Swansea Print Workshop fine art studio

especially when the october wind

TWELVE PRINTMAKERS

Collectors item to mark the 50th anniversary of Dylan Thomas’ death

TWELVE PRINTMAKERS from Swansea Print Workshop agreed to collaborate in a project to mark the 50th anniversary of Dylan Thomas’s death in 2003. Each artist would ultimately produce one image which was used in a limited edition [100] boxed set of twelve prints.

Artists taking part:

Sheila Clark: Lucy Donald: Elissa Evans: Jackie Ford: Sally Hands: Sarah Hopkins: Sue Kelsall: Ruth Parmiter: Judith Stroud: Ceri Thomas: Peter Visscher: Alan Williams

After a process of consultation and discussion, Dylan Thomas’s poem ‘Especially when the October wind’ was chosen to be the focal point of the prints. The poem has of course a special significance for Swansea.

 All the prints were editioned by hand in the studio on specially made paper from Wookey Hole Papermill.

 A special ‘Hors Commerce’ edition of six was printed for The British Library; The Bodleian Library, Oxford; The University Library, Cambridge; The National Library of Scotland; The Library of Trinity College, Dublin; The National Library of Wales ISBN 0 9544976 1 9

 The twelve signed prints are loosely bound in a tejo green handcrafted box with embossed copper lettering and cinnamon lining, made at the Fine Bindery, Northampton.

 Printed on acid free cotton paper, commissioned from the Wookey Hole Papermill, Somerset, with the paper moulds supplied by Aimes & Son Ltd., Coxheath, Kent, the paper weighs 425 gsm and carries the watermarks SPW and GAA, abbreviations for the Swansea Print Workshop and its Welsh name Gweithdy Argraffu Abertawe.

 All prints are fully authenticated and the box contains a colophon signed by Aeronwy Thomas, Dylan Thomas’s daughter.

Aeronwy Thomas, Dylan Thomas's daughter signing the colophons

In addition there is a special colophon insert containing a copy of Thomas’s poem, and an essay entitled ‘A Momentary Peace’ by the writer, poet and translator, Malcolm Parr, in which he explores the links between genius, imagination and the written word.  Malcolm Parr, who also opened the exhibition of the twelve prints in The Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea, has individually signed each of these inserts, as has Andrew Davies, Assembly Member, Welsh National Assembly, who wrote the foreword to this unique booklet.

 All text is fully bilingual, appearing in both English and Welsh.

 A set of the prints were given to the Dylan Thomas Centre after the exhibition had completed the tour and are now part of the permanent collection. They are on display in the main hall.

 Following a preview show at the Welsh Assembly’s Wales Week in the Theatre du Residence Palace, Brussels, an exhibition of the prints was launched by Aeronwy Thomas, Dylan Thomas’s daughter in May at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. Further exhibitions followed throughout Wales, including the National Eisteddfod in Meifod in August 2003 and The National Library of Wales in January 2004,and was on display in Hay as part of this years Hay Festival of Literature.

 The set was also selected by the Welsh Assembly Government to be on show in their newly opened offices in The Chrysler Building, New York, USA. The prints were on display for one year and were featured as part of the St Davids Day celebrations in New York City in March 2004

.A limited number of the box sets are still available priced at £800