Printmaking

In this weekend intensive, students will receive a thorough grounding in basic book structures: pamphlette binding, French fold, concertina, paper and board slipcases, and a flat-back case binding. The class will also learn how to make decorative papers, clasps, and title inserts. At the end of the weekend, each student will leave with handouts and more than a dozen handmade books and cases. No previous binding experiences required.

Create painterly etchings with sugar-lift! This is an etching technique that preserves the artist’s brushwork and permits broad areas of color. The class will work on the lifting process step by step, and also experiment multiple lifts and subtractive mark-making to develop painterly etchings. After the lift of the sugar mixture drawing, the plate is bitten in acid, and then the linear work can be added with an etching needle. Spit-bite can be done on rosin ground for a gentle tonality. As students will be working from their own ideas, it is important to bring some drawings, photographs or other images as source materials. Students will be provided with plates, papers, inks and necessary tools.

Bring your favorite artist books with you! You can reinterpret their works in tracing monotypes by adding or extending the images in the particular artist’s style. Tracing is an old and new way of making drawings. You can easily combine the traced image with your narrative or abstract lines for a new art. You can enhance your work by using multiple tracing papers with the colors you like and experiment with various mark makings, which can be fun and playful. You may want to make your work done simply without press or you can use the press with your negatives, and continue to play further to finish. Trace monotype is an easy and innovative drawing for any age or skill level.

In this weekend intensive, students will learn how to make coptic books, flag books, various Japanese bindings, fall-back boxes, and a clamshell box. At the end of the weekend, each student will leave with handouts and more than half a dozen handmade books and boxes. It is recommended that students considering this class first take the Intro to Book Structures class.

Relief printing is a great introduction to printmaking. It provides students with a good basis for other printmaking mediums, painting, and an introduction to basic design principles. Students will be introduced to a variety of relief print practices while designing multiple series of images. Much like stamping, relief printmaking will allow students to create multiples of each image which can be used as greeting cards or personal works of art. The class will end with a print exchange where everyone will go home with a copy of each other’s final piece.