the stairway hall. This was a ¨quick¨ assignment which meant he only had one weekend to design the mural and needed to start the next Monday. Personally I do not like this kind of assignments because its rather about the fastness in which the art can be applied on the wall than creating a good design. Because of the hassle the actual admin about this mural was not really decided yet and during painting the wall black it appeared that one of the parties involved wasn't sure about the whole idea. ARGH. 

This meant that we only painted the wall black and Stephan got to wait for the rest of the week to hear what the plan was gonna be. Note to self: never start on an idea that is not sure yet.

In the meanwhile I was approached by Department Store London, an online gallery curated by People of Print (a creative platform which focusses on mostly analog printed goods and publishes an issue about a different artist every month). They asked me if I was interested to sell my stuff through their new website. I was very honored so of course I agreed but I needed to set a lot of things straight before I could get started (more about this in the next post).

The next week Stephan still did not hear anything of Jaegermeister and Club Nyx about the mural so he decided to help out a friend with opening his bar/restaurant at the Witte de With. This gave me the space to really focus on my own thing and the products I want to sell at the Dept Store, which I ended up doing all week.

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THEORY RESEARCH

Often people ask me why I do what I do. I answer that most of my work is not necessarily figurative, but based on my emotions. At school we always need to think of whole concepts which are filled with blablabla´s on why we do what we do. Because I am such a big dreamer, I often think too much and I forget to just DO. I partly think that this leads to my compositions - but of course, or acting is also influenced by our surroundings.

During the past competency assignments at school I passed every competence, except for creating ability and critical reflection. Most notes tell me that I know what I find interesting and who inspires me, but I can not really state why. I may have a recognizable style through colors and abstract shapes, compositions and prints, but I should know why I choose to do what I do. My style has developed a lot throughout the last two years (from drawing figurative faces to abstract compositions), so there must be a reason why this change took place.

This is why I started my own research assignment so I can answer the main question: Why do I do what I do? To answer this question, I should answer some subquestions too:

- Where do I come from and who am I?

- What inspires me in general, and why?

I think that a good self reflection is necessary to make the link between my thoughts and my actions visible and will lead me to some interesting answers. I am planning to write a little (self) research paper during my internship, which I will upload with my internship report. //

The first books I rented to find some more inspiration are:

- Ukiyo-E paintings in the British museum - Timothy Clark

- The Women of the Pleasure Quarter - Swinton

- Leaves - Sandved Prance

(...)

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WEEK 10

This week I made up some new projects and goals and worked further on my theoretical research towards patterns and structures.

First of all I got the chance to stretch a canvas on totally on my own this time. I started off hectic again. I notice that in contrary of back in the days, I have a hard time concentrating and focusing on the very moment (not only during painting, also in daily life) so I forget a lot that has been told already. That in combination with a slight fear to fail often gets me stucked, because I don´t dare to ask the question again but still am eager to learn a certain technique.

The same situation appeared when I wanted to stretch my canvas again, so of course, I did not choose on a flat underground for the canvas and I forgot how to pin the corners. Stephan got mad at first but told me certain things should be logic to me and I should find a way to remember things, because otherwise it is gonna be a hard way to learn everything for me. After he explained me the how to´s once more, I managed to do it right all at once AND noted a step-by-step manual in my sketchbook so I will not forget it next time.

So when I got my canvas all stretched up, it was time for me to choose the new colors for the next canvas and I wanted to do something completely different. Stephan gave me the assignment to not use any of the used colors in my previous canvas so I came up with another color palette (see below). Besides that, he told me to find a way to note how I get a certain color and which amount of which paint I should need for that. 

Mixing the colors is no problem for me, the only problem is writing down what I do. After starting with the standard RYB colors and adding a few colors I get lost quite easily. I did some research on the internet and found the 12- and 24-color wheel, BUT still, this system is working partly on actual facts and partly on visual insight  (which means that every 12- and 24-color wheel is slightly different). I wonder if there is even  scientifically written down color mixing without working in grams. Besides that:

- ... it makes it even harder because you always lose a bit of paint sticked to the spatula;

- ... acrylic paint if often too thick to work with very small proportions

- ... colors mixed with grey (black/white) are even harder to mix again, because the number of grey tints is almost uncountable.

I did write down how I got to certain colors by telling which color I added, but I still need to find a way to write down the right proportions. 

Next to preparing for my new canvas, I prepared some independent assignments. I have a few projects next to my internship:

- Next monday and tuesday I finally start my mural in de Melkweg in Amsterdam, a mural I have been wanting to do for a couple of years already. I prepared the designs and did some color tests.

