Wells Book Arts Summer Institute 2016

December 22, 2015

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75566_921726611229802_1138107073814181553_nThe 2016 Summer Institute registration is open now!  Register Here
For general participant information please click here

Download the 2016 Booklet PDF or request a printed copy

Our line-up is official:

Week 1 – July 17-23
Michael Bixler – Typecasting and Monotype Composition  (SOLD OUT)
Diane Bond – Decorative Paste Paper and Beyond
Steven Lee-Davis -Wood Engraving: Well Crafted Illustration
Scott McCarney – Experiential Artists Books
Brad Vetter – Pressure Printing & Contemporary Letterpress (SOLD OUT)

Week 2 – July 24-30
Karen Hanmer – Leather Binding Fundamentals (SOLD OUT)
Stan Nelson – Understanding the Typographical Punch  (SOLD OUT)
France Scully Osterman – Wet Collodion Tintypes
Peter Sowiski – East Meets West Papermaking
Jessica Spring – Daredevil Letterpress: Keeping Your Composure


Michael Bixler – Typecasting and Monotype Composition

This course offers the unique opportunity to learn typecasting at one of the last remaining hot metal Monotype shops in North America. Students will use the Monotype keyboard, composition caster and the Monotype Supercaster to cast and take home their own text and/or a case of type, including fonts of ornaments. This course will be of particular value to letterpress printers who want to experience the full gamut of metal type, from keyboarding, to type casting, to pulling proofs. Please visit the Bixlers’ website at www.mwbixler.com to see specimens of the many Monotype faces available, or call Michael at 315-685-5181 to discuss questions. Students will live at Wells and commute to & from Skaneateles in Wells vans. Limited to five students; no experience in casting required, but letterpress printing experience preferred.

Michael Bixler has cast metal type and practiced fine letterpress printing and typography since 1965. He and his wife established their press and letterfoundry near Boston in 1973, and since 1983 have resided in Skaneateles, NY, where they continue to print limited edition books and provide cast metal type to numerous private presses and letterpress printers around the world. Michael is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology and teaches letterpress printing at Wells College.

 

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 17-23, 2016


Diane Bond – Decorative Paste Paper and Beyond

This course will focus on the creation of decorative papers. The emphasis will be on making paste paper but we will also explore techniques such as plaster paper, suminagashi and orizomegami. Paste paper is one of the oldest forms of painting and designing the surface of paper using a pigmented paste. Historically, paste paper was used for book covers and endpapers. Though some of the ingredients have changed, paste paper is a technique used today to create unique papers for a variety of purposes. It offers endless possibilities for creating individualized papers through mark making and patterning. While learning the process of making paste paper, students will experiment with color and design. Plaster paper is a method of painting paper to create a textured surface while suminagashi and orizomegami use inks to create designs. Students will create a compendium of papers and a portfolio to house them. We will discuss applications and uses for our fabulous papers.

Diane Bond is a Roycroft Renaissance Master Artisan in book arts. Her experiences as a graphic designer, apprentice bookbinder and art educator along with training with several well know book artists have given her the skills and abilities to create finely crafted functional books as well as artist books. She has a passion for paper and loves making decorative papers. Her work appears in 500 Handmade Books, Volumes 1 and 2 by Lark Publications. Her work is in the collection of the University of Rochester, the Sidney Berger Paper Collection in Boston, Massachusetts, Millington Lockwood Business Interiors in Buffalo, New York, and is part of the the Al-Mutanabbi Street Project. She has taught book arts workshops across Western New York and is currently an art teacher in the Orchard Park Central School District.

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 17-23, 2016


Steven Lee-Davis -Wood Engraving: Well Crafted Illustration

Wood Engraving was originally developed to illustrate books. Although today the craft of fine-line engraving has largely faded away, it is an art form well worth learning. Wood engraving utilizes special carving tools employed to the end-grain of hard woods – or the synthetic version, known as Resingrave – resulting in amazingly detailed images that compliment letterpress work. You will learn techniques for carving blocks, creating and transferring imagery, and printing edition prints. You will gain confidence as they practice basic techniques such as tonal development, texture, straight lines and curves. You will then develop drawings, transfer to the block, engrave, and print. Final images will be proofed and printed on a press. No prior printing experience required, but some drawing ability helpful. Experience with wood-carving, linoleum carving, and intaglio etching a plus. Students will leave with multiple prints and enough skills to work independently.

Steven Lee-Davis is a Roycroft Artisan creating limited edition prints. He works in the medium of wood engraving and works on a Vandercook proof-press or an Albion hand-press. After receiving a Masters of Education at Massachusetts College of Art, he continued his education with an apprenticeship to Barry Moser. It was in Moser’s studio that he learned the craft of wood-engraving. Steven Lee-Davis primarily works on commission creating wood engraving illustrations. He also teaches workshops and has work in several galleries.

