APA Wayzgoose, Baby!

wayzgoose (ˈweɪzˌɡuːs) n

1. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) a works outing made annually by a printing house

[C18: from earlier waygoose, of unknown origin]

Oh my heavens!  I went to my very first wayzgoose this past weekend!  What an amazing experience.  I attended the Amalgamated Printers' Association's wayzgoose right in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, only about 60 miles from me, at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum!

It was actually a four-day event (Thursday-Sunday), but I only went on Friday and Saturday.  On Friday, I took a wonderful class called "Weaving Type, Structure & Image" with Jessica Spring of Springtide Press in Tacoma and Jen Farrell of Starshaped Press in Chicago.  We created three wonderful projects!  The first was a little collaborative "meander" book, which is printed all on one side and then cut to make pages. There were 8 of us in the class, and we all chose a synonym for "wander", the name of the book. We were free to experiment with about 12 cabinets full of beautiful vintage wood type.  HEAVEN!!  I chose "ramble" as my word, and found a gorgeous type and border for my portion of the book.  Here's the uncut print:

I love how everyone's word is completely different!  We each had to "lock up" our own word, which was a new experience for me.  I had to measure picas and use "furniture", which was thrilling.  I felt like a real printer!  :D  Here is the back of the print, which would become the two "covers" of the book (sorry for the not-so-great photo!):

How cool is it that all of our names are included?  :D  Once we all had our words in place, Jessica measured the final piece and began inking.  As you can see, she did a beautiful two-color process.  Here is the finished book - it turned out SO cool!  What a lovely memento to have from the class!  :D

Our second project was to weave prints we created. Once again, we were given free reign over all of the available wood type!  I played with the letters and numbers, mixing up sizes and fonts for each line of type. Jen Farrell suggested that I experiment with the bottom of the wood blocks, for a fantastic effect.  Here are two of my finished prints, each printed with violet ink but using different paper colors.  The results were SO different!!

I didn't get around to weaving my prints.  Why?  Well, because Jessica wanted us to all take turns printing our book pages on the Vandercook press, just to get a feel for it.  Since most of the people there already own their own Vandercooks, I volunteered to help print the majority of the prints for the books.  I was happy to do it!  I've already done weaving with my prints, so this way others got to experience something they might not otherwise do (these folks are SERIOUS printers).

Our last project was a folding exercise - Jessica and Jen had printed out some great prints and then cut them down to about 6X6" squares.  We then made a little folded piece out of them!  You can see what I mean, here:  

As you probably have guessed, this was an all-day class!  We were all pretty pooped by the end of it.  All of the wonderful folks I met during my class (hi Erin, Nancy, Marjorie, Laurie, Gary, Mary Alice and Carol!) were from somewhere else - Phoenix, Tacoma, Cincinnati, Virginia, Santa Fe, Santa Barbara, CA - and one other Wisconsinite, from La Crosse - so they all stayed overnight.  I went home for the evening, but returned on Saturday for the...drum roll....swap meet and auction.  

It was FANTASTIC!  I bought a lot of wood and metal type, some awesome vintage blocks, some ink, some vintage trays, a couple of wonderful vintage books....and this beautiful little toy press for the ridiculously low price of TWENTY BUCKS!  The description says it's an Elm City toy press and by all accounts, I guess it really works!  I can't wait to try it out!   :D

I also got to meet Michelle Walker, who's the creator of the "Lovers of Letterpress" group on Facebook!  She and her husband George came all the way from Toronto (my fave city in the world!) to be at the event.  We were able to have lunch together and hang out during the auction!  How lovely!  :D

Now that I've got my first wayzgoose under my belt, I can't wait for Hamilton's very own, which is held every November!   But next up:  "Chipboard, Linoleum and other Reproduction Techniques" workshop with Dafi Kuhne this coming Saturday!   :D

A Plethora of Printmaking!

Image  ©Fuzzy Door Productions

Is it just me, or do you feel as though there's a resurgence of printmaking?

Of course, art + craft goes through trends, and right now it appears as though all manner of prints are all the rage.  Case in point:  I belong to a Facebook group called Linocut Friends, and when I joined about a year ago there were around 75 people in the group.  Today, there are 493.

Have you caught the latest incarnation of the TV show "Cosmos"?  If so, you've noticed the breathtaking animation (like the still, above).  The thing that first struck me about it was how "woodcutty" it looked!  If you haven't caught an episode (and live in a country where you can watch it), check it out.  I think you'll see what I mean.

I live in Northeastern Wisconsin and I'm so lucky to say that there are at least two fantastic exhibits that will be running now through this summer - MOWA on the Lake's (Milwaukee) fantastic "Fresh Impressions: Contemporary Wisconsin Printmakers" (which just so happens to include two of my friends and fellow WVA colleagues' work!), and The Paine Art Center's (Oshkosh) "Matisse as Printmaker" exhibition, which will feature his monotypes, etchings and linocuts!  That runs June 28-October 19.  I can't wait to see both!

A few weeks ago, we had our Wisconsin Visual Artists - NE Chapter meeting at The Mill Paper and Book Arts Center in Rhinelander.  I am the chair for our chapter, and chose this venue last fall when we didn't have a program chair.  And while it's quite a hike from Fond du Lac and other points around the state (three hours for me), we had a great turnout.  I've taken classes at The Mill previously (remember this post?), and knew how great Daniel Goscha and Debra Jircik are - and they didn't disappoint.  Debra talked about the myriad ways to make handmade paper, and Daniel led us in a letterpress project, reminding us to "MAKE" every day.  Many of the artists had never done letterpress before, and all had a great time!  Here's the piece we were able to take home:

I hope more folks discover the joys of this varied and wonderful medium - there's a lot to learn and appreciate and drool over.  Even the season (in French, anyway) calls for it - Vive le Printemps!  :D

Letterpress + Embroidery = Pure Fun!

