Classes 2024
SESSION ONE
Ben Blount | Woodtype Wordsmiths
Anna Embree | Endbands!
Jillian Sico | Landscapes of Handmade Paper
Pamela Smith | Paper Marbling: Tradition and Contemporary Approaches
Mary Sullivan | Dear Diaries: The Standard Diary
SESSION TWO
Chika Ito | Ink and Paint Making Using Edible Materials
Hannah O’Hare Bennett | Ground Up: Using Natural Pigments and “Found Color” in Pulp Painting
Jeff Peachey | Early 19th C. American and English Bookbinding: Machines, Materials, Structures, and Tools
Erin Sweeney | Book Arts, Sculpture and Mayhem!
Tony Williams | African Indigo Mark Making on Paper and Fabric
Ben Blount
Woodtype Wordsmiths
SESSION ONE
“The only way to find your voice is to use it.” –Jen Muller
I enjoy printing with wood type because it allows one to quickly create messages and get them out into the world. Wood type is generally larger and easier to print than metal, which makes it a perfect vehicle for printing together in a collaborative environment.
The focus of this workshop will be letterpress printing posters using wood type. We’ll play with language and composition—putting the right words in the right place to create powerful and meaningful messages. Students will learn how to set type, mix and apply ink, and print in a community print shop. We’ll try out various printing techniques (multiple color prints, transparency, overlapping, split fountain) and make small collaborations creating beautiful posters to hang, post and share.
Ben Blount is a Detroit born artist, designer and letterpress printer. He is best known for work that explores questions of race, identity and the stories we tell ourselves about living in America. Ben is a believer in the power of the printed word and shares his passion for print and design, speaking to students and educators around the country including at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, and Penland School of Craft. He received his MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College and BFA in Graphic Design from Washington University in St. Louis. His artists’ books and prints are included in numerous collections including the Chicago Field Museum, the Newberry Library and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Anna Embree
Endbands!
Endbands are an element of bookbinding that people have come to expect on books but often without understanding of their history or the wide variations in techniques. In this class we will study a multitude of endband styles, both historic and contemporary—and produce study sets that illustrate an array of possibilities. Endbands created will range from simple to elaborate, structural to purely decorative, with an emphasis on contrasting techniques and examining less frequently encountered styles. Textblocks will be provided for sewing on endbands, but participants are also welcome to bring books of their own.
Anna Embree is Professor and Coordinator for the MFA in the Book Arts Program in the School of Library and Information Studies at The University of Alabama. She teaches courses and workshops in bookbinding, box making, and special topics in book preservation and book history. Anna has a strong interest in the physical and material aspects of book structures. She has collaborated with printers and papermakers on limited edition handmade books, and has exhibited widely.
Jillian Sico
Landscapes of Handmade Paper
As artists who care deeply about environmental topics and place, many bookmakers are always looking for new ways to incorporate materials and connect the reader to a sense of place. In my practice, I ask how I can make paper that a) communicates a visual and tactile sense of place, and b) can work in a book. This course will explore how to bring landscapes--real, imagined, or abstract--to life through handmade paper. We will start with a variety of fibers that work well in book structures for printing surfaces, texture, sound, and translucency, such as flax, abaca, kozo, and repurposed cotton. We will then experiment with organic deckle box formation using pigments and natural inclusions, and learn techniques for creating landscape elements and textures using stenciled pulp painting. Participants will also see examples of other ways they can portray landscape on handmade paper, such as through observational drawing, natural dyes, and photo transfer.
Jillian Sico (she/her) is a papermaker, book artist, and printmaker who makes artists’ books under the imprint Frogsong Press. Her work is rooted in natural places and materiality, with a focus on environmental topics and concepts of connection and loss. She holds an MA in Environmental Anthropology from the University of Georgia and an MFA in Book Arts from The University of Alabama. Jillian has taught at The University of Alabama and Stillman College and has co-founded several collaboratives, including Plot 8, a papermaking and dye garden in Alabama, and Pokeweed Collective. Jillian currently lives in Colorado Springs, where she manages and teaches at The Press at Colorado College.
