"Print" Workshop

This workshop was developed to support the COVID online classroom. Students received a mailing at the beginning of the semester. For this project, materials included brushes, a small container of acrylic paint, paper, and a sheet of craft foam with adhesive backing.

For this workshop, our goals are to understand some of the processes and resources associated with print production prior to the advent of the automated printing press.

Sarah Werner offers a useful introduction to early print production in Studying Early Printed Books: A Practical Guide (John Wiley & Sons, 2019). You can see how a hand press operates, here.

For this workshop, you will need:

• something to shape to make a print (craft foam with adhesive in the mailing; a sponge; a potato to carve)

• something to shape it 

• acrylic paint from the mailing 

• brush/sponge 

• paper--you can use the large, blank sheet that accompanied the mailing, and the spare mulberry paper if you want to. If you have other types of materials to try, to include printer paper or card stock or fabric, that will work too. 

• a dish or paper plate for the paint 

• paper towels or an old rag

• something to protect your work surface

So, examples of "something to shape" might include thick cardboard and scissors; craft foam and an exacto knife or paring knife; a potato and paring knife; a sponge and scissors; thin styrofoam and scissors. 

Think in terms of a short word or an initial as far as what you want to print.

Some things to think about: layout (spacing, reversals, paper quality and print quality, distribution of "ink" across repeated printings); skill sets required to set type, format pages, assemble books; inventory and resources required to run a press, print shop, book binder, book seller; differences between a codex (gathering of pages) and a broad sheet; circulation of information based on technology & resources available; necessity of legible handwriting prior to advent of easy-access print technology and typewriters (a late C19 / early C20 technology)

Here are some sample products, which include a quotation from Banneker's 1793 almanac, which is billed as "Cowper, On Liberty," and is itself an extract of William Cowper, https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3794-w0060.shtml

Submit yours as a .jpg file