Posts Categorized: Core Classes

March 19 | Monotype Printing 101 (1 Day)

Monoprinting is an exciting form of printmaking that favors organic, gestural, textural, and ephemeral marks and imagery. This process is an incredibly immediate, intuitive, and playful way of exploring printmaking. It is well suited to people new to printmaking and artists who typically work with paint, mixed media, or drawing.

This workshop will introduce students to the basics of monotype printing. Throughout the workshop, students will discover ways to create unique prints while learning about the properties of ink, paper, pressure, and how they interact to be able to explore the process of monotype on their own. Printing techniques will include additive and reductive processes, stenciling, and ghost printing. Each student will make three prints to explore these processes.

March 25 | Intro to Letterpress Printing (6 Weeks)

Note: This 6-week class will be skipping April 8th and April 29th and will therefore conclude on May 13th.

This class is great for students looking for the basic principles of letterpress printing and those who want additional experience with Vandercook and Platen presses.

At the course of this 6-Week class, students will develop foundational skills by using a composing stick to hand set lines of types. From there, projects will introduce more technical considerations as well as creative approaches to printing. Students will learn to learn to lock-up type, set pressure, mix and modify ink and how to safely operate our machines. Using the different presses introduced to them, students will work on two projects, ranging from business cards, personalized stationery, broadside, or posters.

Additionally, students will acquire the technical skills to be authorized to print independently at Spudnik Press and the creative skills to produce inventive prints for years to come.

April 5 | Intaglio Explorations (8 Weeks)

Intaglio printmaking is a family of printing techniques developed (in part) by goldsmiths as a way to decorate armor, musical instruments and religious objects. These days, artists use a fine point needle to draw through a thin protective ground to expose copper. With the help of a chemical bath, marks and images are etched into the metal with a remarkable amount of detail.

Artists can also work more spontaneously by scratching gestures and images directly onto plates, transferring textures, or painting directly onto plates with resists and mordents. This highly versatile art form can produce a huge range of aesthetics.

Beginning with basic line etching, students will practice traditional plate making and printing. Through chine collé, aquatint, dry point, soft ground, and experimentation, students will add tonality, color, and varied marks to their images. No prior printing experience is needed, and students who do have intaglio experience can revisit the foundational skills with a more nuanced understanding of the process, and move on to independent projects.

Registration fee covers tuition and class materials, including consumable studio supplies. The basic tools (etching needle, scraper and burnisher) are available to use during class, but students may wish to acquire their own so that they can work outside of class.

April 7 | Risography 101 (1 Day)

The Risograph is an automated duplicator from Japan that efficiently produces offset-like prints in a variety of saturated colors. Though not originally intended for artistic application, the machine has gained traction (and notoriety) in small-press culture for its distinctive effects and efficiency—as well as for being rather finicky.

This workshop will walk students through the fundamentals of risography for bookmaking and fine art printing. Students will learn techniques and best practices for reproducing imagery, giving consideration to ink density, drying time, paper choices, registration, and patience. Students will become acquainted with the mechanics of the printer and learn basic maintenance, including how to change the master roll and a drum’s ink tube. Everyone will leave with an individually designed two-layer print.

Students will receive risography authorization and an Open Studio coupon, redeemable for one complimentary Open Studio session within the following 60 days. 

April 11 | Intro to Screenprinting (4 Weeks)

Screenprinting is an art form known for its bold graphics and versatility. It is an approachable art form, yet has many facets to explore and master. This foundational screenprinting class introduces all the basic skills to get someone new to the process up and running, creating art on both paper and fabric. 

A selections of projects will offer students the opportunity to produce prints from drawings, digital designs, and found or photographic imagery. Students will become familiar with the full process from selecting the right screen for the job, to dark room exposure, to mixing inks, to printing, to reclaiming the screens. With support from an experienced printer, students will practice printing and (equally important) troubleshooting.

By the end of this class, students will know their way around the print shop and be authorized to continue printing independently at Spudnik Press  through our Open Studio program.