Our Workshops - July through September

Bookmaking & Creative Writing for Teachers
With Leah Mayers
Saturday, September 20th
10 am– 4 pm
$108 (includes materials)

This class is for teachers who want their students to love books – both inside and out. Leah works with art teachers who want to incorporate writing into their curriculum, and/or elementary and secondary teachers who want to enhance the teaching of literacy through making books and writing poetry. Teachers will walk away with samples of multiple structures that will be easy to incorporate into regular classrooms as well as art rooms. Leah’s own work as a teacher helps her structure projects that work within the constraints of a real world classroom. Here’s a chance to explore your own creativity rather than
grading someone else’s.

Class size limited to 6 participants.

Limp Paper Binding
With Juliayn Coleman
Saturday, September 27th
10 am– 5 pm
$104 (includes materials)

This structure is one of the most inviting and graceful of historical structures. Using alum-tawed leather straps, bone clasps, and paper you will letterpress print lovely designs on the cover and make a book that is ideal for poetry chapbooks or your most private musings. We will adorn these books with 15th century chevron silk endbands. Open to all skill levels.

Class size limited to 10 participants.

Paste Papers & Box Making
with Lesa Dowd
Wednesdays - October 1 & 8
7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
$110 (includes materials)

One of the earliest methods of decorating papers was to add pigment to leftover glue, slather it on paper, and use whatever was handy to add shapes, lines, and details. This method has endured through the ages because it’s soooo much fun. Come make your own using both traditional and modern techniques.

How better to display your paste papers than to make your very own stationery box? Dazzle your friends with the paper you’ve made on this original origami box. It’s not too soon to be thinking about holiday gifts.

Intro to Digital Letterpress Printing
with Stacey Stern of Steracle Press
Thursdays
10 weeks from October 2nd – December 4th
7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
$385 (plus $25 materials fee)

In this ten-week class for beginners, you will learn how to make your very own polymer plates, and print your designs from them. Stacey will take you from your computer image, to film, to plate, to the press. You will learn how to operate the equipment, mix inks, register plates, and print. In the early sessions, Stacey will discuss the traditions of printing, and guide you to the modern adaptations that are possible with photopolymer plates. There will be time to work on either your own or a group project. (No class November 27th)

Intro to Artists’ Books
with Jen Thomas
Tuesdays
October 7th – November 11th
7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
$241 (includes materials)

So what exactly is an artist’s book? Well, artists’ books continue to defy definition and often take many different forms - altered books, sculptural books, one-of-a-kind objects, beautifully printed and bound multiples. They remain a fantastically creative form for artistic expression and visual communication. In this class students will be introduced to several basic book structures and image transfer techniques that they can then build upon to create their own artists’ books. Students will be encouraged to view the book as a conceptual space and create an artist’s book every week to fully explore the medium. Leave any preconceived notions at the door. No previous bookbinding experience necessary.

Computer Design Bootcamp
with Dana Bowers
Saturday & Sunday, October 11th & 12th
11:00 – 5:00 p.m.
$144 (includes materials)

Want to know how best to translate your designs into letterpress friendly files? This two-day workshop will help you take your design ideas and prepare them for photo-polymer processing. Don’t have a design idea, but want to learn what works? Dana will have a class project for you to hone your skills. We will work with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to learn what works best in letterpress and what to avoid. This is a hands-on class, so it’s best to have Illustrator and Photoshop, and even better to have them on a laptop you can bring to class.

Millimeter Binding
with Juliayn Coleman
Saturday & Sunday, October 25th & 26th
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
$150 (includes materials)

During the early part of the 1900’s, northern Europeans needed to conserve bookbinding materials, and so was born the millimeter binding. Allowing only a single millimeter of leather to show on the boards at the spine and corners, these bindings made the most of what northern European bookbinders of the early 1900’s did have in spades: leather paring skills. In this class, we will begin to explore what a well-meaning bookbinder can do with these skills. If you have ever been curious about working with leather, this is an excellent way to get started. And just for fun, we’ll make our own paste papers to decorate the larger portion of the covers. Previous experience with sewing books will be helpful for this class.

Quarter Leather Photo Album
with Lesa Dowd
Sunday, November 9th
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
$125 (includes materials)

Participants will create this deluxe photo album using leather on the spine to coordinate with beautiful paper covers. Discussion will cover appropriate papers for use as pages, considerations for cover papers and leather, and archivally sound techniques to put photos into the album. Traditional bookbinding techniques will be used from folding and sewing the pages to covering the album. Some bookbinding experience helpful.

Paste Paper
with Juliayn Coleman
Sunday, November 16th
12:00 – 3:00 p.m.
$55 (includes materials)

One of the earliest methods of decorating papers was to add pigment to leftover glue, slather it on paper, and use whatever was handy to add shapes, lines and details. This method has endured through the ages because it’s soooo much fun. Come make your own using both traditional and modern techniques.

Date Book with Cloth Inlays
with Juliayn Coleman
Sunday, December 7th
12:00 – 4:00 p.m.
$78 (includes materials)

Here is a bookbinding project so attractive, so uniquely expressive, it will stun you for its usefulness. It combines something you need (a 2009 date book) with an opportunity to construct shockingly beautiful patterns in colored bookcloth on the covers. You will become comfortable with common bookbinding adhesives, tools, and materials in this class. Make a book you will be thrilled to judge by its cover, and relieved to have for its content. Open to all skill levels.

Make a Stationery Box
with Juliayn Coleman
Saturday, December 13th
12:00 – 4:00 p.m.
$75 (includes materials)

Wondering what to do with all that extra stationery you’ve got lying around? What about those cards you made in the Holiday Cheer class? This workshop takes you through each cut and fold of assembling your very own box. It makes an ideal container to keep your own stationery organized, or the perfect gift for that special someone.

Please check back soon for updates to our workshop schedule.