LETTERPRESS

Syltetøy is Norwegian for jam. My father Olav, who moved to Norway many years ago, makes it from tyttebær (lingonberries) and blåbær (bilberries) that ripen in cold air and long summer light – and his jars deserved a proper label. I set it by hand in Walbaum, a classicist serif cut by Justus Erich Walbaum around 1800, at the Letterpress Workshop of KHB under the guidance of Julienne Jattiot: each sort placed in the composing stick, justified with spaces and locked into the chase with furniture and quoins.

XII Month, a perpetual desk calendar, was printed on the same press. Its twelve sheets, in green ink on cream card, show only the month name in capitals and the days 01 to 31 – no weekdays and no year – so the calendar can be used indefinitely, for instance as a birthday calendar. The sheets are bound with a brass spiral on a hardboard stand.

Shortly after I shared it on Instagram, several friends and acquaintances asked whether they could buy one, so I went back to the press and printed a further run. XII Month became my first calendar edition for sale, and many copies are still in use on desks today.

In the workshop I met Ailish. With her Irish and English roots she became a very close friend during that time, and I still treasure her illustrations.