- I was also asked to hand in a design for a glass office wall at school and a mural in the Generator Hostel Amsterdam, for which I prepared the designs and send them some mock ups.

- I planned in a weekly assignment for myself. Every sunday I want to make a small so called ¨Sunday Canvas¨, a canvas of 20x20 and 4,5 cm deep, to practice my painting skills. See the results of the last three weeks below.

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WEEK 9

During this week I finished a lot of things I started last week.

To begin with: the book I wanted to print, resulted in a mini serie of three A4 prints. I have been struggling with finding a good theme for the magazine, which resulted in me staring at my computer screen for a couple of days trying to figure out to make everything matching. After two days I decided it should be better to take the three matching ones and make it a little print serie (check out the photo for the results).

When I came back to the studio to show Stephan the result he told me that I should still make a magazine and not kill ideas in my head before I actually tried them out. That´s when I realized I do this a lot of the time, rationalizing my ideas beforehand. For this reason I will still make a magazine (depending on my planning I want to finish this this or next week, probably next week).

I finally finished the canvas I started with last week too. When I arrived at the studio on Mondays my canvas was all loose so I took it of the stretchers and painted the canvas on the wall to stretch it when finished. I was really bumped out by this, but Stephan taught me again that I am lacking patience so this was meant to be happening.

Throughout the process of making this painting I had some ¨good fails¨ which resulted in teaching me some handy lessons:

- The neon (see first sketch) didn´t work out because it wasn't covering - even after putting white as a base and adding five layers of neon green the color field wouldn´t get equal. I decided to go for another color, in this case a light, matching color to not make the canvas too bold. Light yellow seemed the best option because it´s matching to the other colors, but its not too appealing. I learnt to take the process as it comes and if its not working out the way I want to, I can still make it work out another way.

-  I wanted to ¨draw¨ structure from my composition on my canvas with a small brush but Stephan said NO WAY HOSAY! Aint gonna happen!. I was forced to use the original way of making my structure on my canvas, which means taping all my color fields, getting my good ol´ brush with Indian Ink and adding structure through a few big brush strokes. I usually don't do this, because I am scared to fuck the canvas up. This original way of adding the structure to the canvas turned out to be the best choice I could make, because I succeed to make the brush strokes in one time! This is definitely something I am going to do more often and also has to do with patience. I am so scared to make a mistake and start all over again, but if I just take the time to do things properly and stay focused on what I am working on, I am actually finished faster than if I try to do things fast.

- This is also another lesson: TAKE THE TIME TO PLAN THINGS OUT AND WORK PROPERLY! This canvas actually took me a lot longer than it should do, because I was covering my mistakes again and again. For example: I started with the yellow color field and didn't took the time to clean my hands while I was working, so I stroke my hands with black paint at the yellow color field again and I could start all over again :) (this is a sarcastic emoticon). Stephan often shook his head at me and taught me to work clean and not all over the place: clean my brushes every time I use them, close off my paint whenever I am done using it, only stick my brush in the paint as far as the hairs reach (and not half of the brush in the bucket), making sure my hands are dry (!! very important), make sure all color fields are dry before I add new paint on them. Very small and logic steps, but often the most important ones for making good work.

When I was done with painting the canvas I tried to stretch it again. While I was taking my time for it, Stephan said I still did it too fast and once again, I failed because the canvas was not stretched tight enough. I wanted to try it another time but he did it for me because he was not sure if it was the canvas itself or me failing. Eventually it turned out to be that the canvas is bold in the middle, so we can tighten up the borders of the canvas but it will still be loose in the middle. We are currently thinking of another way to stretch the canvas.

I am very happy with the result. Not only do I like the size of the work and the composition itself, I also notice a big difference in the quality. The details are tight and the fact that I stretched it myself makes it feel like I learnt a lot more of the process of making a painting. I think it is very important to know this, because with this knowledge comes material knowledge and new possibilities to try things out - aside from the fact that it makes you less dependent on other persons if you know how to do things yourself. See the pictures below.

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WEEK 8 - SELF REFLECTION ON MY WORKING METHOD

To start off the week, I bought my color bible again (lost the previous one): A dictionary of Color Combinations from Haishoku Soukan, an over all collection of color combinations originated by Sanzo Wada in the 19th century. My classmate Hansje recommended me the book about a year ago and ever since I am hooked to it. I try to use it for inspiration as much as possible - a very handy benefit is that every CYMK-code is written down in the end of the book, allowing me to see the actual printed color instead of needing to make color tests from a digital screen.

