Workshop Fee (includes materials fee): $180
Click here to apply for a Windgate scholarship

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

Looking to expand your creativity and skills on the Vandercook proof press? Freestyle letterpress printing is an improvisational approach where type and ornamentation are inked by hand in different colors and creatively placed on the press bed (without using quoins or furniture to lock them down). This gives you the opportunity to quickly and easily create unique monoprints as you play with type and combinations of color.

To begin the conversation with our tools and materials, we will:

• discuss historical precedents for creative letterpress printing by H.N. Werkman and Jack Stauffacher
• learn how to safely print metal and wood blocks without locking them up with quoins and furniture
• discover strategies for inking individual blocks, layering colors, and ghost printing
• and explore approaches to improvisation using text prompts, game structures, and group interactivity (e.g., exquisite corpse, call-and-response, etc.)

At the end of the workshop, you will go home with a collection of monoprints that reflect your own aesthetic explorations using the Center’s vast collection of historic letters, numbers and ornaments.
 

>> Prerequisite: Introduction to Letterpress or other Vandercook press experience <<

Materials to Bring: None. All tools and materials will be provided. 

Date & Time: Sunday, May 12, 2024 :: 9:30am-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 | Gino Robair (he/him)

As a sound and visual artist, Gino Robair explores how nonrepresentational imagery influences interpretive performances in music, dance, and theatre. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis, developing performative approaches to papermaking and letterpress printing. In November 2023, a collection of his most recent prints was exhibited at the San Francisco Center For New Music.

Past Student Reviews:

"So absorbing and fun.  I could do this kind of experimenting endlessly."

"Instructor brought samples to give students ideas. He also allowed us freedom to work on ideas and provided help or checked in just enough. He had a group work assignment that was interesting, fast, and surprisingly creative."

"Gino is an inspiration. He is creative, original, knowledgeable, fearless, and infinitely good-humored. Spending time with him in the print studio lets me try anything without worry."