Past Classes
All past classes can be offered again by request, incorporated into special events, taught as private lessons, or adapted to fit the needs of new students.
E-mail angee@spudnikpress.com for more information about customized classes.
Community Workshop: Papermaking
Description: Come get some respite from the summer heat and learn the basics of making paper. Create your own sheets of pulpy artwork or start a foundation for drawing, painting, printing, or for writing a note to that special someone. We will start with pulling sheets of white paper using cotton pulp. From there, students will learn how to dye paper pulp and paint with pulp. Come dressed for the studio, this can be messy, and you will get wet – which might feel pretty nice on a hot afternoon!
Repeat Pattern Design
Description:
This workshop will review a range of types and styles of repeatable patterns, helping students create intricate interesting patterns that actually fit together seemlessly. Patterns can be used for textile design, web design, making your own wallpaper, wrapping paper, etc. – and this workshop will give you a strong understanding of the principals used by designers to create all sorts of patterns. The instructor Megan Owdom-Weitz, has years of experience working with her own patterns, creating her own line of apparel, and is excited to share some of the resources she looks to for inspiration.
Wednesday from 7 – 9:30 pm on 06/01/2011
with Megan Owdom-Weitz | Price: $10, if able
Japanese Mokuhanga Woodblock Printing
Description:
Japanese mokuhanga woodblock printing differs greatly from Western printing techniques. Printers use paste, pigment, and a baren to print by hand (without a press). This centuries old tradition allows for a great degree of expression in the printing process. Using the time-honored technique of kento marks for registration, students will make a perfectly registered 4 color print. The class is ideal for beginning printers and artists already experienced with Western-style block printing. Students should expect some work outside of time in class. Students are expected to provide their own printing paper and carving tools. All other materials, including high-quality woodblocks are included in the cost of the class.
Suggested carving tools: Japanese wood carving tool set – 5 pieces. Item 20191 from Graphic Chemical. Carving tools are available for free use at Spudnik Press, but can not leave the studio.
Met for 5 weeks every Sunday from 1 – 5 pm beginning 05/29/2011
with Matthew Messmer | Price: $175
Typesetting for Book Spreads
How to get your typography juju going
Description:
The book spread is the archetype for understanding typography. Mastering an initial set-up for a book spread is key to understanding the demand of Macro- and Micro-typography. Students will have the opportunity to apply this approach through exercises and projects. Students will be able to set up a book spread using master templates and style sheets while understanding the typographic demand for such a project. This fundamental understanding of typography is expandable to multitude of applications (including letterpress). This is ideal for artists who wish to incorporate typography into a wide range of graphic projects, including books and posters. Students will need to provide a computer with Indesign (CS2 or higher), a ruler, and a sketchbook. Anyone interested in this class that do not have access to a laptop with Indesign should contact angee (at) spudnikpress.com.
Community Workshops
4 Hours & 400 Typefaces: How to navigate your typeface choices
Description:
Learn the basic criteria for choosing an effective typeface for your project. Through exercises and visual evaluation of examples, students will form a better understanding of choosing appropriate typefaces for projects. This process happens away from the computer, offering a crash course in applied typography. Ideal for students who want to learn how to better navigate their type choices. Students encouraged to bring scissors, a glue stick, scotch tape, and a ruler. Some supplies will be available at the studio.
Etching with Color
Description:
This course will focus on creating intaglio prints with multiple plates. Students will be able to introduce a cacophony of colors into their prints through using chine colle, soft ground, hard ground, and aquatint. Students will learn all the little things that become crucial when working with more than one copper plate, like tearing and stretching paper, registration, transferring images, drying prints, and approaching the press cleanly and efficiently.
Community Workshops
Etching Workshop
Description:
Intaglio is a family of printmaking techniques in which an image, drawn with metal tools is incised into a metal plate. Ink is applied to the surface and then rubbed with a stiff cloth to remove the excess, leaving ink only in the incisions. A damp piece of paper is placed on top and the plate and paper are run through a printing press that, through pressure, transfers the ink from the recesses of the plate to the paper. Workshop participants will learn about the history of the process and how artists use it today. Students will see the process beginning to end, and will have the opportunity to experiment with tools and try their hand at printing.