I decided to lend some more books about old Japenese paintings and some nature books to research patterns and color combinations. To start my theoretical research as well, I lent a book about .

I didn't know what my magazine would be about: that´s why I made up some nice color schemes and just started off making different digital and analog collages of it.

My steps always start with painting patterns en structures with Indian Ink and big brushes on paper, experimenting the way I hold a brush and the different effects of movements that I make holding a brush. Sometimes I try something just as long until I get the brush strokes right (in the way I want it, which could be small details like starting in a straight line and having the same angle). After this I scan the different patterns and structures in and add them to my digital library in which I been collecting brush strokes for over a year.

Once everything is scanned in, I start sketching in Photoshop. I usually make abstract shapes within the color scheme I chose and just keep on going until I find a nice balance in color, shapes and patterns. This is something I do on visual instinct.

This time I decided to make a magazine consisting out of spreads with separate A4´s which match with each other in a certain way. Until now I made up five spreads, which look really nice next to each other, but without any logistics in order. Tomorrow I want to show Stephan these spreads to see if he can help me out finding a certain rhythm in this.

(While I am typing, I already recognize something typical for me and my working method: I can be very chaotic at times, which transforms itself in chaotic and appealing prints. This could be something - to be continued).

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WEEK 8

This week I was off because Stephan had an extern job at a filmset. That is why I decided to take my change to make a magazine (an idea I was planning to do for a longer time).

Something different: the last few years I have been struggling to support my creating abilities; while I have my own style and I am capable of making a lot of work, I find it very hard to examine why I do what I do. I know what I like, I know what I don't like, I have some technical knowledge about art but I have noticed that once I start thinking about what I am actually doing, my creativity get blocked and I can not finish what I started. To research what I am thinking and actually examine my art, I have different steps in mind.

1) Reading interviews with other artists as much as possible, to see how they examine theirs;

2) Collect as much photos and visuals that I find interesting, and write down why I like this;

3) Research my earlier work to recognize my style and link this to my interests and foundation.

4) Try to write down why I do what I do, and most of all: why this is important and original to the world.

See the next posts for the beginning of this research :)

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MURAL MAN MET BAARD

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STRETCHING CANVAS

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WEEK 7

Yay! I can proudly say that in this first week, I learned more than in the past 6 weeks as an intern at Damn Fine Print. Stephan has a hands-on mentally and a big sassy mouth, which really helps me in being more direct and specific as a person as well.

We started this week with the introduction of his studio which he is sharing with his father, who is planning to run a T-shirt print studio. He is very busy with the try-outs of his printer. The studio is not really big but has a high ceiling which creates a spacious feeling. There is a big build-in storage for all the paint and materials which I can use whenever I want (yes thank you!).

I got the assignment to photograph some of the buildings Stephan wants to paint and trace them in Illustrator. My Illustrator skills are about level zero so this took me some time, but still are very handy to learn since it broadens my possibilities as an illustrator. 

The next day we bought some new canvas and he teached my how to stretch my own canvas. I wanted to learn this for a loooong time, but I never had the tools for it (silly excuse). Anyhow, of course it went wrong the first time but I got shown some tricks like wetting the canvas to get it stretched tighter. After that I made up a composition and I had to mix up the right colors. Usually I work with colors straight from the paint tube (lazy) so mixing them in the right amount took me some time too. Besides all those first timers I also sketched the composition on the canvas using a beamer, where as I usually work with a raster or marking points. During doing this we had some discussions about painting and I came to the conclusion that I should take more time and definitely be more patient while doing a project.

From wednesday until friday we worked on a mural for Man met Baard koffie, a coffee-roasting factory at the Hofbogen in Rotterdam. Stephan made the logo a couple of years ago and painted them on their outside wall, but the interior changed so the exterior needed some refreshing too. The logo consists out of a Zeus-ish head which needed to be changed in different colors and next to that he made up a whole new design around the head, covering the whole wall.

I can tell a lot of things about making this mural, but what really became clear to me is the difference in our working method. The past few days have been an eye-opener regarding my own working method and my chaotic mindset. It was kind of difficult to get to see this but REALLY useful. I guess the most important point in this is when I am working on my own, I don´t need to proof myself and I get lazy easily, working really chaotic. This will not only take me longer to work on a project, but can also appeal very unprofessional towards clients. After this I really want to learn how to become more organized while I work and this was the start - got some really good tips on how to work on it too (like creating your own workspace, cleaning the brushes every time, just small things which you can easily forget but make a huge difference while working properly).