Pamela Smith
Paper Marbling: Tradition and Contemporary Approaches
The ancient art of Western paper marbling is very much alive today because it has adapted 15th century Near East methods to contemporary artistry. This class will focus on both the old and the new. After an introduction to traditional marbling techniques and combed patterns, we will focus on a combination of time-honored practices and unconventional elements. Together we will explore the use of alternative tools and materials—floral frogs, hair picks, mouth atomizers, stencils, mica powder, resists, and an array of colored papers— all to create a wide range of textures. We will use both acrylic and gouache paints, sometimes producing multiple layers or double marbles to establish depth and richness of color. The goal will be to produce papers that are both aesthetically pleasing, as well as successful in terms of interpretive value.
Pamela Smith launched her paper marbling career over 45 years ago in tandem with her work as founding director and curator at the Press of the Palace of the Governors, the Museum of New Mexico’s small press program and working exhibition in Santa Fe. Since her retirement from the Museum in 2001, she has taught book art classes and marbling techniques throughout the United States and continues to produce edition papers in her Abiquiu, New Mexico, studio. Her MarbleSmith work reflects a dedication to creating unique patterns, textures and color combinations for the finely bound book and has been widely distributed in this country and abroad.
Mary Sullivan
Dear Diaries: The Standard Diary
A favorite during the late 19th and early 20th century, this portable stationery binding encouraged brief daily reflections and contained dedicated sections for recording addresses, phone numbers, tracking correspondences, cash receipts, and more A precursor to the modern-day smartphone, this smart book was an ephemeral catch-all for every aspect of daily life for a full calendar year.
In this workshop, students will learn how to make a blank, pocket-sized notebook popularized by the American working class: the Standard Diary. These bindings often featured a cloth or leather cover with a tucking enclosure, a pencil holder, an almanac, a pocket, and a calendar. We will explore at least two binding styles used in creating these diaries. Historical exemplars will be on hand to provide inspiration, illustrating the range of ‘extras’ to be found with these diaries.
Mary Louise Sullivan is a bookbinder and printmaker who owns and operates Crowing Hens Bindery in Nashville, Tennessee. After studying printmaking and photography at Maryville College, earning a BFA in Art, Sullivan joined the ranks at Hatch Show Print, where over the course of five years she worked as a designer and letterpress printer. There she discovered a love for production, traditional processes, and was introduced to bookbinding, which resulted in her acceptance to the University of Iowa Center for the Book in Iowa City. There she studied papermaking, fine press printing, bookbinding, and calligraphy, and served as a graduate research assistant to MacArthur fellow Timothy Barrett at the University of Iowa’s Paper Production and Research Facility at the Oakdale Campus. After earning her MFA in Book Arts, Sullivan moved back to her hometown of Nashville and founded Crowing Hens Bindery in 2014. She specializes in high-quality, handmade stationery goods, such as traditional stationery bookbinding, letterpress printed stationery, book jewelry, and decorative papers.
SESSION TWO
Hannah O’Hare Bennett
Ground Up: Using Natural Pigments and “Found Color” in Pulp Painting
This class is centered around building a palette of colored paper pulp which will be used in learning the reverse pulp painting technique. Reverse pulp painting is a versatile technique that produces finely detailed patterns, subtle layering, and other interesting effects. We will also work with the butterfly wing technique, where sheets of decorative paper are made by building up layers of thin pulp on a matrix of thread. Colors will be made with natural earth pigments, lake pigments extracted from dyes, and pre-dyed fabric scraps—as well as the neutrals inherent to paper fibers. An advantage to these techniques is that they can be done without the need for a press or drybox, equipment that many people don’t have access to.
