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This class has prerequisites. Please see below.
Do you have a photo, drawing, or other sample of a texture or pattern that you want to use in your work but need a way to transfer it to your metal? To create patterns that are unique to your work, you can use the laser cutter to engrave paper with designs from your image files. Later, you can use the textured paper to transfer the pattern onto metal using a rolling mill. (You will not be embossing the metal in this class.)
You will learn:
· What types of designs work well with the laser cutter
· Which types of image files work with the laser cutter software
· Which settings to use in Inkscape and RetinaEngrave 3D
· What types of paper to use
You will be able to laser cut several samples using image files and paper provided by the teacher.
Details:
Instructor Bio:
Joan Hammond began working in metal in 1994, when she started taking metalsmithing classes as an antidote to documenting computer software. What she discovered was a medium that not only utilized her previous training in painting, printmaking, and ceramics, but also opened the possibilities of creating art that can be worn. Family artifacts and history, plants and animals, and the textiles and jewelry of non-Western cultures inspire her current work, which Hammond executes using the techniques of chasing and repoussé. Her long-time interest in Asian art, which deepened when she studied calligraphy and tea ceremony in Kyoto, Japan, continues to influence her aesthetics and sense of design.
Bring your work and join others of like mind while we make books, and use the equipment. This is an independent work time, and limited supplies are available at cost. Please bring cash or check made out to BARN if you will be purchasing supplies.
This is not a formal class. A monitor is available to ensure safety.
Please register so we know how many will be coming. Free for Members and $20 for non-members.
Nothing defines ‘surprise’ as well as an unexpected pop-up structure in a book, a card, or even an invitation... these pop-ups cannot help but delight. You’ll make more than half-a-dozen basic 3-D structures, and assemble an easy Sampler-book put to them in. You will learn tips for adapting these structures to any paper or book project. Bonus: You will create an original pop-up card – ready to send, so give some thought to the lucky recipient.
Susan M. Callan has been a student and advocate of Book Arts since the early 1990’s. In the mid 2000’s, she was invited to join a 12-artist team, each teaching their own discipline under the auspices of The Creativity Center. Since then, she’s been teaching (and, of course, still learning) all aspects of Book Arts and Creativity. Since 2017, she has taught Book Arts; The Creativity Factor at the national Focus On Book Arts conference in Forest Grove, Oregon, in addition to other venues closer to home, Bainbridge Island.
Monotype is a printmaking process that can lend itself to gestural and expressive mark making. You will be instructed in the use of a variety of printmaking approaches, including trace monotype, viscosity printing, and additive and subtractive methods which will include using brushes, rollers, rags, oil sticks, etc. to create unique images. All levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced with instruction tailored to individual needs and goals.
The monotype printmaking process lends itself to gestural and expressive mark making, and Eric will demonstrate viscosity printing, layering techniques and the use of alternative media in making monotypes.
Tuition assistance is available. Click here to apply.
About the InstructorEric Chamberlain, a Seattle based artist, shows his work at Shift Gallery in Seattle, and has exhibited with Shift at the Seattle Art Fair for the past three years. His work is included in a number of permanent collections, including the Museum of NW Art in La Conner, Hotel Max Seattle, and Meryl Lynch Bellevue. Eric currently teaches at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle; his previous positions include art instruction at Creative Arts Week, Maine, Kirkland Arts Center, Washington, and Adjunct Professor, SMU, Texas.
"I continue to depict everyday objects, creating imagery that juxtaposes both imagined and observed memories. Recently, as I spend more time in the studio, I have begun to incorporate an array of bottles, jars, cans and architectural elements from my workspace.
blog.ericdaychamberlain.com
Beginning print makers should either have taken or be currently enrolled in an introductory level class, and be able to work with existing skills. The monitor is there to provide guidance and help with occasional problem-solving. Maximum of 10 people. Details:
Wondering what Letterpress is? Whether you are a beginner or an experienced letterpress printer, drop in any time between 4:00 PM and 6:30 PM during this monitored studio session to become acquainted with BARN’s Letterpress Studio — its equipment, tools and resources. Join us for one or more sessions to get your questions answered and talk letterpress. Please see our calendar for other dates and times.
