How we go about producing our books.

Future projects and printing in France

18 Tuesday Oct 2022

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Education, France, Letterpress, Louis Jou

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fine press books, Les Baux-de-Provence, Letterpress, Louis Jou

Last week I visited Les Baux-de-Provence and finally made face to face contact with the Fondation Louis Jou along with the Bibliothèque nationale de France to begin a relationship with both organizations for when I will eventually live here on a part time basis with my partner Madeleine Hill Vedel at her home in Avignon just 40 minutes away. Covid had delayed the trip a couple years but now we are back on track. The initial visit was wonderful giving me a chance to assess the current condition of the three hand presses on location and to visit with Atelier du Livre François and Marie Vinourd – book and paper conservators, across the lane.

This weekend and through next week I’ve been invited to stay with Jean-Louis Estève at his home and workshop in the Les Gorges du Verdon region and then we will make our way back to Les Baux where a wood engraving workshop will be given (hopefully I will be doing intaglio if a spare plate is to be found) where we will stay on premise and, with luck, do some initial basic repairs that are needed on the large Stanhope press that Louis Jou printed a majority of his wondrous books on until 1967.

I’m currently moving about Provence until November 7th. I still receive email but my phone is non-functional here until my return and I neglected to update my voicemail before leaving. Apologies to anyone who has tried to contact me for any urgent matter.

Upon my return to the comparably frigid Northern Michigan I will be right back at finishing the backlog of deluxe and presentation bindings that are lingering on the bench, continue layouts for The Machine Stops with James and interviewing a couple of potential apprentices for the 2022-23 season. Thank you to those who have been patiently waiting for your books, it was not my intention to leave you in expectation for so long.

It is possible that the book is the last refuge of the free man. If the man turns decidedly to the automaton; if it happens to no longer think that according to the ready-made images of a screen, this termite will end up not reading any more. All sorts of machines will make up for it: he will allow his mind to be manipulated by a system of speaking visions; the color, the rhythm, the relief, a thousand ways to replace effort and dead attention, to fill the void or the laziness of the search for the particular imagination: everything will be there, minus the spirit. This law is that of the herd. The book will always have followers, the last men who will not be mass-produced by the social machine. A beautiful book, this temple of the individual, is the acropolis where thought entrenches itself against the plebs.
Excerpt from L’Art du livre by André Suarès, written in 1920, printed by Louis Jou in 1922

The Wind in the Willows nears completion!

04 Thursday Nov 2021

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Book Bindings, Kenneth Grahame, Letterpress, Mad Parrot Press, The Wind in the Willows, Vladimir Zimakov

≈ 1 Comment

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Bookbinding, Fine Press, Letterpress, The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows is almost finished and will be shipping in November!

The 75 regular edition copies of the book are quarter bound, rounded and backed, in a very dark green Moroccan goat with a cinnamon cotton book cloth, the endpapers are a printed pattern on mocha Hahnemühle Bugra with a cloth inner hinge. The title is guilt in foil on the spine in copper and silver and a debossed panel on the front cover has Rat & Mole in a crossed oar emblem foiled in copper on dyed grey vellum. The text is set in 14pt Centaur and Arrighi and printed on a custom made cotton rag paper from Papeterie Saint-Armand developed especially for this book. Featuring thirteen multi color and nine 2 color illustrations by Vladimir Zimakov and an introduction from Peter Hunt, large format 10.25 x 14″ (26×35.5 cm)

Copies of the regular edition are still available and are available with a deposit at the

Mad Parrot Website

The pictures below are bench prototypes of the finished binding. The inset illustration on the cover will be done on a grey calf vellum and the patterned end papers will be printed this week. Stay tuned for finished photos coming soon!

The deluxe copies of the book are no longer available. Binding will commence on those copies as soon as the regular edition is complete. Look for pictures here in the future as these individual works of book binding explorations come to be. Inadvertently, one longtime customer was mis-marked as wanting a regular edition, to make everyone happy (I hope) there now will officially be eleven copies made in this way.

The printing has been completed and bindery work has been moving along full steam. The printing was all done on my Vandercook 219 OS proof press – nearly 800 runs on the press all hand fed and cranked with over 40 custom ink colors made. But recently it has been a great pleasure having past apprentices and students join in on the arduous process of bindery work. Daniel Schneider (Industrial Rust Press) and Tonya Baumhardt (Snow Fairy Cottage) have been especially instrumental with their more than capable skills and we’ve managed to have some good fun along the way as well. I began the printing of this book in late February of this year with snow drifting outside and today was the first snowstorm of the new winter coming on. Cycles of seasons and books continue here at Deep Wood Press.

This series of photos shows a loose progression from printing to collating, punching sections for sewing holes, cutting and paring the goat skin, foil stamping the title, sewing, rounding and backing and casing in the book blocks.

The Wind in the Willows printing has begun!

26 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Letterpress, Mad Parrot Press, The Wind in the Willows, Vladimir Zimakov

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Kenneth Grahame, Mad Parrot Press, multi color linoleum cut, The Wind in the Willows

At long last production has begun for our forthcoming edition of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. In mid January all the materials finally arrived and after checking the plate proofs and making the final plan for the process printing began in early February!

After escaping from Manhattan last spring I returned home to the north woods to quarantine and regroup for the coming projects. I had initially hoped to be printing by the middle of last summer with a projected book release for around the holidays. I’m sure it has been an interesting year for all of us during Covid-19 but securing bespoke items to print a very special book proved to be an exercise in patience and perseverance. Fortunately, all good things come to those who wait.

It has taken a full month of printing to complete the twelve 8 x 9½ inch color images that are featured in the book. Vladimir Zimakov created the original images via multi-color linoleum cuts. Each image requires three to six different colors, each is a separate run on the press in tight registration to create the completed image. Since this is the part of the printing where things can go wrong the most this is where we start! In all, some 14 custom colors were mixed and used. There are an additional 9 two color linoleum cuts which will also adorn the book.

At the current rate of printing I hope to be completed by the end of April and then the binding process will commence!

The Wind in the Willows was lovingly set by James Dissette in 14pt Centaur and Arrighi types. It has a page size of 10.5 x 14 inches (26.7 x 35.5cm), 140 pages not including illustrations, front or back matter, printed on a custom made cotton rag paper by Papeterie Saint-Armand. There are 10 sections for the book, each section contains 4 folded folios which is 16 pages. These sections are then sewn together in the final binding to create the book.

Seventy-five copies are available for sale at $2,000, Ten deluxe copies in individual presentation bindings by Chad Pastotnik starting at $2500. Also, five copies in sheets are available for binders at $1500.

There are still some copies available in both editions!

Our special thanks to those who put down their deposit long ago and have been willing to wait it out with us.

We accept checks, direct deposit or Paypal on the madparrotpress.com site. Routing and account information available on request.

Except for deposits, a 6% sales tax will be included upon final payment. Domestic shipping and insurance is $40. Shipping and insurance for international orders will be calculated per country.