Related classes: Multicolor Etching
FREE Illustration Workshop
In this introductory worskhop led by Sanya Glisic, illustrator and printmaker at Spudnik Press Cooperative, participants will learn the basics of inking on paper and creating original imagery as inspired by text. Sanya will demonstrate the techniques of using quill pens and india ink, with emphasis on concept and personal expression.
Related classes: Intro to Screen: From Sketch to Print
Ho-Ho-Holiday Card Making Workshop!
How it all works:
Students will come with a 1-2 color design that they would like to make into a line of greeting cards. Screens will be pre-coated with photographic emulsion to allow students to focus on perfecting their design, transferring their image to a screen, mixing colors, and finally…. printing! Students are asked to bring 20-40 blank cards to print on, as well as the finished design on a thumb drive or CD (non-digital imagery is also okay). All other materials will be provided. Please e-mail angee@spudnikpress.com if you have any questions on the best way to prepare your design.
Intro to Screenprinting
Focus: Photography and Graphic Design
This introduction to screenprinting class will focus in creating striking prints from digitally created stencils. We will work with halftone patterns to convert photographs into stencils appropriate for printmaking. We will address how different modes, filters, and actions in Photoshop can create a variety of aesthetic options for the contemporary screen printer. Students can also elect to work with text- or shape-based imagery created through Photoshop or Illustrator and will receive feedback on how to tweak their designs to create successful prints. Some knowledge of Photoshop or Illustrator is helpful. All of our classes prepare students to feel confident printing independently at Open Studio sessions and address the basics like using photo emulsion, color-mixing, layering, and registration. All materials except paper will be provided.
Level 2 Screenprinting
Full Color Printing
This class is geared towards students who are already familiar with the process of screen printing but would like to delve further into multicolor printing. With an eye on detail, we will focus on creating layers that will produce rich colorful prints. We will tackle CMYK printing, duo- and tri-tone printing, and utilizing transparency to create beautiful overlays of color. Students can work photographically or from illustrations, and will be encouraged to adapt the skills taught in the class to their own personal style. All supplies except paper will be provided.
Photographic Etching
An Intro to Non-Toxic Photopolymer Plates
Photopolymer etching is a new way to make environmentally friendly photographic prints! Using a plastic plate coated in a light-sensitive polymer, this magical material can combine photographic images with the richness of traditional intaglio prints. It’s a modern version of photogravure! . Combining photopolymer plates with digital manipulation through Adobe Photoshop creates endless possibilities for this novel medium. This workshop will walk students through the entire process, from preparing digital images, using an aquatint screen to expose the plates, and finally to hand printing the plates. This workshop is open to all skill levels. All materials will be provided, including the plates, ink, and paper. Students are asked to bring a digital photograph (straight up photography or otherwise) that they would like to print. Plates provided will be 5”x7”. Students who have a laptop with Photoshop are encouraged to bring it along.
Collagraph Workshop
The Collagraph is literally collage printing at its best. In this course you will learn to make inexpensive, non toxic, extremely direct printmaking plates that can be printed using a variety of techniques including relief and intaglio. Plates can be made with fabric, glue, tape, acrylic mediums, metal grit, and found objects. The plates can be easily shaped and take advantage of such supports as scrap mat and chip board. In addition to the most direct of textural outcomes, we will explore the subtle working of surfaces as well as photographic possibilities. This is a two day workshop. The first Sunday will cover the making of the collagraph plates. The following Sunday will cover printing the plates. All materials are provided, but students should bring any found materials they would like to incorporate into their work.
Printing for Textiles
This class will explore textile printing. Students will design their own projects and learn both block printing and screen printing. Prints on fabric can be used in endless ways, and are great for students interested in quilting, sewing, stretching their own canvases, creating apparel, etc. Katy will demonstrate printing patterns in repeat and will walk students through envisioning and printing their own repeat patterns; these demonstrations will cover wood carving, block printing by hand, basic photo screen printing, as well as textile care and other useful tips. Students will have the opportunity to print t-shirts, tablecloths, napkins, tea towels and/or other house wares. This class will certify students to use our Open Studio sessions and teach students how to print from home with out a press.
