We’ve added Saturday 14th May, Saturday 4th June, Saturday 30th July as three new dates to come Screenprinting at Badger Press.
Rob Luckins will be exploring a variety of stencil methods and the use of photosensitive emulsion to create images that originate from hand-drawn, photographic or digital starting points. Students will be asked to bring photographic or hand-drawn images with them as a source of inspiration for their work, which will be printed using water-based inks. Those students looking to gain experience and confidence using the studio on a summer pass would be recommended to come to as many sessions as they wish. Details of all our courses can be found on our bookings page.
Our director Paul Booth recounts his visit to Mr Smith’s Letterpress Workshop to revise his typesetting knowledge and learn some new techniques for the Press.
“Having a fair amount of experience with Typographic design in digital form, both in print and for the Web, the need to get into a traditional type studio had grown and swelled for some time. Whilst helping a student with a research project (on printmaker Alan Kitching) we came across Mr Smith’s Letterpress Workshop on the Creative Review website… I saw a price and dates, went home and booked my place.
The studio is situated in a yard in Kennington, a cobbled street tucked behind a full set of characteristic London houses. After (good) coffee and polite introductions we cracked on with day one; print the date and your own in some form using wooden type on the Vandercook press. Like a child in a sweetshop at Christmas I rifled through case after case of Mr Smith’s wooden acquisitions, looking for the something striking but simple. Outline, old, cracked and weathered type filled the cases which we selected carefully and carried to the Vandercook on galleys. Having drawn a grid on paper one student laid out their idea while the other began setting their type on the press, ‘sketching’ a composition on the bed, which Kelvin explained was a method used by Alan Kitching that he learned as his apprentice for four years.
Day one was extremely informative yet relaxed, we printed our work and then looked to combine our own ideas to form and unified piece. Homework was set to come up with a short statement which would provide content for a certificate of course completion which would incorporate both lead and wooden type.
We returned the following morning with a plan of action, learning the proper methods and terminology for setting type. Which as a ‘digital native’ in design terms made my previous knowledge and experience in working with type very real indeed. Leading by pulling it from the shelves and locking it into a forme (the name given to a chase when it is filled with type), counting the points and picas as carefully as you can before proofing the idea into something fully formed. First by manually inking the type on the bed, then later using the roller to produce a clean and even coating of ink. Two colours were decided on by the end of the day and the designs came together nicely. Both myself and the other student attending produced a set of beautiful prints. As an educator in graphic design and a long time appreciator of type design and layout it was impassioned and the most satisfying work I have done in a long time.
The whole two days has given a great deal of inspiration and information on working with type, along with the recent purchase of an Adana press and a few boxes of lead Type the work is underway to bring Typographic workshops to Badger Press. With a long term view of providing accredited courses (more on this soon) and amassing a type collection to bring Badger Press in line with other letterpress studios like Mr Smith’s. Plans were made for Kelvin to visit the press in the future and to offer advice on improving our resources in building up a facility for letterpress.”
If you are interesting in learning about traditional and/or digital typesetting, layout and even Typographic design please register your interest to paul@badgerpress.org
Artist and photographer Deborah Hanan will be teaching a two day workshop on the weekend of the 25/26th June, offering an introduction to an historic photographic technique, otherwise known as “Cyanotype”. This printing process enables a photographic image to be fixed onto a variety of paper types using sunlight. The resulting “photogram” is blue in colour and was historically used in the cataloguing of flora and fauna as shown above.
During the course of the weekend you will work with a range of natural objects such as flowers, feathers and leaves to produce “sun prints”. Over two days you will have the opportunity to develop your work and experiment with black and white photographic negatives, either supplied or you can bring your own (medium format to large format works best). Anyone wishing to supply their own objects of choice may do so; items such as jewellery and glass bottles give pleasing results. A variety of paper sizes can be used as the blue cyanotype emulsion is painted on by hand, making it possible to create a range of wonderful outcomes. To book a place or find out more contact info@badgerpress.org Online bookings can be made below.
2 Day Cyanotype workshop £80 Maximum 8 places. 25/26th June. Go to Bookings
Happy New Year to all our friends and visitors both locally and far away, we hope you had a wonderful time and that January Blues have stayed away.
Badger Press was busy over the festive period with a number of artists working late to produce prints and escape crowded shopping centres. There was a welcome return for Brighton University undergraduate Jordan Pryke who visited with a few friends and created these two images, drawn in his original and intriguing style that he is developing and exploring during his time studying illustration and graphic design. Jordan’s work can also be seen on flickr.
So, there are a few changes to the site, including online booking for courses and we are now able to accept payment via paypal, which should speed things up considerably. This year we will continue with our seasonal passes and a Spring Pass will run from February through to the end of April. Click here for further details of our Spring Pass.
There’s also a contact form so that you can get in touch via the website. We love to hear from you, if you have suggestions for Badger Press or you’ve news you’d like to update us with, or if you have a printmaking question (we’ll do our best, or find someone who knows), then don’t hesitate.
Wishing everyone a great 2011, as Jordan reminds us, after the chaos, comes the clarity, so let’s create good work and we look forward to seeing you at Badger Press.
Emails are heading over as we speak and we’ve got a packed calendar of new courses ready for the new year and into the spring. We’d like to encourage those who haven’t previously strayed far from their chosen print method to try something new and we’d particularly like to encourage illustrators to explore etching. With that in mind Kirstie Larsen will be bringing us two days of etching and ideas across the term, we hope some of our contemporary illustrators and screenprinters will take up the challenge.
Elsewhere we have screenprinting, relief, digital days and activities for all. We will be updating the site with more news and we’ve left some dates free so that this time round we can react to the demand and whittle down some of the waiting lists, with this in mind we’ll be asking you to suggest ideas, talk to us about your requirements and we would like to create more groups within Badger Press where you can develop your work in an open and supportive way.
Wood Engraving seems so Autumnal and never more so that last weekend’s course run by the incomparable Kate Dicker, whose students produce some of the most exciting and intricate work at Badger Press. Dropping by to say hello saw a busy and concentrated group of students, working upstairs in the mezzanine quietly cutting away. Kate’s courses are always popular and with remarkable skill she invites the best from the people she teaches. Some of the students meet up regularly, joined by new students and are looking to exhibit as a group. We are already looking forward to the weekend of 19/20 March 2011 when Kate has agreed to run another weekend course. Email us and we’ll send you a reminder, leaving you with plenty of time to prepare and sketch out ideas.
The Badger Press in Bishops Waltham is an open access fine art print studio, offering courses to suit everyone. We provide studio hire and training in all aspects of printmaking. Our aim is to promote printmaking and support artists working in the region through guidance, training and a range of arts activities.
