Workshops

The Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago offers classes to the community at large, designed for those who wish to study book arts in a non-degree seeking program. Most classes require some experience.  Our community class instructors are working professionals in various book arts related fields and come from all over the country. All community classes are held at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, 1104 South Wabash, 2nd floor, Chicago, IL 60605. 

(from left) Letterpress Ink; Offset fellows Jordan knecht + JennA Rodriguez; photography by John Boehme

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Drop Spine Cradle Box

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Papermaking Workshop: Garden Papers

Using common bio-waste found in your yard or your garden, along with Asian fibers, workshop participants will produce a portfolio of beautiful, high-quality papers, appropriate for book arts applications. Starting with a thorough discussion of the many qualities handmade papers can carry, students will consider how different fibers and processing decisions influence the physical properties of the final sheet. A simple approach to Asian papermaking as well as ways of setting up a papermaking studio in your home or classroom capable of producing strong, well-considered papers without expensive equipment will be covered. Simple plans for building equipment as well and many samples of garden papers will be shared. Students will leave with the information necessary to create pop-up guerilla papermaking sites all over Chicago!

Mary Hark is a Professor in the Design Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches Hand Papermaking and Textile Design. She is the proprietor of HARK! Handmade Paper Studio, which specializes in small editions of flax and linen papers for fine press. Her fiber/mixed media paintings have been exhibited and collected internationally. Mary has strong ties to Ghana where she developed a papermaking program using local materials.

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Print Workshop
Windmill 101: An Introduction to Letterpress Printing
on the Heidelberg Windmill

In this one day workshop with a series of demonstrations, participants will learn a mechanical overview and basic printing techniques on the Heidelberg Windmill. A large number of contemporary letterpress printers have chosen to purchase or use a Vandercook flat-bed cylinder press as their main mode of production, however, there are some great reasons to use a Windmill—production cost and time can be greatly reduced. Come find out why the Heidelberg Windmill might be the right press for you. We will compare styles of presses and work to take the fear out of using this great machine. This course is best suited for those who own or are thinking about buying a windmill press; and also for experienced letterpress printers.

Judith Berliner hails from California where she is number four in a family of 8 children. After learning how to run a Chandler Price, her, father, Harold Berliner, a printer and lawyer, stood her in front of a Heidelberg Windmill at age 14 and told her to call him if she had any questions.  Running the linotype went hand in hand with the running of the Windmills. She moved up to keyboarding on the monotype and the running limited edition books as an assistant on a cylinder press, In 1978 she set off to bigger places. Judith landed a job in a large commercial print shop in 1980. As one of 29 press operators, and the only girl, she proceeded to earn her stripes in the pressroom. She likes to share her personal legacy in the graphic arts and is now the proprietess of Full Circle Press, where they have 6 Heidelberg Windmills, a kluge, and a Heidlberg Cylinder press.

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Introduction to Sign Painting

John Downer’s sign painting career began in the late 1960s and was instrumental in steering his path toward type design. In this introductory course, he will teach the two main kinds of letterform construction which have traditionally been done with a brush: single-stroke and built-up. Students will learn the importance of paint consistency and brush control. The class will focus on rendering a few particular styles of capital letters that were commonly used in American sign painting during the 20th century. Script lettering will not be addressed.

Mr. Downer has been a journeyman sign painter since 1973, a freelance typeface designer since 1983, and a crusader for designers’ rights his entire adult life in the lettering game. He has written about type and type history for various publications, and he is widely known as a perceptive type critic. His typefaces have been published by Bitstream, Font Bureau, Emigre, House Industries, and Design Lab.