This wee etching press will tide us over for teaching classes and making small prints until we can get our issue sorted with the big press. It’s definitely an economy model, but it does the job, and we’ve used it in a class already. And it’s so easy to pick up and move around the studio!
I had a quiet hour in the studio today so I spent it making this pretty sample book for the upcoming Stab Binding class. Its covers are folded sheets of Rives BFK decorated with watercolour dots, and the spine is bound with black linen thread in the kangxi (noble binding) pattern.
There is still room in the class, which runs on Tuesday, March 24. Click here for details –> STAB BINDING CLASS
(photo credit Dax Melmer/Windsor Star)
We had a lovely write-up in the local paper yesterday, with some great photos from our letterpress printing demo. Check it out here: Windsor Star :: Levigator Press
On the first Monday night after opening the studio we dove right into an intensive three week course with reductive woodcut printing. Reductive colour work isn’t an easy concept for non-printmakers to wrap their heads around at first, but these students are quickly getting the hang of it. They carved out the white areas on their blocks and printed their first colour, yellow:
In a reductive relief print, you’re working backwards, starting with the lightest colour and gradually moving towards the darkest, carving out successive layers from a single block. You start by carving out only what you want to remain empty, or the colour of the paper, and print a light colour (yellow). Then you carve out everything you want to leave yellow, and print the next colour. And so on.
Here are some of the first prints, drying:
The next colour will probably require more carving than the first did, but now that they’re into a groove we’re going to shoot for carving and printing two colours next week. Stay tuned!
Our grand opening event was a huge success, with good crowds coming through the studio all day long, lots of interest in printmaking and the demos, and some lovely people signing up to take classes! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to see us or sent along your well wishes from afar. We’re overwhelmed, grateful, delighted, and exhausted. And super excited to get down to the business of making prints with all of you!
A shot of the shop during the last early moments of calm:
Letterpress demo:
Relief printing demo:
Our demo print: HEY. We printed this on t-shirts for some of our visitors. Can’t wait to see them being worn around town!
Special thanks to: Nicole Drouillard of Mercantile 519, who helped all day long by handling sales while I demoed and schmoozed; Leesa Bringas, who stayed up very late the night before helping set up the retail part of the shop; Eugenia Vlasova and Paul Phillippov of Weeded Words who made vinyl decals for our window and wall, as well as some sweet Levigator Press tote bags; my dear friend Monica Rock who helped with some of the gross jobs while getting the space ready, and who delivered the gorgeous flowers for the opening; and of course Peter, without whose support we wouldn’t even have this amazing space.
The shop window at 1:00am, all ready for the grand opening. My friend Leesa Bringas helped me to dress the window so that it looks like a charming setting for a 7th birthday party. We’re ready to open!
Yesterday my friends Eugenia and Paul came by and installed this lovely vinyl on the shop door.
You can see more of their work at their Etsy shop, Weeded Words. We’ll also have some of their work in our store!
And I built these four sturdy work tables. Some of them will eventually have glass tops for inking slabs, but as we’ll likely use a few for screenprinting, we’ll keep them without glass for the time being. They can be moved around the studio, which is great because I keep changing my mind about how I want to arrange the space. Better to keep things ready to be rearranged when the big etching press gets here in a few weeks.
We are pleased to announce that Crissi Cochrane will be performing at our grand opening party on March 14.
Photo by Kevin Kavanaugh courtesy of crissicochrane.com
A fixture in Windsor’s music scene, Cochrane’s sophisticated songs with soul and jazz leanings perfectly embody the feel of life in a border city: a distinctively Canadian pop sound with a heavy hint of Motown creeping in. She’ll be performing solo, intimate sets from 7 to 11pm.
For more details on our grand opening, click here: Grand Opening Party
To buy Crissi Cochrane music, click here: Crissi Cochrane Music
An exhibition of selections from the Drinks Diary project, at one of the places prominently featured in the project: Phog Lounge!
Click here to view a map: Where is Phog Lounge?
If you’re in the Windsor area, I’d be pleased if you’d wander down to Phog between March 1 and March 20 and have a look at the prints. Have a whiskey sour (with Bulleit) or a pint of the stout. Those are my favourites.
Here’s a little peek at some of the prints from earlier today as they were being trimmed up:
