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Welcome back to Print & Book Arts Open Studios. We are starting with a limited Open Studio schedule but will be adding dates as Studio Monitors are trained. If you are interested in becoming a Studio Monitor please contact Amy Goldthwaite, printandbook.lead@bainbridgebarn.org.
You will need to register for the Open Studio, as we have a set number of artisans that can be in the work space at one time. At this time, Open studios are only for current BARN Members — those who have taken introductory classes in Printmaking, Letterpress and/or Book Arts.
The Print & Book Arts Studio will be practicing safety measures for the health and well-being of all participants, in accordance with state and CDC guidelines. Everyone using the studio will be required to wear masks, wash or sanitize hands frequently, keep a physical distance of six feet from others and stay home if they are sick. Please review our safety protocols before registering. You will find the links in the "Important Details" section below.
You are welcome to attend the Print & Book Arts Open Studios, regardless of the type of book or printing project you have in mind. Each session will have a monitor on hand to answer questions. All studio equipment is available but participants must be certified on any press they plan to use. Time is limited to three hours per session; the last half hour being devoted to cleanup.
Important Details:
Monitor: Jessica Dubey
Monitor: Peggy Graving
Monitor: Susan Callan
You are welcome to attend the Print & Book Arts Open Studios, regardless of the type of book or printing project you have in mind. Each session will have a monitor on hand to answer questions. All studio equipment is available but participants must be certified on any press they plan to use. Time is limited to three hours per session; the last half hour being devoted to cleanup. We will expand the hours as Covid 19 restrictions allow.
Monitor: Virginia Davison
Designed for the very beginning Book Arts student, this two-session class will introduce you to the world of handcrafted, artistic books. No other book form offers so many basic skills – so much background information – so many options for variation and personalization – as the Artist’s Accordion. You will learn things you never even thought of before - about paper, cutting techniques, use of adhesives, design elements, and all the tools Book Artists use to craft unique, creative books.
In the first session, we will start with an overview of the process we will follow and then talk about the product YOU’d like to create as a takeaway. After an introduction to several tools and skills, we’ll build the book-block (‘bookie’ term for the stack of papers that will make up the book’s pages). We’ll cut the cover-boards, then talk about the options and opportunities for both content and cover designs.
This topic will be yours to continue through the week between the 1st & 2nd class sessions.
The second session is where we get creative, to make your books truly unique. We will do a quick review of the What, How, and Why’s from the first session. Then the real fun begins: using the creative process and the skills you’ve learned, you'll embellish, alter, add/subtract, and personalize your basic accordion into a work of art and personal pride.
We will share ideas and products; and watch a short video of variations that you, with your new skills, can now do on your own.
Details:
Instructor: Susan M. Callan has been a devotee of the whole world of Book Arts for almost 30 years.
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. In the Center’s 5-year run here on Bainbridge, she discovered the genuine joy of sharing her Book Arts knowledge and skills with enthusiastic students. Since then, she has been teaching and, of course, is still a student, in all aspects of Book Arts, as well as the study of Creativity.
In 2017 and 2019, she taught classes at the biennial, national FOBA conference (Focus on Book Arts), in Oregon. These classes playfully blended Book Arts with Creativity - an approach she continues to integrate into her BARN classes today.
Join us for a non-technical exploration of letterpress. If you’ve ever been curious about whether this kind of printmaking is for you, here’s an easy way to find out. BARN has the equipment; all you’ll need to bring is your creativity. This introduction will expose you to the simplest form of relief printing: ink, paper, and the workings of a basic press. By the end of the session—through collaboration and individual expression, you’ll have an assortment of colorful prints to take home. And maybe even frame!
Ellie Mathews and Carl Youngmann are partners in The North Press (and partners in life) in Port Townsend. They focus on the production of poetry broadsides with occasional adventures in ephemera, posters, cards, and whimsies. They have taught a variety of letterpress and print-related workshops at BARN and elsewhere.
After taking this class you may be interested in furthering your skills by signing up for Letterpress: Taking the Plunge that begins in September. Please click here to read more about this class and to register.