Hannah O’Hare Bennett is an artist, papermaker and educator based in Madison WI. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from the University of Kansas (1998) and an MFA in Design Studies from the University of Wisconsin Madison (2017). Between those degrees, she worked as a farmer, Peace Corps Volunteer (Ecuador, 2004-2006), and produce manager; manual labor that informs her current subject matter and manner of creating art. Since completing her MFA, she has had many residencies, taught fiber arts and papermaking workshops, and shown her work in group and solo shows across the country. She has taught college courses at Mount Mary University and University of Montana Western, and has worked as a substitute teacher for the Madison Metropolitan School District. Currently she teaches in the Art Department at UW Madison and is the campus Peace Corps recruiter, as well as maintaining her art practice in her studio at Arts & Literature Lab.
Chika Ito
Ink and Paint Making Using Edible Materials
In this workshop, we will create a spectrum of colors from things you can find at home; items that are easy to identify, safe to eat, and suitable for home disposal. We will start by going through historical and basic ink/paint recipes, look at the possibilities for colors and binders, and discuss distinctions between dyes and pigments, organic and synthetic colors. We will draw, paint, and print. There will also be a lot of cooking! During each session, you can smell and taste the freshly made ink (for those who dare!). By the end of this playful four-day session, each participant will have created their own color sample book full of edible colors. Chika will be bringing materials from Japan and The Netherlands and participants will be encouraged to bring colorful edibles to try out from home. This workshop is all about sustainability, experimentation, and the exploration of seeing common materials with fresh creative perspectives.
Chika Ito was born in Niigata, Japan, in 1976. Her father was a Kimono dyer and she grew up surrounded by colorful textiles, but her passion was always connected with paper and books. She moved to the U.S. in 1995, and has been experimenting with sustainable ink/paint making since 1997. Since 2005, she has been based in the Netherlands, and from 2009 she has been running a business called Atelier Chika Ito. Her business has two parts: working for paper conservation labs, and creating art. At paper conservation laboratories, she feels blessed working with beautiful Japanese paper and precious collections. Her studio is her happy place, where she crafts ink with pleasure, creates prints, and binds them into book form. She has conducted numerous workshops at international printmaking conferences and other institutions. In recent years, she has been collaborating with local and social organizations to promote sustainable color making.
Jeff Peachey
Early 19th C. American and English Bookbinding: Machines, Materials, Structures, and Tools
In England and America, common book structures changed significantly during the early nineteenth century. A typical common calf binding was supplanted by even cheaper, new binding styles, such as cloth boards bindings and adhesive cloth case bindings. The early nineteenth century is a pivotal and rich period in the history of bookbinding, and we have a plethora of writings, documents, and images to better understand the binders work and this exciting time. In a very short time — between 1825-1840 — books and bookbinding changed more than in the previous three centuries.
In this workshop, we will examine this complex time period through PowerPoint presentations, readings, discussions, and the hands-on construction of two models—an 1830s American starched cloth boards binding, and an 1840s English case binding with textured bookcloth. The poetry of John Bradford, an early nineteenth century New York City bookbinder, will be examined to add the context of a practicing bookbinder’s perspective from this defining, under-researched, and under-appreciated era in book history.
A key component of this workshop is exploring two methods of making bookcloth; a smooth starch filled version and a textured (or grained) style. Students will make a number of conservation grade cloths starting with inexpensive undyed muslin, XSL pigments and paint. The cloth can also be stamped or tooled in gold and blind. Bookbinders and Book Artists may find these useful materials in their expressive arsenal.
Jeff Peachey is the owner of Peachey Conservation LLC, a NYC based studio which specializes in preserving the intrinsic, artifactual, aesthetic and historic values of books. With more than 30 years’ experience, he has been awarded numerous fellowships to support his book history research, including from the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (Italy). He invented the Peachey Board Slotting Machine, which is used in book conservation labs around the world for board reattachment. He also designs and manufactures other specialized conservation tools. A well-known instructor both nationally and internationally, he teaches the Historical Book Structures Practicum to US graduate book conservation students from New York University and the Winterthur/ University of Delaware. His forthcoming publication "The Binder's Curse" examines the bookbinding poetry of the early 19th century New York City bookbinder John Bradford.
