Letterpress Essentials: The Broadside

Learn how to create a letterpress broadside — a sheet of paper printed on one side used historically in Europe.

Meeting Times

Sat, 5/4/2024 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sun, 5/5/2024 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sun, 5/12/2024 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Sat, 5/4/2024 - Sun, 5/12/2024

Waitlist

See additional date options »

About

Using poetry or prose of your choosing, learn to set and space lead type, ornaments, and/or cuts to reproduce and illuminate your words. With type set, we'll go over how to use the Challenge cylinder press, which is ideal for high-precision printing as well as refinements to the type form. Once we've finished, you'll trade prints so everyone goes home with an assortment of the class's work.

This course covers all material necessary for letterpress certification on typesetting and using the Challenge Press. With a little practice after this course, you should be ready to take the certification test and demonstrate your capabilities to safely and effectively run a press unsupervised.

Details

Bring a lunch. BARN has a refrigerator and microwave on the lower level.
This class doesn't cover use of the C&P Letterpress machines, or provisional presses. For information regarding those presses, or questions about certification, contact printandbook.lead@bainbridgebarn.org

Materials

The $10 materials fee, included in the cost of the class, covers all materials you'll need.
Bring a poem or piece of prose between 65 and 85 words.

Class Policies

Ages 14 and up are welcome.

BARN Policies

View BARN's Cancellation and Refund Policy
View BARN's current COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
BARN is committed to accessibility. Tuition Assistance is available. Fill out the application before registering.
Makerspaces like BARN can be noisy and cluttered, smell strongly, and have bright or flickering lights. We try to make accommodations when requested; the earlier you contact us, the more likely we can help. Please email accessibility@bainbridgebarn.org to find out more or request an accommodation.
For those who might need physical assistance, learn more about BARN's Companion Program.

Instructors or Guides

Eli Backer

Eli Backer is an artist, composer, and engineer who works in a wide range of media and is constantly making. A Bainbridge native, she holds a master's degree in glass from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a bachelor's in computer engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Her work can be found in the Cynthia Sears Artist’s Books Collection at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, at the Center for Book Arts in NYC, and at the Fleet Library in Providence, R.I. She finds setting type and working with the presses quite meditative.