Instructor Bios:
Instructors are Ellie Mathews and Carl Youngmann. Carl began setting type letter by letter in 1960; Ellie combines her experience as a designer with her willingness to explore the techniques of relief printing. Together, they operate The North Press in Port Townsend, where they focus on the production of poetry broadsides with occasional adventures into ephemera, posters, cards, and whimsies. Working as a team, they will share with you their passion for the craft while guiding participants step-by-step toward taking independent command of the process.
Letterpress image credit: Ellie Mathews
During this exciting, two-day workshop we will focus on designing and creating a multi-color print from one or two plates built up in layers using oil based inks. We will go over a variety of plate making methods using traditional and contemporary methods to include hand and power tools. We will also cover the use of registration systems and tips on using color as a means of personal expression, choosing a pallet and mixing color inks.
Emphasis will be placed upon personal artistic development. Students will choose their own subject matter/imagery and will print a variety of b/w and color prints using wiping and roller inking methods with an intaglio style etching press. By the end of this exciting weekend everyone will leave the studios with a variety of prints from their own hand carved plates.
Saturday morning
This morning we will begin various plate making techniques including using electric carving tools and other traditional and innovative plate making methods. We will talk about image transfer, mark making and ways of building an image on an acrylic plate.
Saturday afternoon
After lunch, Curt will be available while students have time to work in studio creating a plate from an image of their choice. We will end the day with everyone using the press and oil-based inks to proof their plates, seeing everyone’s images for the first time on a piece of archival print paper.
Sunday morning
This morning will go over a variety of traditional and contemporary color printing methods to include relief rolling, using water color crayons, simultaneous color viscosity printing, offsetting, stamping stenciling and hand wiping methods. We will go over color strategies, mixing ink and using a registration system to produce full color prints.
Sunday afternoon
After lunch students will have open studio work time to create their own individualized color prints. To the most out of this two-day workshop Curt will be on hand all day both days to help students with technical assistance, recommendations and to collaborate.
After a brief show and tell students will take home their own hand made plates and beautiful full color prints.
In this course we will cover the following:
Instructor Bio:
Curt Labitzke is an associate professor of printmaking at the University of Washington. His work is represented at the Island Gallery on Bainbridge Island and La Bottega dell Acquaforte Gallery in Laguna Beach, California. Curt's work was included in the group of Seattle Regional Printmakers shows at Roby King Gallery in 2013 and 2014. He has shown in galleries internationally in Italy, France, Chile and Mexico.
In this workshop, students will learn the cyanotype printing process, a non-silver alternative photography/printing technique originally developed to create blueprints.
Cyanotype printing is a simple but relatively obscure process that allows for lots of experimentation. It can be layered with other types of printmaking and photography processes to create intricate, dynamic images. In addition to the possibilities it presents in the world of printmaking, cyanotype can also be used to dye textiles, in conjunction with other surface design methods or on its own.
We will explore the history of the process, from its origins as a way to print technical material, to its use to document the natural world, and its transition into an art technique. We'll play with the different substrates that can be printed on (almost anything porous!), and create our own prints and dyed pieces of fabric. We will learn about the different ways to make negatives, as well as contact printing with objects.
Students will leave this workshop with prints/dyed fiber to keep, as well as a zine explaining the steps in detail so they can make more at home.
All materials will be provided—cyanotype chemicals, a variety of natural fiber fabrics in various sizes, printmaking paper, and a zine (how-to guide) that covers the process in detail—but students are welcome to bring extra materials to print on if they wish.
Katey Rissi says, "I am an artist, educator, medicine maker, and activist. My artmaking practice is interdisciplinary and I shift between printmaking, illustration, collage, natural sculpture, textiles, and photography. I am interested in ancestral skills and ecology, and these often inform my work. Some themes I find myself returning to in my work include environmental grief, ancestor work, unsettling/decolonization, and what it means to be connected to community and place."
Katey holds a BFA in Graphic Design from Western Michigan University with a focus in Photography and Printmaking.
This two-day workshop is the whole enchilada: type selection, type setting, paper selection, and ink mixing. Learn the basics of letterpress printing, its language, the tools, and the materials. Dive into the intricacies of the craft while working on BARN’s simplest press.
We'll start by scooting through letterpress details: working with type, locking up a form, and preparing a project for printing. This is a skills and techniques workshop intended to ready you to work on your own projects with confidence during monitored Open Studios (members and non-members).