I really wanted to show my best side making this mural, but some things went not very smoothly which ended up in Stephan working the forth day on his own. I guess the pressure of me performing for him, wanting to do everything right and not fuck up his design, got me worrying and I became less concentrated than I used to be whenever I am working. 

There are still some things that I would do differently than Stephan too - like adding pattern sketches on the wall. He roughly set them up with a stencil, where as I would sketch them perfectly right away because once you fuck up the first part of the pattern, it is really hard to recover this. The next day I needed to add some straight lines which were very important to do right but I found it hard to see where the difference in importance came from. Either everything is tight or everything is loose, in my opinion. But for other artists this is of course different and I can't just decide which is a good or a bad way to do it.

Gladly we talked everything over and we came to the conclusion we should work more often together to get used to each others working method, so overall I can say this week has been very informative and self-reflecting.

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NEW INTERNSHIP

Hey hello there,

This week I finally started my new internship after 5 weeks searching for a new one! Acknowledging all the work it took me to arrange an internship abroad (mailing, waiting, calling, writing, mailing, waiting again etc etc), I decided to look for an internship in the Netherlands.

My good friend Yuro proposed that I would meet up with her boyfriend Stephan Bontje, who happens to be an acquaintence of me too. Bontje graduated at the Willem de Kooning Academy about 8 years ago as an art director but after a short career in advertising he decided he hated it and turned back into art again. He specializes in murals and paintings and wants to do more installations since he has a new studio at the Schieweg in Rotterdam, with lots more space than his previous one. Bontje was very enthusiastic and so am I, so we started one week after we did a good talk.

My focus for this internship is definitely more specific than the previous one. In general I want to learn more different painting techniques alongside deepening my research on the foundation of my art: why do I do what I do and how I can explain this? To accomplish this I am planning to read more books and theories, broaden my look at art and read a lot of interviews with other artists to see how they explain themselves.

 Besides the practical aspects I need to learn more about the paperwork (proposals, finance) of being a freelancer. This I want to learn by involving myself in the process of a proposal from the very start to the actual execution of  the project, as the finance being a part of this process. 

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WEEK 6 - 10/04

After a good conversion with Kim, telling her my frustrations about doing nothing, she told me she wasn't sure about offering me more work in the future. This is why I decided to quit my internship, which I really think is for the better, because it´s just a pity of my time. 

Still haven´t heard anything of Headcase either so I will just hang around until next week to see if I get contacted - otherwise I will go to London to see if I can find something over there.

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WEEK 5 - 03/04

This week I had a comeback day in which I needed to present my progress during my internship. This was a reality check for me, because I didn't have anything to show except for clean squeegees and printed tote bags. I realized that if I wanted to make the most out of it, I should've done more by now because otherwise I am just wasting my time.

I finished the illustrations for the leaflets last week already, but we still havent looked at it yet. If I had the opportunity to print by myself I think I would've finished the leaflets within one day. 

I also didn't get any mails by Headcase Marketing after our meeting so I feel kind of bumped out. 

It also appeared that I showed up at work and no one was there besides the other intern - Kim had a few meetings which she didn't tell me about. Looking at the three half days I am working and the amount of work I don't have I really started doubting if this is the right internship for me. 

I did some research towards other creatives companies in Dublin that might offer me some work, but I get stucked because I just think this is not the right place to grow because the art scene is not that big. Next week I am planning to make a decision and talk to Kim to see if the amount of work is gonna change, and otherwise I am planning to quit my internship and freelance in London until I find something new.

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WEEK 4 - 27/03

Headcase Marketing mailed me back! The best thing to hear was that the owner, Andrew, already knew my work and thinks it´s pretty sick. What! So flattering and new for me at the same time!

We decided to meet up this week to see what I can do for them. We met up in the Teeling Distillery in Dublin 8. He showed me around in the office and I got to see some projects that they are working on. Their main business is marketing in a creative way, in which they do a lot of collaborations with Irish and international artists to make branded content. 

Andrew kindly asked me if I was interested in painting over the mural on the outside of the office, which was done last year by the graffiti artist Le Bas. This wall is a pebbled ash wall of 13,5 m by 2,5 m high. They pay all the materials and they make a marketing video of the whole process for my portfolio. OFCOURSE I said yes! I am very excited and nervous in the same time, but it is good to have this kind of excitement to be able to grow. I think right now is the best time to try out this big surface while progressing my drawing skills.

In the internship I didn't do really much besides printing branded Damn Fine Print tote bags (yes, first time printing) and seeing how Kim mixed up a pantone color. We met up to discuss a side project during my internship, and Kim offered that I could make a leaflet of how to screen- and riso print. We also created a Trelio account, a more expanded version of Pinterest to post some inspiration for the leaflets and the upcoming exhibition.

