I finished it.

Im sat at my desk after putting away my durer copies of knight death and the devil for the first time in over three years. In early june 2023 i started work on my own engraved interpretation of his most famous engraving. Even before that i’d spent over a year studying hundreds of impressions and doing engraving experiments. Testing the waters to see if it was at all possible to tread in Durers footsteps without making fool out of myself for trying.

I’d prepared the plate and i remember the day i started engraving. I stayed up late looking at a folder on my computer with over 100 different digital photos of separate impressions taken of the engraving. Photos gleaned from archives of auction houses, high res images id requested from museums from around the world. I’d arranged them into early impressions and later impressions. I’d studied the wear of marks through the plates life. Studied it to the point where i knew all of durers slips and mistakes. I could see where his burin had snapped and then where he’d restarted again after sharpening. The immense void of time between 1513 and 2023 felt so intimate and close it distorted my feeling of time.

This feeling of walking the same path became so much more apparent when i got years deep into this project. My engraving ability went through a steep learning curve. At first it was a laborious challenge to keep such a high level of concentration. After a year or two i found the flow state quite natural and i worked methodically but quite freely. Often finding myself making tiny overconfident mistakes i’d have to hide with other marks, only to realise durer had done exactly the same thing. Sometimes i felt unusually connected and i found myself wondering if anyone else has traveled so close to his plain of thought. You start to learn little things about his methods i don’t think you can know unless you walk that path. Little sections where he was likely tired and didn’t stop to sharpen his tools, feeling his line work loosen. I’d sit there wondering late at night if it was because he lost the daylight but was reluctant to stop work. Or had he worn his burin so short he was putting off reshaping a new one like i had the week before.

The first two years i went in and out of working on it. I’d still do a bit each week but i still juggled other work alongside it. If i found areas i was unconfident about id often use my miniatures engraving project as a way of testing out how to engrave a detail or mark found in the durer. Then i’d go back to that area with a little more confidence in how it should translate to print. As i worked on more and more areas of the print the mental gymnastics involved in knowing what tools i was using in each area and how deep i was cutting lines became very intricate and hard to follow. My brain was endlessly going over and over replaying it so that i could keep up. It became impossible to have more than a few days away from the print. Eventually i had to start shelving all my other work so that i could put more time into this thing. This was a process that snowballed, eventually to the point about six months ago where i stopped 90% of my work to just focus on finishing this plate.

Today i finished it. For a long time i just sat there with it watching it gleam in the sun. I figured for everyone whos followed me on this journey it would be nice to do this post to commemorate the day and i guess for me to start processing its absence. Its been so valuable having the support along the way. I’m not sure how i feel yet. I know the past three months i’ve taken away all the natural buffers you put in place to protect yourself from burnout. I feel awkward and cerebral. I have almost zero awareness of the body attached to my brain. I’m more comfortable focusing on things very close like i’m trained to focus on some tiny microcosm instead of things out in the world.

I’m pleased it’s spring and i can go and flop down on a patch of grass or sit in the forest for a bit. I’m looking forward to painting some murals and be free to let all of my brain be present.

After a brief pause to rest over the next few weeks i’ll be ordering some paper and getting the studio turned over into print mode. Deep cleaning the engraving bench and its detritus of copper filings so nothing can defile the printing area. Its unlikely i’ll need to do much work to the plate again other than maybe deepening one or two lines. I’ll get into a flow with printing it. Often you find one or two annoying areas that are easy to overwipe or miss. It’s easier to just rework some lines for half an hour than to struggle with it when i edition.

A lot of people keep asking how many i plan to do. I have no real idea. Luxuria did over 300 and i’d be very disappointed if i didn’t get that out of it. I’d like to get to at least 500. I know this print will be sought after and i’ve dropped a large chunk of my time on this planet into engraving it. I’d really like to be able to make it available to you. But i also know i’m a stickler for detail and if i start to loose quality early on then i’ll just stop it short. Its as simple as that. I did this to reproduce a very fine engraving and i have zero intention of selling any impressions below the normal threshold of print variance you naturally get from hand wiping.

There’s going to be a long gap now while i do some other work and juggle hand printing the edition. I plan to organise the miniatures next so this project will sink away for the summer. If you have any interest in this print please please add yourself to my mailing list at the bottom of my shop page. When it’s ready to sell shout about it.

There she is glinting in the spring sun.