A little over a week ago, I wrote a post about using my backpack printing press with some of my letterpress plates, but on fabric.  You may recall how it turned out:

Well, I've had a BLAST using this template, and I just finished the piece this morning!

I worked right from the hoop, and just used the lines in the print as a guide. My friend Lori had recently given me a bag chock full of beautiful threads, so I pretty much used those exclusively (thank you, Lori!).  I used some organza for the skirt and as you can see, I also used the "movement" lines to highlight the texture.  I also created "earrings" from beads I had left from a project I finished in about 1996.  :)  I chose not to backstitch her face or hands, lest it look "cartoony", but I did make her a brunette.   :)

I had this fat quarter of vintage-looking fabric that I thought would complement the print nicely, and just used fusible webbing to adhere it to the fabric.  I thought about embroidering the flowers but then decided it might look too busy.  

I am WAY psyched about this piece!! I mean, I really like how it turned out but even better than that it that it even worked in the first place!! I don't know where this new medium is going to take me, but the possibilities are endless!  WOO HOO!!  :D

Takin' the Show on the Road!

It's the third Friday of the month, and here in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin that means....Tour the Town!  It's our monthly art walk, where businesses keep their doors open until 8 p.m. and artists can show their wares for little or no commission!  It's an event that's near and dear to my heart - I'm a charter member of the committee and everyone involved is a friend of mine.  My framer, Julie Balson, is one of the founders of the whole deal, and her store, Gallery & Frame Shop, is one of the biggest supporters.

I'm so excited to be a part of the tour tonight via the Fond du Lac Public Library, where I'm showing my "Birches in Winter" piece as part of the "Greenfire" exhibit in honor of Aldo Leopold, a conservationist and author who spent a great deal of time in Wisconsin.

My husby Brian is president of the Gottfried Prairie and Arboretum, and they're the sponsors of this nature-inspired show.  It's going to be a great time!

But this is an unusual tour for me - most of the time it's just me at a venue and because I've now got my portable press, I've been taking it with me!

Besides its affordability, the number one reason I was so taken with my S.C.O.P.E. backpack printing press is its portability.  As you may already know, it was specifically designed so that it would fit in the overhead bin on an airplane.  I haven't tried that yet, but I have taken it to two separate gallery walks.  The first one was in Oshkosh back in December, when I only had my press for about four days!

I was invited by my friend and letterpress artist Kevin Rau, who owns rauhaus design + letterpress.  His studio is in this beautiful old bank in downtown Oshkosh (which you may recognize from the Johnny Depp movie, "Public Enemies" - they filmed many scenes here!).  I set up in the lobby of the bank - it was ridiculously cold that evening, as it has been all year - but we still had some brave souls venture out!  It was so much fun, and people got to see both sides of the printing spectrum - Kevin's gorgeous vintage 1946 Chandler & Price platen press...

 .....and my awesome 2013 Craft & Concept showcard press!

Everyone who witnessed the printing on both was excited to see how each worked in their own way - the kids especially!  They're always so in awe of the "old" way to print - before computers (Imagine that!  You mean people actually had to do this by hand??! ).  :)  I had one young guy so enthralled with my press that he actually contacted me for Craft + Concept's info!

I can't wait for more people to see the wonders of portable printing!

P.S.  My wonderful husband braved the cold with me that December evening and took all of these photos.  He's the BEST.  :D

My New Press!!

Something happened a little over a month ago, and I still can't believe that I'm one of a small group of folks who got in on the ground floor!  This is going to revolutionize how I create from now on.....

I GOT MY NEW PRESS.

When I saw our delightful mail carrier backing his truck up in our driveway on that dreary, rainy Tuesday, I knew that the moment had arrived.  The box was so big and unwieldy that it took both of us to get it into my kitchen.  I had to take a photo the moment I opened the box, just for posterity:

There she is - the S.C.O.P.E. Revolutionary Pack.  Isn't she a beaut?  :D  The package arrived on December 3, but I was so busy that week I wasn't able to experiment until a couple of days later!  

In case you're wondering, the S.C.O.P.E. anagram stands for "Self Contained Outdoor Printing Equipment". It is, quite literally, a backpack printing press - you can see its creator, Jesse McAfee, wearing the press himself!  Yes, this press is HANDMADE in Kansas City.  I love that.  :D

I haven't carried it like that yet, but it also has a regular handle on the top so you can carry it like a briefcase. It only weighs 30 pounds!!

And it prints like a DREAM.  I have indeed taken it out to two separate gallery walks now (more on those in a later post!), and people are fascinated by it.  At one of the gallery walks, a student who's a printmaking major was so intrigued that he said he was going to contact the company himself.

Oh!  And I should probably tell you that the company is Craft and Concept, who are based out of The Print Factory in Kansas City (both Kansas AND Missouri).  I can't tell you how seriously cool it is to talk to the guy (Jesse) who is building your press for you.  When does that ever happen anymore?!?!  

You saw in my previous post that it's got front and center status in my newly redesigned studio, and you also saw the tiny linocut of Yours Truly (which is now the icon of my Facebook page for What a Relief) that I printed on it.  I'm in the middle of another project that incorporates vintage letterpress images, all printed on the press.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am with it!!  Thank you, Jesse - you've made a fantastic product and I hope more people check it out!  :D