Workshop Fee (includes materials fee): $100
Click here to apply for a Windgate scholarship

Masks are no longer required for workshops, though anyone is welcome to wear one if they wish.

Spend a joyful afternoon learning this centuries-old process that produces exciting, intricate designs, and offers endless possibilities for decorating paper. 

An historic process originally devised as a low-cost alternative to marbled papers, this class is playtime for adults! If you liked finger painting as a child, you'll enjoy making beautiful paste papers.

Over the course of the afternoon students will learn about mixing the paste and pigment combination as well as the variety of tools and techniques that can be used to create an abundance of patterns on the paper surface. Paste papers have an array of uses from book covers to gift wrap, and at the end of the day each student will leave with a stack of papers they made in class, suitably sized for gift wrapping.

>> Prerequisite: None <<

Materials to Bring: 

Be sure to wear old clothes and shoes.

Optional: 

• One 2- or 3-inch housepaint brush (used is ok but must be clean)
• pint or quart plastic containers with lids (for mixing colors, or taking colored paste home)
• Implements to draw in the paste, i.e., fork, comb, rubber stamps, cookie cutters, etc.

Date & Time: Sunday, December 8, 2024 :: 2-5:30pm

Location: 375 Rhode Island St, San Francisco, CA 94103

NOTE: Please read over the SFCB Registration Policies before signing up for a class. Registration will close approximately three days prior to the start date of the workshop to allow the instructor time to prep materials for class. We recommend you not wait to register, as workshops that don't meet our minimum enrollment will be canceled, sometimes as much as a week in advance.
 

About the Instructor | Leigh McLellan (she/her)

Leigh McLellan typeset, letterpress printed, and hand bound letterpress books and broadsides from 1974 to 1990 under her imprint, Meadow Press. She has been an instructor at the San Francisco Center for the Book since 2002. She has also taught letterpress printing, bookbinding, and decorated papers at Mills College and the California College of Arts and Crafts, as well as workshops at the San Francisco Public Library, Stanford University, Pyramid Atlantic in Washington, DC, the Women's Graphic Center in Los Angeles, and the University of Iowa. Her work is in many library collections across the country, including the San Francisco Public Library, the University of San Francisco, Mills College, The University of California Bancroft Library, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, among many others. Her work has been exhibited widely. In a related field, she has been an independent commercial book and graphic designer since 1976, working mostly for publishers in the Bay Area. In both pursuits, she has won many design awards. See Leigh's Meadow Press work at meadowpressbooks.com and her commercial design work at leighmcdesign.com.

Past Student Reviews:

“It brought out an artistic side of me that I didn’t know I had. You cannot make mistakes. Everything is unique.”

“I learned SO MUCH!!!”

“The instructor’s knowledge & lifting experience, plus her direct “mentor” approach with students was exceptional.”