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 17-23, 2016


Scott McCarney – Experiential Artists Books

Creating a successful artists book demands an understanding of the physical elements of the book format in relation to formal visual structures. This workshop will engage participants in holistic approaches that move image-making ideas into innovative bookbinding structures.  The week will strive to integrate content, choice of materials, binding techniques and the action of turning pages in time and space into complete and independent works of art. Introduction to thematic variations on traditional forms will range from simple section bindings utilizing unusual folds and inventive sewings to multiple section bindings and concertina structures that extend ideas beyond the pamphlet. Each element of the book will be examined through hands-on experimentation and observation utilizing individual participants’ choice of images and/or image-making tools for mark making and collage. (A set of twentieth-century encyclopedias will be made available for source material and general-knowledge inspiration.) Participants are encouraged to bring projects in progress and/or elements for “book experiments.” Slides and support materials emphasizing the use of structure in concert with visual ideas in artists books will be presented.

Scott McCarney is an artist, designer, and educator based in Rochester, New York. He received formal design training at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond VA) in the 1970s, and earned an advanced degree in photography from the University at Buffalo/Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester NY) in the 1980s. His works are widely distributed and can be found in the library collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and Yale University Art Gallery, among others. His work is shown internationally (Sao Paulo, Brazil; Melbourne, Australia; Budapest, Hungary) as well as close to home (Hallwalls, Buffalo NY; Everson Museum, Syracuse NY; Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester NY). His teaching and lecturing itinerary is varied and eclectic, carrying the banner of artists books to Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Mexico, and South America. He currently teaches in the College of Imaging Arts and Science at Rochester Institute of Technology.

 

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 17-23, 2016


Brad Vetter – Pressure Printing & Contemporary Letterpress

Letterpress printing can be so much more than letters pressed into paper with ink in-between. As a new generation of printers, or duties are no longer just to communicate, but to grown and push this medium into new directions. Join us in exploring new (and old) techniques in letterpress printing. We will be covering the basics, but also digging deep into some fun alternative image-making using antique type and Vandercook printing presses from the Wells College pressroom. We will focus primarily on Pressure Printing, a non-traditional letterpress technique that creates unique and spontaneous images. Together we will master this process while implementing skills in typography, pattern making and designing for the letterpress. By the end of the week you will have a stack of your incredible prints and some brand new letterpress skills to show off to your friends at home.

Brad Vetter is a designer, artist, educator and letterpress printer. After studying graphic design at Western Kentucky University, Brad spent eight years honing his craft at the legendary Hatch Show Print in Nashville, TN, one of the oldest letterpress print shops in the country. Brad left Hatch in 2012 to start his own letterpress and design studio. Bouncing between 18th and 21st century technology and techniques, he continues to hand print rock-and-roll posters while also adding more digital design to his repertoire. Brad frequently lectures and hosts workshops throughout the US as well as teaching college-level design classes. His print work has been shown in such notable venues as the San Francisco MoMA, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Columbia College Center for Book and Paper, and the Danish Museum of Media.

 

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 17-23, 2016



Karen Hanmer – Leather Binding Fundamentals

The basic structure of a fine leather binding has changed little over the past 300 years. The text block is sewn onto supports, the spine carefully shaped, and the boards laced on. The book is covered in leather that has been precision-pared for protection, flexibility, and a sumptuous presentation. Students will build a solid foundation in fundamental binding and leather-working skills including sewing, rounding, backing, paring, and covering and will also develop the connoisseurship required to evaluate their own work for continued independent study. The course is also a valuable refresher for more advanced students who would like feedback on their technique. Students will complete one leather binding with sewn endbands, and experiment with tooling and multiple onlay techniques. Additional luxury features will be discussed, along with the evolution of the craft from Medieval to contemporary methods.

Karen Hanmer’s artist-made books are physical manifestations of personal essays intertwining history, culture, politics, technology and arid wit. Her work is included in collections ranging from The Getty Museum and the Library of Congress to Yale University and Graceland. Hanmer is a leader in the book arts community, having served on the editorial board of The Bonefolder, as Exhibitions Chair for the Guild of Book Workers, and as frequent exhibition curator and juror. She offers workshops and private instruction focusing on a solid foundation in basic binding skills.

 

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 24-30, 2016


Stan Nelson – Understanding the Typographical Punch

Knowing through doing, students will file and engrave a design in steel using the same techniques employed by Garamond, Caslon and Bodoni. In so doing they will come to understand the physical, three dimensional reality of letterforms and experience the immediacy of this fundamental process. After cutting a punch you will never see letters the same way again.

