Welcome to the NPS LEAP Program

Learning from Experience As Printmakers


Here you'll find  


Return to Nature Printing Society website


               April 2024 Newsletter video



NPS video workshop classes

Gelli Plates, two videos with Bee Shay

Botanical Bas Relief Tiles with Sue Fierston 

Pretend You Are the Wind: printmaking using a pres, demo with Lynda Goldberg

To sign up for a workshop video, go to the LEAP tab on the NPS website.  You'll receive the video password and supply list by email. Workshops are $40 per video for classes and $25 per video for demonstrations.


Each workshop video runs two to three hours and includes a supply list, demos run 1.5 hours.


Free, shorter NPS demos

Scroll down (and check out the Library) to see free video, including videos on eco-dyeing, gyotaku, leaf printing, and tampo making.


LEAP Live interviews 

Scroll down (and check out the Library) to see videos:

with Chris Dewees, Dwight Hwang, Heather Fortner, Elena Orsini-Court, Arlene Bandes, and Sharron Huffman. You'll also find links to video featuring Hebe Bartz and Sonja Larsen.


Workshop Video Class with Bee Shay: Gelli Plates part 2 of 2: Time to use your prints!

Welcome back!

You'll receive the password with your payment confirmation. The password is good for both parts of Gelli Plate Printing.

Look for these key moments in this 2+ hour video:

• Cropping and using a mat

• Designing cards

• Using tissue paper to transfer fonts to collages

• Lining envelopes with your prints

• Creating a handmade book and collaging it

• Covering a notepad and creating gifts

• Making an envelope template from Tyvek

Don't forget to contact Bee Shay with any questions.  As part of the class you will receive a list of suppliers, and remember the Avery brand glue stick is the best!

Workshop video: Gelli Plate Workshop with Bee Shay: Part 1 of 2

In Part 1 of this two-part workshop, Bee Shay demonstrates gelli plate printing using dried or fresh leaves and

• A Gelli brand gel plate (Speedball brand will not work with acrylic paints)

• Golden brand Open Acrylics: white, black, burnt umber, any other colors

• AND / OR Speedball block printing ink, same colors

• AND / OR heavy body Golden acrylic paint or milk paint

• Tweezer and at least two soft brayers

• Blank cards and envelopes

• Paper ephemera

• Blank stickers and gift tags

• at least 50 sheets of heavy weight copy paper with a brightness of 100

After you learn the basic techniques of printing with Gelli plates, head over to Part II where Bee demonstrates how to use and combine prints including how to make books and collages. Your password is good for both parts of the class and does not expire.

Enjoy!

Recorded in 2023 with Sue Fierston.

Demonstration: Pretend You Are the Wind: Printmaking with a press with Lynda Goldberg 

In this awesome 90 minute demo, Lynda creates several prints using her professional press and passes along her tips and tricks for making great prints.  Her advice applies to the making of any print, including gelli plates or a hand press, because she describes her creative thought process and design choices.

Lynda's basic materials include:  plexiglas plates approximately 8 x 12 inches, Caligo water soluble inks, Arnhem paper, dried or fresh flat plants and...eggshells! As she says in the video, gelli plates are an easy substitute for her plexiglas plate and press set up.

You can purchase the demo for $25 on the NPS website (natureprintingsociety.org) under the LEAP tab.  You'll receive a password with your payment confirmation. 

This password doesn't expire, so you can watch the video in your own time.  Feel free to contact Lynda with any questions.

Recorded with Sue Fierston in December 2022.

Workshop video: Botanical Bas Relief Tiles Workshop with Sue Fierston

This 2.5 hour workshop, taught by Sue Fierston, is the first in our series of live and recorded workshops taught by NPS members. The workshop was taught twice in one day over Zoom, and this recording is from the morning section.

To learn the casting process and create your own botanical tiles, purchase the workshop for $40 on the NPS website (natureprintingsociety.org) under the LEAP tab.  You'll receive a password with your payment confirmation. 

This password doesn't expire, so you can watch the video in your own time.  Feel free to contact Sue with any questions on how to create the tiles.

March 2022    LEAP Live with Sharron Huffman  

NPS artist and long-time newsletter editor Sharron Huffman explains the evolution of her printmaking process (beginning in Ketchikan, Alaska) and connects us to NPS people and places since the late 1970s. Recorded in April 2023 with Sue Fierston.

August 2022

Three brief videos filmed outside in Acadia National Park of Arlene B.'s reduction printing process.  


Arlene explains how to add and print a second color.

May 2022 

We asked our workshop instructors to tell us about the classes they would be teaching at the August workshop in Acadia National Park. The following three videos capture the creativity and energy of these fine teachers.


Kathy, A, Bee appear in this video.

May 2022 Teacher Talk:   Arlene, Coleen, JoAnn, Lori, Bridget, Janie


April 2022 Teacher Talk: Matt, Lynda, Sue

March 2022   Sonja Larsen Interview

This 10 minute interview was filmed in conjunction with Sonja's March 2022 nature print and gyotaku show "Images from Nature" at the Crossing Arts Alliance in Brainerd, MN.   

Copy and paste this link into your browser window: 


 https://www.crossingarts.org/past-exhibition



January 2022   Talk with Arlene Bandes 

Arlene explains her three main printing methods: Xerox transfer prints of photographs, gel plate printing, and reduction prints from styrofoam.


June 2021   Matt's updated video on tampo making (9 min.)


Look for other LEAP videos up top right under Library


For more information on joining NPS 

contact Sue Fierston, NPS president at sue.fierston@gmail.com