Details: Free event - all levels of learners are welcome No prerequisites required Please register so we know how many to expect
Letterpress Monitor Bio's:
Hidde Van Duym is a Founding Member of BARN and is a member of the Book-Arts/Letterpress Steering Committee. He is a book-arts artist whose work has been shown at Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Roby King Gallery, Craft in America, and the Artist's Books Collection at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. He regards the letterpress as an opportunity to expand his book-arts horizons.
Peggy Graving is a member of the steering committees at the BARN for the Book Arts/Letterpress Studio and the Printmaking Studio. Her letterpress knowledge and skills have been developed in multiple BARN courses taught by Ellie Mathews and Carl Youngmann of The North Press in Port Townsend.
Join us to work on your personal projects in this monitored open to studio each Thursday from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Beginning print makers should either have taken or be currently enrolled in an introductory level class, and be able to work with existing skills. The monitor is there to provide guidance and help with occasional problem-solving. Maximum of 10 people. Details:
Whether you are a jeweler, wood maker, photographer, printmaker or videographer showing your work in the best possible light is key to selling and getting new “gigs”. Yes, you could find examples “on the fly” in your photo/video library or you could put together a compelling sequence that showcases your work, can quickly launched and tells your story visually.
These portfolios can be delivered via phone, tablet, YouTube or the web.
You already have the necessary tools on your computer to put together a portfolio “reel”. In this class you will learn everything you need to know to assemble your work into a professional presentation. We will focus on the tool and techniques using a variety of real world examples. After class you can put your knowledge into practice.
Topics to be covered
While this workshop focuses on Apple’s Keynote slide ware program, PC/Mac users who prefer PowerPoint can use similar techniques to achieve the same end results.
Ken Rothmuller has been shooting images since getting his first camera as a teenager. Later in life he had both a B/W and color darkroom before switching over to a digital workflow. More recently he has had the opportunity to study under some great mentors, including: Jay Maisel, Joel Meyerowitz, Eddie Soloway, and Margo Davis.
Adobe purchased Ken’s digital asset management company (Fotiva / PhotoTablet) back in 2001. While working at Adobe as a senior computer scientist, he help shepherd and promote the initial, internal Lightroom development efforts as an important alternative to Photoshop for Photographers (and mere mortals).
Ken especially enjoys traveling with his camera allowing him to see new places more deeply, cementing memories and giving him the opportunity to interact with locals.
He has taught photo workshops and photography courses at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA. You can reach Ken at: krothmuller@gmail.com
Scan an image of ordinary objects or aim your camera at a spectacular scene. This workshop will take you through the basic steps of wrestling digital images into the simplicity of high contrast art ready for plate-making.
Using Adobe Photoshop Elements as our foundation, we will introduce the basic operations of photo manipulation to convert, modify, and resize images for making letterpress and intaglio printing plates. No prior experience with photo-manipulation software is required, but students should be comfortable with general computer operations on their own laptop computers. Students must bring their own laptop computer and power cord.
Through hands-on examples you will learn how to import a photograph or scan a drawing, modify its dimensions, shape, tone, and texture. We’ll look at methods for converting color images to high contrast, black-and-white illustrations. Drawing and editing tools will be explored along with basic digital typography. Techniques for separating elements for multiple color printing will be reviewed.
We’ll start with a guided tour of the program and move along at a comfortable pace before diving into the power of various filters to isolate key lines, graphic details, and textures, after which the instructors will give individual guidance specific to participants’ goals.
Students are expected to have Photoshop Elements running on their laptops prior to the class. The BARN letterpress studio monitor is available ahead of the class to assist in installing the software. The program is available as a free 30-day trial by clicking here.
About the Instructors:
Carl Youngmann and Ellie Mathews are letterpress printers who teach the BARN’s Letterpress Boot Camp and Photopolymer courses. Carl has had a life-long relationship with photography, image analysis and manipulation, including a PhD in Cartography and Computer Graphics. He has taught remote sensing, developed medical image analysis software, and has generally messed around with a lot of cameras, computers, and printing presses. Ellie has worked in cartography, design, and software development. She has enhanced dozens of letterpress broadsides with graphic elements that began life as full-color photographs.
If you have any questions, please contact Peggy Graving, Program Coordinator for Letterpress: peg10173@gmail.com.
This two session workshop is a rich and thorough introduction to laying patent gold leaf or a chance for you to revisit the process of laying gold leaf and texturing it in a variety of ways. Using thinned PVA as the base medium, we will use an array of tools and experiment with various papers and/or (calf) vellum, to create a series of samples and a decorated letter or small piece of your choice. This technique is accessible, beginning with finished samples in the first few hours of the first session.
The range of applications and effects may surprise you: tools as fine as your finest pointed brush or nib, to the broadest “hog hair” brush on a variety of papers. We will create flat (thin) leafed designs in five colors of gold leaf and palladium leaf on paper, and burnish (to create a brilliant shine) or texture our designs with various papers, cloth and thin metal or plastics to create dimension with debossing or goffering.
You may be dazzled by what can happen in two sessions, with each student doing a slightly different application by the finale of the class!
Suzanne uses this gilding technique in her artist’s book on an array of papers. She used it (with Donald Jacksonʼs blessing) in her work on the vellum (skin) folios of the Saint Johnʼs Bible, because it is versatile and remains flexible on the pages of the books. It works beautifully on 2D works on paper, where you can texture it to make it dimensional. It works on some fabrics -- especially natural fibers with good sizing. Be sure to visit some of Suzanne’s work on display at the Artist’s Book Collection at the Bainbridge Museum of Art!
About the Instructor:
Suzanne Moore is a lettering artist and designer who combines contemporary vision with traditional scribal techniques. She is a well-known calligrapher and book artist whose highly-regarded and original work is in such institutions as The Pierpont Morgan Library, the Library of Congress, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, the Berlin Calligraphy Collection at the Akademie der Künste, the James S. Copley Library and the Houghton Library as well as numerous private collections in Europe and the United States. Suzanne lives and works on Vashon Island with her husband Don Glaister and their constant canine companion, the ivory Rothko.
It’s easy enough to send out to have polymer plates made, but wouldn’t you like the control (and economy!) of making your own? Learn the process in this one-day workshop. Carl Youngmann and Ellie Mathews, letterpress printers, will demonstrate do-it-yourself, U-V exposure, water-wash methods for producing raised images using BARN's equipment or at home in your kitchen sink.
We’ll start by discussing high-contrast images—whether from photographs, digital files, or scanned drawings—from which we’ll select an example and make an inkjet negative. We'll expose the polymer to UV light, and we’ll process it in ordinary tap water. Then we’ll print proof copies. Specific products, timing and details will be outlined.
Instructors Bio: Ellie Mathews began using photo-polymer plates forty years ago to make Braille signage. More recently, Carl Youngmann has figured out the intricacies of printing ink-jet negatives, exposure times, and washout temperatures to make his own plates at home, sometimes by using nothing more complicated than the sun as his light source. Together, they will guide you through the basics and share their enthusiasm for DIY methods.
A broadside is a single sheet of paper, printed on one side only, and intended for display. Historically, they were made as announcements, proclamations, and advertisements. With the resurgence of interest in letterpress printing, broadsides have emerged as a satisfying approach to incorporating the written word with fine art techniques.
About ninety percent of the time Ellie Mathews spends in her Port Townsend letterpress shop is dedicated to designing and printing poetry broadsides. She has a history in traditional graphic design and brings a keen interest in type and letterform to her process. Ellie and her husband, Carl Youngmann, teach BARN workshops titled Letterpress Fundamentals, Pixels to Print (converting digital images to high contrast for platemaking), and DIY Photopolymer for Letterpress and Printmaking.
In an effort to demystify a complex subject, in this evening lecture, Ellie will show examples while stepping through some of the considerations involved in making design choices for printing poetry broadsides—including nuts and bolts references to legibility, use of color, organization of graphic elements, page dimensions, order of operations, and the practicalities of short run printing.
This is a free lecture open to the public. Bring a friend!
Presenters:
Ellie Mathews began using photo-polymer plates forty years ago to make Braille signage. More recently, Carl Youngmann has figured out the intricacies of printing ink-jet negatives, exposure times, and washout temperatures to make his own plates at home, sometimes by using nothing more complicated than the sun as his light source. Together, they will guide you through the basics and share their enthusiasm for DIY methods.
If you have any questions, please contact Peggy Graving (peg10173@gmail.com).
Letterpress Monitored Open Studio is for participants who want to practice what they learned in Letterpress introductory classes. Participants will work toward satisfying the qualifications needed for fob access to the studio to use the letterpress equipment and resources during Open Studios. A monitor will be present to assist you.
Please bring the Letterpress Instructional Packet you received as a handout from one of the introductory classes listed in the prerequisites below to guide your work.
We will combine practical skills with design and composition by creating small collage pieces in a short period of time. Evaluation of these pieces will help you recognize the types of imagery, color, forms or compositions that comprise your unique repertoire. You will be able to use these methods to develop your own compositions more intuitively and spontaneously.
This collage class is designed to teach you composition and assembly skills, including:
You will also learn how black and white photographs taken on your smart phone can bring clarity to colors and their values.
As time permits, we will work on larger pieces and incorporate further practical skills.
This class will be primarily hands-on, but it will include a brief instructional segment of how collage fits in the continuum of art history, along with a demonstration of handy techniques.
Instructor Biography:
Meg Hartwell is a local artist who currently shows at The Island Gallery on Bainbridge Island and has lived on Bainbridge Island for the last six years. She earned her MFA from Otis Parsons School of Art and Design in Los Angeles. She has lived throughout the United States, mostly in Phoenix, Arizona. Her travels have taken her to South America, Asia and Europe and she has spent considerable time in Mexico. She is a painter, woodworker, printmaker and collage mixed media artist who has shown her work in California, Arizona, Mexico, Washington and New York.
Meg’s work is a process of using monoprints and mixed media on paper or wood boxes. She hunts for inspiring images and uses music to invigorate her process, working more intuitively than analytically. Her images are inspired by innumerable photographs, ideas, everyday objects, shapes, patterns, color combinations, unusual perspectives and studying a broad range of art. Meg says that oftentimes the best part about making art is the surprise at the end.
Website: meghartwellart.com
Students will be binding/weaving the Secret Belgian Binding during the morning session. Starting from folding signatures, to punching sewing holes, gluing decorative paper on the covers, and sewing the book. You will complete one or more more bindings by the end of the morning. The instructor will provide a kit for you with pre-cut boards and paper for both methods of bindings to ensure success with the binding.
After lunch we will be making the long stitch binding. This is a great binding to start with if you’re new to bookbinding. The long stitch requires no glue and lays flat when opened. We will be doing the slit spine method (there are two different variations, and you will be shown the difference in class). By the end of the 3 hours, you will have completed one or more long stitch bindings.
Gabby Cooksey lives and works in Tacoma, WA as a bookbinder and artist. In 2014, she received her diploma for Bookbinding at North Bennet Street School in Boston, MA. She creates one of a kind design bindings and edition artist books. Cooksey’s books are included in the collections of BIMA Artist Book Collection, Amherst College, Library of Congress and many more private and public collections across the world. She is also the studio assistant to Don Glaister, Suzanne Moore, and Jessica Spring (Springtide Press).
A note from your instructor: "Thank you so much for joining me! By the end of the class, you will have completed a Secret Belgian Binding (not so secret, but I’ll tell you the name origins in class). Feel free to bring a notebook and apron. I’ll provide a worksheet with all our notes. This is a lovely binding that feels nice to bind and weave together. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at boundbycooksey@aol.com. See you in class!" - Gabby
Inspired by both Origami and Paper Engineering, we distill paper folding to its practical essence – with spectacular results! A fun team of two paper-folding fanatics will guide you through creating paper structures for Artists’ Books and other projects.
You will complete a complex book in record time; learn a trio of clever folded forms for books (map, lotus, and meander folds) that have myriad uses. Finally, you'll almost magically fold one sheet of card stock into an elegant portfolio in which to take all your creations home. Instructions will be available either as handouts or emails. It’s going to be a great class – don’t miss it!
Instructors:
B. Sue Johnson has been playing with paper for a long time, using origami techniques to create boxes, mobiles, books, and illuminated paper structures. Although she's been dabbling in book arts for decades, after retiring from her federal career she joined BARN with the intention of expanding and honing her skills in the book arts studio. She teaches origami as a volunteer through the regional origami group, PAPER (Puget Area Paper Enthusiasts Roundtable), at events such as Sakura Con, Cherry Blossom Festival and Bellevue College's Japan Week and, most recently, at Teen Night at BARN.