Raymond Stanley Nelson (Stan to his friends) has been cutting punches and casting type by hand for over 45 years. He is a Museum Specialist Emeritus after 31 years working in the National Museum of American History’s Graphic Arts Collection. Stan is a printing historian, artist, and an active letterpress printer. He is proprietor of the Atelier Press & Letterfoundry.

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 24-30, 2016


France Scully Osterman – Wet Collodion Tintypes

This is a five-day beginning tintype workshop that includes making wet-plate collodion tintypes with a large format camera and an enlarger. Camera work will focus on portraiture and still life, while the enlarger can be used to make tintypes from slides or botanicals (up to 4” x 5”). Participants will receive individual instruction and will be guided through all steps in the collodion process from pouring collodion, sensitizing, exposing, developing, fixing to varnishing. Tinting and burnishing will also be demonstrated and the students can choose to include these techniques. Each participant will receive a copy of the Scully & Osterman basic collodion manual, which includes all formulas, instructions, and sources of supply.

France Scully Osterman is an artist, writer, teacher and guest scholar at George Eastman Museum. She has received glowing reviews of her “Sleep” exhibit in Art in America, Paris Photo Magazine and the Village Voice.  Osterman is recognized for her extensive knowledge of early photographic processes including wet and dry-plate collodion, photogenic drawing, cyanotype, albumen and salt print methods. She teaches and gives talks at international and U.S. universities, museums and art schools and in the Scully & Osterman skylight studio in Rochester. Her work has been featured in Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde, The New Wave in Old Process Photography by Lyle Rexer, Coming into Focus by John Barnier, The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes by Christopher James (both editions), Le Vocabulaire Technique de la Photographie by Anne Cartier-Bresson (2008), and the third edition of Photographic Possibilities, by Robert Hirsch (2008). Her images are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Art, Houston; George Eastman Museum; Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas; The Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University and numerous private collections. She is represented by Howard Greenberg Gallery, NYC and Tilt Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ.  For more information go to: https://www.collodion.org.

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 24-30, 2016


Peter Sowiski – East Meets West Papermaking

The class will engage in a comparison of Eastern (Asian) and Western (European) traditions in sheet forming as a cue toward individual, custom production. We’ll meet somewhere in the middle to investigate different fiber types, preparation, sizing, color, and texture with an eye toward additional possibilities of shape, dimensional, and pulp painted statements in the medium. I’ll show a range of methods, tools and equipment, with all thinking back as we look forward to optimize particular qualities of our papers in resolved statements. The goal: master what we utilize to realize our vision in the paper, take away new capabilities, and forge new relationships with our own and others’ works. We’ll “Get it on paper!”

Peter Sowiski was born in 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received a BA in 1971 in Studio Art from Oberlin College, and an MFA in 1974 in Printmaking from Ohio State University. He is primarily known as a pulp painter, with work in numerous collections in America. Over the last forty years he has shown in over one hundred and ninety five exhibitions, held over eighty workshop, lecture and visiting artist posts locally to internationally. Peter is an Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts at Buffalo State College, where he taught from 1974- 2007, did stints as Chair of Fine Arts, of Design, and received the President’s Award for Excellence in Service to the College. He investigated papermaking in Korea, China and Vietnam, and was President of The Friends of Dard Hunter, Inc., an international organization of hand papermakers. He has worked at Abaca Press as chief screen printer since its inception in 1994. Since retiring, he continues working for Abaca press, and messing up his studio in Buffalo.

 

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 24-30, 2016


Jessica Spring – Daredevil Letterpress: Keeping Your Composure

Students will focus on typesetting and printing techniques that move beyond straight lines and right angles to set type that curves, angles and bounces. We’ll begin by exploring historic methods and tools for handset typographic composition including circular and angle quads. Because these tools have become increasingly difficult to find, we’ll adapt materials from art supply and hardware stores for manipulating type and creating dynamic lock ups on both platen and cylinder presses. We will also experiment with Daredevil Furniture, sets of lasercut furniture designed for type composition. While our focus is daredevil typesetting, we’ll cover innovative approaches to ink, paper, and production too. Students will create a collaborative book and a set of editioned prints to exchange. This workshop is appropriate for those with some letterpress printing experience who want to expand their approach to typesetting and printing.

Jessica Spring started setting cold type on a phototypesetting machine in 1982 as an undergraduate English major, beginning a lifelong interest in typography. She learned to set real metal type in 1989 and has been a letterpress printer ever since, most recently inventing Daredevil Furniture to help other printers set type in circles, curves and angles. Her work at Springtide Press—artist books, broadsides and ephemera—is included in collections around the country and abroad. She also collaborates on the Dead Feminists broadside series with illustrator Chandler O’Leary. Spring has an MFA from Columbia College and teaches letterpress printing and book arts.

 

REGISTER ONLINE HERE    Course runs July 24-30, 2016


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