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Thank you for your interest. Chapbooklet workshops are oriented toward producing artworks that rise above the level of crafting. We do this by using and adapting traditional techniques and materials of the bookbinding and letterpress arts.

• Woodcut Workshop: Attendees learn to prepare and carve cherry planks and linoleum blocks for printing, repeatable and inexpensive method of fine printing using bearer plates and blocks, tool sharpening, composition and planning, and use of frisket. It is recommended but not mandatory that attendees purchase one V-gouge carving tool to bring to workshop. A selection of letterpress printed bookcovers is provided. Prints are made by hand using portable bearer plates and blocks; optionally, at extra cost, Garry can provide a letterpress to use for an interesting printmaking session. Allow three hours for workshop.
• Chapbook Workshop: Attendees learn to produce high quality sewn chapbooks using traditional bookbinding methods. Chapbooks originally appeared as products of workers in the early bookbinding industry ("Chaps") and were produced using bookbinding techniques. Topics included poetry, lessons of moral guidance, crime stories and other fiction. In the Victorian era chapbooks were often used at social gatherings as "autograph" books; the guests often wrote poems or encouraging thoughts or memories with their signatures. In the industrial era chapbooks began to be produced by persons of the printing trades and some of better traits were lost in order to make cheaper products (staples rather than sewn for example). In that age chapbooks were often used for advertising purposes and often were made as pocket guides for various technical trades. Recently chapbooks have become again popular appearing both in fine arts as well as craft hobby work. Our workshops are intended to promote the fine art of the chapbook as a book product. Allow three hours for workshop.
• Combined Workshop: Two sessions. In session one, the woodcut workshop, the woodcut to be used for chapbook bookcover is produced and printed. In session two, the chapbook workshop, chapbooks are produced. There are many options for contents of the books which are normally tailored specifically for the group hosting the workshop.

To Book Your Workshop (or Contact Us): Click here for booking inquires

About your workshop instructor: Garry fell in love with chapbooks twenty years ago after producing several through his private press using the same techniques he has used for decades in producing casebound books and he has been making them ever since. By accident he learned the value of instructing workshops: when a large number of chapbooks to be used in a service in a Franciscan fraternity was needed in a short time span he organized a small gathering of that fraternities members to help sew and bind the books. Through that activity he realized how fun it was for others to do and how closely the group worked together and the value of the workshops was discovered.

About the printing method: Because the printed covers are an important element of the expression of the chapbook Garry knew that he had to develop (using traditional techniques) a reliable, sustainable, and repeatable method for printing blocks without requiring the luxury of a letterpress. Unfortunately it seems most of the information on relief printing available to novice printers is not reliable for producing consistent results. To meet the need and after a lot of experimenting Garry developed a system that uses inexpensive bearer bars and readily locally available "tools" to produce prints of consistent quality. He also developed an adaptation of the frisket used in platen presses for use in hand printmaking. This frisket method avoids the silliness of what is commonly proposed on the Internet. Workshops can feature use of a platen letterpress provided at extra cost.

Workshop Attendees: will learn to assemble their own print shop that can be contained in a toolbox and is therefore portable ...and it is surprisingly inexpensive (as low as twenty dollars or so depending on the resourcefulness of the artist). Attendees can purchase the components from Garry at low cost if they wish. These components are only available to workshop attendees.