Course Code: 26FLP303I
This two-day, in-person workshop takes place at CBA on Saturday, November 21st to Sunday, November 22nd, from 11AM to 5PM ET
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Saturday, November 21st, 11AM to 5PM ET
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Sunday, November 22nd, 11AM to 5PM ET
Please Note: Registration for this workshop closes on November 7th at 11:59 pm.
About the Workshop:
This in-person class at Center for Book Arts is taught by instructor Sarah Nicholls.
Letterpress is organized around an invisible grid, using forms that are aligned horizontally and vertically. Naturally, printers over time have been drawn to break that grid, devising unique solutions for how to print curves, diagonals, and shapes, using the basic building blocks of type. Drawing from the Center’s unique collection, participants will create their own typographic designs in all directions, using overprinting, masking and layering of forms. We will learn how to use a rotary chase, “daredevil” furniture, and other alternatives to a traditional lockup. We will learn how to mask wood type safely, to create new shapes from existing ones. We will combine color and form on press, and stretch our skills in new ways.
Along the way, students will practice the fundamentals of printing on a Vandercook Proofing Press, including locking up their formes, inking techniques, registration, and working with color. This class is perfect for artists, designers, and adventurous printers. Some prior experience on press will be helpful. By the end of the workshop, everyone will leave with a small variable edition of original layered prints and a deeper understanding of how to manipulate type on the bed of the press.
Required Materials:
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Olfa knife or X-Acto knife
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Pencil and paper
All other materials will be provided by the Center for Book Arts at no additional cost.
About Sarah Nicholls
Sarah Nicholls is an artist, printmaker, and writer whose work combines language, image, visual narrative, and time.
Her ongoing projects on climate change, urban ecology, and the history of science and technology include a series of letterpress pamphlets as well as participatory programs like guided urban/nature walks.
Nicholls’ limited edition artist’s books are in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University, and Stanford, among others.
Her work has received support from the Bronx Council on the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Puffin Foundation, and she has participated in residencies at BRIC House in Brooklyn, the Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, and Guttenberg Arts in New Jersey.
Nicholls teaches letterpress and book arts at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design in New York City.
All images courtesy of the instructor unless otherwise noted.