Books: jeffpeachey.com Tools: peacheytools.com
Erin Sweeney
Book Arts, Sculpture and Mayhem!
Let’s shake it up and get sculptural! Artist books, sculpture, and surface design. In this session we will consider our conceptions of these media and the intersections to be discovered—what new ideas can emerge and new work be created with fresh perspectives. We will embroider, sew books, and utilize simple methods for printing, mark making and stitching as we explore sculptural approaches to book making and surface manipulation. We will create models, and students will leave with those models, finished pieces, and also, methods for continuing to practice using these approaches.
Additionally, for educators at all levels, we will make time to discuss incorporating these practices into curricula, lesson planning, and innovative learning assessment strategies.
Erin Sweeney lives and works in southern New Hampshire. She received her MFA in Book Arts andPrintmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she was awarded the Elizabeth C. Roberts Prize for Graduate Book Arts. She also has a BFA in Sculpture from the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. Sweeney exhibits nationally, most recently at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Twiggs Gallery and Kimball Jenkins Gallery, both in New Hampshire. In 2019, Sweeney was awarded a Ruth and James Ewing Award for Excellence in the Arts, and in 2020 was a juror for the Awards. Additionally, Sweeney is the Coordinator of the Art Education program and Assistant Professor of the Practice at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She also teaches workshops at her Lovely in the Home Press and travels to teach workshops at many locales, including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, North Country Studio Workshops in Bennington, Vermont; Pratt Fine Arts in Seattle, Washington and Maine Media Workshops and College. She is also a member of the NH State Council on the Arts’ Teaching Artist Roster. She is an art materials “attacker” and will bring loads of fun stuff to Michigan
Tony Williams
African Indigo Mark Making on Paper and Fabric
This class will explore mark making using a variety of tools and techniques, creating patterns and textures when dyeing with indigo and cola nuts. We will study African designs and Adire patterns while discovering the origin and importance of indigo in the Americas.
Adire means "tie and dye" in the Yoruba language. Adire cloth is a patterned, cassava starch resist cotton cloth akin to batik. Adire Oniko is the oldest of Adire techniques and involves tying raffia (or thread) to achieve the resist before dying in indigo. Different tie-dye techniques will be taught using raffia. Stitch-resist is when raffia is sewn with a needle into fabric to create a design. Another process uses raffia and sometimes assorted seeds or other small items to tie designs into fabric by hand. Once the designs have been created, the fabric is dyed and dried before the raffia is taken out to show off the resist patterns.
Adire Eleko is the practice of hand-painting designs on cloth with a cassava starch paste using chicken feathers, and stencils before dyeing the cloth in indigo. This starch-resist keeps the dye from penetrating through the cloth. Adire Alabela, which means wax resist, is the Yoruba version of batik. Using wood stamps, stencils, or foam rubber, beeswax or paraffin wax is applied to the fabric. The fabric is then dyed, and the process is repeated with the next color. The wax can be applied to the fabric using wood stamps, stencils, or foam rubber.
Tony Williams is an indigo artist and papermaker of color, whose work, in pushing the boundaries between paper and textiles has evolved into sculptural work. Over the past ten years, Williams has been experimenting with indigo-dyed paper garments and accessories as wearable and sculptural art. “My art is ancestor driven,” utilizing indigo dye from plants that once grew abundantly in South Carolina's low country. The combination of hand papermaking and traditional African dyeing techniques forms the basis of his work, which provides the opportunity to explore new possibilities for sculptural expression, as he creates intricate patterns on hand-made Indigo paper cloth using immersion dyeing methods, stamping techniques, batik techniques, and resist dyeing techniques. Williams says “Exploring the gifts my ancestors gave me: strength, creativity, intellect”. His work has been shown in numerous local and national juried exhibits, international exhibitions and publications have featured his work. His focus is currently on working with Indigo on paper, writing, and illustrating books.