Making the 'Current' Art-Prints by Hand

Turning paper waste, old waterways, and sunlight into limited edition album artwork for Current

For my upcoming album Current, I wanted everything around it to feel connected to the water, the boat, the music, and the idea of not wasting what already exists.

That is how I started making these limited-edition cyanotype artwork prints by hand. Cyanotype is an early photographic printing process that uses sunlight and water to create deep blue images, almost like a photograph made by the sun.

The image began with a kind of visual map. I designed the blocking sheet on a transparent plastic transfer sheet, using a historic map of Leiden as one of the main layers. The map dates to around 1641, and I love the idea that this album, recorded on a 1951 Dutch sailboat, is also visually connected to old waterways, city structures, and the long history of Dutch life around canals, rivers, locks, wind, and movement.

I inverted the design so it would work as a light blocker for the cyanotype process. Then I added a photograph by John Brussel, taken of us on the boat in front of the Kaag windmill. That image felt important because it is not staged in a traditional album-cover way. It is us inside the real landscape of the project. The boat, the water, the windmill, the Dutch sky. I also added the Current logo and a small cormorant drawing by Natalia Olbinski. The cormorant has become one of those quiet symbols that keeps returning in this project. A water bird. A watcher. A creature that lives between air and water.

But the print itself is only half of the story.

Before making the cyanotypes, we also started making handmade paper from paper waste. I really wanted this project to move toward zero waste, not as a perfect slogan, but as a practice. Any wrapping paper, old paper, scraps, packaging materials from CD shipments, and paper that was lying around went into the shredder for repurposing. I made a video on Instagram about it. Even paper from our last album project, the tests we used while screen-printing the cover for Typuhthâng, found its way into the new paper.

I love that nothing fully disappears. It just changes form.

Some of this handmade paper will also be used as the tiny cover of the Captain’s Journal that comes with the album. That little journal is part of the artwork of Current: notes, memories, fragments, weather, recording locations, and the feeling of being on the boat. Making the paper by hand means that even this small object carries the labor and residue of the project. It is not just packaging. It is part of the artwork.

This way of working also connects to something I have loved for a long time: repurposing materials. One of my favorite places in Brooklyn is FABSCRAP, an organization that works to keep textile waste out of landfills by recycling and reselling fabric scraps and deadstock materials. They describe their mission as creating a world where textile waste becomes an opportunity for innovation rather than a byproduct of creativity. (FABSCRAP) I often go there and get a bag of fabrics that otherwise might have been thrown away. Then I turn those fabrics into clothing or performance pieces for my shows. It is one of the most satisfying creative challenges: to begin with what has been discarded and ask, what does this want to become now?

That same question goes for these cyanotype prints.

Once the handmade paper is dry, I paint it with the cyanotype solution and let it dry in the dark. Then I place the transparent transfer sheet with the inverted design directly on top of the paper. The transfer sheet acts as the light blocker. I add a layer of glass over it so nothing moves or slides, because even a tiny shift can blur the image. Then I carry it outside and expose it in the sunshine for about 3-10 minutes. It does change a lot depending on how sunny it is, or if a cloud passes by, cause it influences how much UV is in the air.

At first, what comes out is not blue at all. It looks strange, almost yellowish, like something has gone wrong. But then comes the magic. When I wash the paper in water, the image slowly changes. The yellow disappears and the blue begins to appear. Lines, shadows, maps, the boat, the windmill. Suddenly the whole image reveals itself.

It is really, really cool.

And it feels completely connected to the album. The print is made with sunlight and water. The paper is made from old scraps. The image contains maps, birds, a boat, a windmill, and traces of the people who made the project possible. It is not a glossy reproduction. It is a small handmade object that has passed through many states: waste, pulp, paper, chemistry, sunlight, water, image.

That is what Current is about for me too.

Movement. Transformation. Listening to what is already there. Letting things flow into a new form.

Here is a little video capture of the process… the song is from the upcoming album, it’s called ‘Touching the light’, which seems appropriate :)

Wanna get my new album? Find it on Bandcamp!