Prerequisites: This is an introductory class. One might want to begin with the half-day workshop called Testing the Waters or have had previous letterpress printing experience, but neither is required. Please click here to read more about this class and to register.
Build your confidence in Book Arts skills by learning to make a variety of quite simple book-forms such as pamphlets, booklets, brochures, cards, and zines. Then challenge your own personal creativity by adding to each thoughts/words you want to convey, then uniquely enhancing your creation to become an original art-book.
This two-session class is part of the Print & Book Studio’s Beginners Series, in which all the basic techniques will be explored; all the vocabulary of the world-of-book will become familiar; and each of your creations/products will be a source of pride.
In this class, Pamphlets & Company, not only will you acquire and refine book-making skills, you will also learn tips & hints along the way that will make future book-making experiences really fun!
Construction techniques like measuring, cutting, folding, gluing, extending, covering, and wrapping are all utilized, along with more complex notions such as creating illusions, 3-D effects, the power of words, and the subtlety of color will all become tools for you to effectively use as you work. We will be using a variety of materials in making these “cousins” of bound books – both as a means for learning the different characteristics (and demands) of available materials, and for you to actually experience the different effects that different materials can make.
In the first of the two sessions we will get acquainted with each of these ‘book’ forms through –
We will make two of the five forms during the first session, but leave the embellishing and writing as homework between session – this gives each of you time to think, ponder, edit.... and finalize on your own. It will also provide you with experience: that priceless element of creative discussion. And THAT – a creative review and discussion – is exactly how we will start the second session. Then, with lots of great ideas flying around, we go on to the creation of the remaining three forms.
It’s going to be a great class! DON’T MISS IT.
Susan M. Callan has been a devotee of Book Arts for almost 30 years.
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. In the Center’s 5-year run here on Bainbridge, she discovered the genuine joy of sharing her Book Arts knowledge and skills with enthusiastic students. She has been teaching (and, of course, still learning) all aspects of Book Arts, as well as the study of Creativity, ever since.
Consider five small shallow boxes, each folded from a single sheet of heavy stock. Imagine binding these drawer-like boxes into something reminiscent of a book block, complete with its own cabinet-like case. Inside each of these boxes you construct something mechanical from paper that can be used many ways. You have just built a Cabinet of Paper Mechanical Curiosities—a 4D Whitman’s sampler of movable delicacies, made entirely with paper.
This workshop removes the restraint of FLAT from the codex page. The first box explores movable paper engineering fundamentals. By adding a sculptural component, the second amplifies a model from the first box. The third is a tiny automata. The fourth contains a classic crankie. The fifth box employs a shutter structure to mysteriously bring an object into view. You will make this movable mechanical magic out of little more than card stock, glue, and simple hand tools.
Both paper engineering beginners and advanced practitioners will be accommodated and challenged by this material.
The first session will have a one hour break at noon and resume again at 1:00pm.
Supplies to have on hand:
Shawn Sheehy is an artist with a love of ecology who enjoys exploring such themes as interconnectedness, adaptability, and evolution. Passionate about pop-up books, he works sculpturally with the book format and has presented numerous workshops on pop-up engineering across the country.
Bringing together BARN’s Print + Book Studio and Fiber Arts Studio, this two-part workshop will introduce students to the fundamentals of screenprinting.
Screenprinting is one of the most accessible printmaking processes, and we will orient to the process in a way that makes it practical to replicate in a variety of settings. Screenprinting, or silkscreening, has a fairly short but incredibly rich history of use as a medium for surface design on textiles, as well as a printmaking technique on paper. We will discuss the history of the process, walk through the materials needed, learn how to expose screens, practice different techniques that can be used to create art to burn onto our screens, and, of course, print!
Students will leave this workshop with a screen burned with art of their choice as well as whatever they chose to print their art on.
Materials provided will include photo emulsion, printmaking paper, transparency paper, natural fiber fabric, and a zine (how-to guide).
Katey Rissi says, "I am an artist, educator, medicine maker, and activist. My artmaking practice is interdisciplinary and I shift between printmaking, illustration, collage, natural sculpture, textiles, and photography. I am interested in ancestral skills and ecology and these often inform my work. Some themes I find myself returning to in my work include environmental grief, ancestor work, unsettling/decolonization, and what it means to be connected to community and place.'