Students are asked to provide fabric for their independent projects, as well as a set of 4 matching shirts, napkins, towels, or tote bags. Spudnik Press will provide all other materials, including ink and fabric to practice printing on.
Color Block Printing
This multi-level class will utilize the wonderful world of relief printing to create colorful prints. Pete will address the basics, like properly using the carving tools, choosing paper, using a press, and printing by hand. He will show how to utilize techniques like stamping and stenciling to add color to prints, then dive into more advanced multi-plate printing. Students will have many options to explore hues and shades into their print making practice. Students will create independent projects by carving high-contrast images onto linoleum or wood blocks. Students will need to supply plates and paper. All other materials are provided. Students are encouraged to purchase their own tools to enable work to be done outside of class. Basic tools are provided for use at Spudnik, but cannot be taken home.
Etching 101
If you have a dangerous doodle habit, this etching class is an exciting opportunity to familiarize yourself with a new medium. By utilizing a variety of mark making tools and techniques, students will learn to create fancy lines, blubbery lines, furious lines, carefree lines, and everything in between. The class will also explore a process called “Sugar Lift”, which not only sounds cool, but looks cool too, and uses shades and tones to create images in the copper plate. Students will learn to translate their personal style of drawing and painting to fine art printmaking.
This class will meet twice-weekly. All demonstrations of new processes will happen on Tuesdays, when etching students will have the entire studio to themselves. On Thursdays, students will share the studio with Open Studio printers while working on their independent projects. Alex will be on hand to provide endless expert advice.
Students will need to supply plates and paper. All other materials are provided. Students are encouraged to purchase their own tools to enable work to be done outside of class. Basic tools are provided for use at Spudnik, but cannot be taken home.
Printing on Fabric
This class is solely devoted to printing on fabric. Students will be led on an exciting adventure into the world of block printing and screen printing. As a class, we will print dainty tea towels, not-so-dainty tee-shirts, and maybe a table runner or two. But those are just the demonstrations! Students will also have time to complete a project of their own choosing. This fast-paced class will leave students certified to use our thrice-weekly Open Studio sessions where they can perfect their newly learned skills to create gifts for their friends, merchandise for their band, and wares for their Etsy stores.
Screenprinting for Kids
Spudnik Press is offering our first kids class designed for 5-10 year olds. Each week will focus on a different project, beginning with printing a t-shirt, and ending with each student choosing their own project. All students should be accompanied by a parent, who will also learn the basics of screenprinting. Help your child turn their drawings into multiples for the grandparents…
Going with the Grain: An Introduction to Woodcuts
This 8 week class will give participants a thorough introduction into the world of relief printing. Participants will learn the basics of this process by creating high contrast black and white images, transferring them to wood and carving away the negative areas of the image, leaving the image as a relief. The class will cover multiple ways to print this block, by hand and with a press. Students will then work in color, using multi-block printing and the reduction cut processes. Stamping and stenciling will be introduced as easy alternatives to adding color to prints. By the end of this workshop, students will have developed an understanding of the art of woodcut, allowing them to utilize the process after the workshop, and print independently at Spudnik Press. Students need not have prior printing experience. A short material list will be provided during the first class.
Linocut Greeting Cards
Can’t stop eyeing all those handmade cards at Renegade? Do you quietly envy Nikki McClure? Why not make your own greeting cards? Students will learn how to translate their drawing, a photograph or found image to a linoleum block, carve that block, and print it over and over. We will address both the technical side of creating linoleum prints (like how to hold the tools, properly ink the plate, registration, etc.) as well as the aesthetics (like visualizing positive and negative space and choosing what type of marks to make). 25 cards and envelopes are included in the class fee. Don’t want to print on plain white cards? We will place orders during the first week, allowing students have complete artistic control over their project.
Block Printing on Everything
Block printing is a tried and true printmaking method that is approachable and versatile, and can create luscious art or objects. Block prints can be printed on virtually anything, and doesn’t require a press. This workshop will lead students through planning an image, carving a block, and printing it, both on conventional paper, and anything you feel like bringing with you do the class… like T-shirts, umbrellas, trapper keepers, and more.
Printing From Plexiglass
Plexiglass is a print makers best friend! Well, it is at least a really cool tool that all should know about. This one-day workshop will introduce attendees to four (4) ways to use a plain old piece of plexiglass to make beautiful art. We’ll use watercolors, needles, ball-point pens, and stencils to create a cacophony of images with aesthetics that can only be made by cranking plastic and paper through a press. All materials are provided.
Printing in Repeat
Have you ever wanted to print your own fabric for a special project? Maybe you want to make your own curtains, sew a summer dress, or design a custom table runner. This class will focus on printing simple patterns on fabric in repeat to create the yardage needed for these types of projects. Students will learn different types of repeats that can be used to create many pattern types like the brick repeat and the diamond. Students must have experience burning a screen and printing. All printing materials, including basic ink colors, will be provided. Fabric will be supplied by students.
SESSION I
Tuesdays from 7-10 pm on 0714/2009
with Megan Owdom-Weitz
Circuit Board Intaglio
Intaglio, also known as etching, is a method of printing from recessed lines etched into the surface of a metal plate. It is a traditional process that dates back hundreds of years, and takes years of study to master, and uses many hard-to-find materials.
With that said, it can also be done on these new-fangled sheets of copper called “circuit boards”. Circuit boards are cheap, quick to etch, and perfect for the beginning printmaker. By using circuit boards, the class will be able to experiment with many types of image making, and get to play around with the medium, before investing laborious hours filing plates, and cold hard cash buying thick sheets of copper. Despite this contemporary twist of the class, we will be addressing many traditional techniques, like aquatints, soft ground, dry point, and multiple plate registration.
Screenpring: Makin’ Posters
This screen printing class is similar to our standard “Screenprinting Basics”, but different… We will use old-fashioned (non-photoshop) methods of creating a layered image. We will address lay-out and color and printing in higher volumes. Students may take this class that have no previous experience. Students who do have previous experience will walk away with additional tricks of the trade and more familiarity with the medium. Posters made in class need not advertise a real event, but they may do so, when appropriate.
Recycled Hardback Book
This 1 day workshop is a great introduction to case binding. Students are asked to bring a book they don’t mind tearing apart. We’ll take the old covers and combine them with a new hand-sewn pages. Through taking this workshop, students will learn to make a hardcover book beginning to end, including taking measurements, paper grain, properly sewing the pages together, and gluing it all together. We’ll address some of the most common problems that new bookbinders experience (wrinkles, glue stains, and covers that don’t open all the way). And the best part is that you’ll leave this class with a one-of-kind book. All materials are provided. Students are asked to bring 1 or more books to recycle into a new journal or sketchbook.
Linocut Greeting Cards
We’ve received many requests for a class using printmaking to create personalized greeting cards and we are happy to announce we are going to fulfill this request with a great one-day workshop.
For those of you out there that want to do something creative and practical, join us on November 22 for an adventurous day of carving and printing. Students will learn how to transfer images to a linoleum block, use wood cutting tools to carve their image, and print from either a press or by hand. By the end of the class, each student will have an edition of about 20 cards, and a hand-carved block that can be printed again in the future.
Students should bring a few images they would like to carve. All other materials will be provided.
Back to the Basics: Drawing on Paper
We at Spudnik Press recently remembered that we love graphite and charcoal. We’ve been drawing with needles, painting with asphaltum, and we forgot about the simple pleasures of a pencil on paper. Form and contour escaped us somewhere between applying hard ground, and step etching our plate. And we recently thought, "Wouldn’t it be great to have a good, old-fashioned drawing class?"
We have invited the talented Layne Jackson to step in for an evening of drawing to help us reinvigorate our image making processes. She will share her expertise as she leads the class through a whirlwind of drawing exercises that will go back the to basics, and help us look at our drawings with a fresh eye. Through investigating light and shadow, perspective, and shape, students will be pushed to capture what they see on paper.
This class was conceived after a conversation about the effects of printmaking on drawing practices. However, students need not be printers. In fact, students need not be experienced artists at all. We ask students to come with a sketchbook. All other materials will be provided.