Besides that I have been working on my a mural design and all logistics around it, because I am super excited and I can't wait to finally start doing something!

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WEEK 3 - 20/03

This week still didn't change the situation about my printing possibilities and I got kind of annoyed, so I decided to confront Kim about the fact that I felt like I was doing nothing. We decided to come up with a new plan before the week next week, so I have some bigger goals to work towards to.

Luckily I bumped into a guy that was painting a mural for Jameson whisky. Thats something nice about Dublin that I didn't mention yet: over here they still do painted advertisements throughout the whole city, something I've never seen before in the Netherlands. Thats why I took my chance and I decided to ask him who gave him the assignment. 

The guy, named Cormack, was really kind and told me about Headcase Marketing, a company that does different murals and creative PR throughout the city, whom I directly send a mail if I could do anything for them. 

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WEEK 2 - 13/03

The second week was about getting to know the city a little bit better while making my way through the studio logistics. I started following the beginners course on Tuesday, where Liam taught me and five other persons the possibilities of screen printing. I actually didn't JOIN the class - I was only watching with him and helping out with cleaning the squeegees. 

This has been the same throughout the whole week - while only working with Kim three days a week allowed me to work for myself on the other days, I was not allowed to print on film and could only print if someone was watching me. This made me feel like I was a rookie in printing and unable to do things on my own, which made me very uncomfortable.

Also, on the days I was helping Kim in the ¨admin¨, I noticed that I wasnt really involved by admin, but more cleaning the studio and squeegees while waiting till there was someone to do.

That was when I decided to explore the different art supply stores in Dublin. There are a few - like Evans Art and All City. I first discovered that Dublin is crazy expensive and art equipment like paint costs half as much as in the Netherlands. The option of making bigger scale paintings would fail unless it would be commissioned art work. 

I also noticed in the second week, that Dublin is very small. That itself is no big problem, unless it means that the whole art scene is small too - no big competition at all. On one side this means that everything is very approachable, but on the other hand it means that the overall work ethos is not that high.

I decided to stick to my markers and started drawing again. It has been a while because for the last couple of months I have been working on collages most of the time, so discovering what that did for my illustration skills turned out to be a good surprise! I started drawing the prints and textures I´ve been collecting for a while now, which allowed me to learn how to use a marker different that only drawing lines.

These are some of the results:

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WEEK 1 - 06/03

I chose to do an internship at the Damn Fine Print studio because they offered me the possibilities of working on my own exhibition half of the week and seeing how the admin of running a print studio works the other half of the week.

During my internship in a print studio I had different learning goals:

- Making a full printed exhibition

- Getting to know the perfect tips and tricks about printing

- Making bigger scaled work next to that, like paintings and murals

The first week was all about getting to know the studio.

The Damn Fine Print studio is small studio and exists out of a working studio and a shop. The studio is owned by Kim, a professional in her mid-thirties who studied interactive media in Dublin. She is mostly responsible for the admin.

The working studio offers different silkscreen facilities: about 10 silkscreen beds, an exposure unit, a silkscreen carousel to print on textile, a machine to dry printed textiles and general silkscreen materials. At the moment, the studio has twelve members that use the studio and sell their work through the shop. 

Besides Kim, the team has three technicians who keep the studio running and are available for any questions while working, and another intern who graduated in Print & Design who works her way up to get a job in the studio.

My first week was all about getting to know the schedule and logistics. Every monday and tuesday evening DFP offers a beginners course, where people are welcome to learn their first steps in printmaking. This course is taught by one of the technicians and I was welcome to join the course too. Every wednesday is Facebook-day for Kim, which means that she´s giving creative workshops to the Facebook staff in their office.

 A normal working day starts around 11 am till around 5/6ish. During the day some of the members drop by to print their stuff. 

Besides a working office and a shop with all the prints, Damn Fine Print also offers: a mobile silkscreen studio for events, exhibitions in the studio, collaborations with artists and brands and printing for brands. The studio just purchased a new riso machine to expand their creative opportunities. 

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SIDENOTES:

When I work in the WDKA Publication Studio, I work with different machines like printers, the riso machine and of course the different silkscreen facilities. 

During the first week, I´ve noticed that the studio was very small. This meant that facilities like the printer and the riso were only allowed to be used by Kim. 

This was kind of a downer for me, but I reckoned if I could show them my knowledge about the machines I would maybe earn some of their trust to work with them own my own.