About

This two-day workshop is the whole enchilada: type selection, type setting, paper selection, ink mixing, and overall deepening of your skill as a letterpress printer. Begin using the language of letterpress, the tools, and the materials of the craft while taking the plunge into the intricacies of registration for color work and combining type with graphic elements such as linoleum blocks - or even photopolymer plates (assuming you have one in your back pocket - if not, we'll provide samples).

We'll start by scooting through letterpress basics: working with type, locking up a form, and preparing a project for the press, where we'll focus on the three P's of make-ready: Packing, Pressure, and Positioning.

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).

Details:

• Prerequisites: Although this is an introductory class, students are expected to have completed the current letterpress orientation class, Getting Acquainted with Letterpress (offered free of charge every first and third Thursday of most months), or the Experiments with Letterform class, or have had previous letterpress printing experience.
• Materials fee: $20 is included in the tuition cost.
• Please feel free to bring a bag lunch. BARN has a refrigerator you can store your lunch in.

Instructors:

Ellie Mathews and Carl Youngmann operate The North Press in Port Townsend, where they specialize in designing and printing poetry broadsides, including haiku. They are excellent instructors, knowledgeable and patient and have gotten rave reviews from students at BARN.