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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. Open studios are for BARN Members only at this time.
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. We will expand the hours as Covid 19 restrictions allow.
Important Details:
Monitor: Virginia Davison
Monitor: Jessica Dubey
Monitor: Peggy Graving
Monitor: Janet Sanders
Monitor: Susan Callan
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.
Details:
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
*This class is for youth ages 10-14* Spend a week creating art in one of BARN's outdoor classrooms this summer! We will spend this session exploring several kinds of printing and image transfer techniques including mono-printing, relief printing, stamping and solar printing. After making a portfolio of prints, we will assemble them into a small book complete with text. Our subject will be trees, but no worries about drawing, as our projects will be geared for fun and experimentation.
Students should wear clothing suitable for working with paint and inks.
Instructor Bio:
Lynn Agnew is a working book artist and retired educator. In addition to working as a teacher and school administrator, she worked for Microsoft and created curriculum for the WA State Arts Commission. Her artistic focus is currently on making books and fabric pieces. Her work can be found in university and private collections around the country.
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.
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.
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.
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.
