Classes
Classes
The Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College offers classes to the community at large. These classes are designed for those who wish to study Book Arts in a non-degree seeking program. No experience is necessary, however, some classes may have prerequisites.
Our community class instructors are working professionals in various book arts related fields and come from all over the country. The classes are offered three semesters a year: fall, spring and summer. All community classes are held at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, 1104 South Wabash, 2nd floor, Chicago, IL 60605.
If you are taking classes here please note the following:
Papermaking:
If you are taking a papermaking class, bring waterproof shoes, galoshes or boots and expect to get wet.
Letterpress:
If you are taking letterpress, bring rubber gloves and an apron and prepare to get inky.
Bookbinding:
For bookbinding classes please bring your own scissors, bone folder, needles, rulers, and X-acto knife on the first day of class and expect to work.
Some classes do have supply lists, and these are either given out at the first class or sent to registered students with your registration confirmation. After your class, if you are unable to pick up your artwork, you may have the Center mail you your work for an $8.00 shipping and handling fee.
The Marilyn Sward Visiting Artists Series:
Note: In order to register for the Visiting Artists Series you must be a member of the Center for Book & Paper Arts.
All lectures are free and open to the public.
In honor of our late founding director, Marilyn Sward, it is with great pride that we announce the Marilyn Sward Visiting Artist Series.
All the great things that exist here at the Center are due in large part to the hard work Marilyn did for so many years. Our new program is inspired by her vision to make education a central part of the Center’s mission.
Modeled after the popular Book as Image and Book as Structure classes that many of you may remember from years past, this new program will bring in prominent visiting artists for Friday night lectures and weekend workshops – six artists each year. We will launch the series with Daniel Essig in March, followed by Eileen Wallace in April and Lisa Kokin in May. Please note that while lectures will be open to the public, to participate in the workshops you must be a member in good standing of the Center for Book and Paper Arts. To join or renew your membership, call us at 312-369-6630.
Featured artists:
Eileen Wallace
Lecture: Friday, April, 24 6:30 PM
All lectures are free and open to the public.
Eileen Wallace will present results of her research into Italian ledger binding structures and share images of her recent work inspired by these simple yet striking books. In addition, the lecture will include a look at the remarkable Biccherne, or painted wooden book covers, used on account books exclusively in Siena, Italy from the 13th to 17th centuries. These distinctive painted books are structurally unique and provide a rare glimpse into daily life of the time.
Workshop:
Historical Italian Ledger Bookbinding
Saturday & Sunday, April 25 & 26, 9–5
Limit 10 / 2 sessions / $150 + $65 materials fee
Students will complete a model of a 17th-century laced and tacketed account book structure based on examples found in the archives of Cortona, Italy and typical of many Italian ledger books from the 16th to 19th century. Books will be sewn onto split thongs and will have sewn linen endbands. The book will then be tacketed into a leather-covered case through supportive decorative overbands. The book will be closed by a buckle or tie via the middle overband, which wraps around the foredge and closes on the front cover. Discussions will include evaluating the most successful aspects of these bindings and alternative choices for binding materials. Participants will explore the advantages and disadvantages of variations on the structure and learn how to capitalize on its best features to create the best possible version for contemporary use.
Bio: Eileen Wallace, of Chillicothe, Ohio, is the proprietor of Mile Wide Press, specializing in custom bookbinding and letterpress printing. For the past twelve years, she has been co-director for the Paper & Book Intensive, a nationally-known series of workshops in bookbinding, papermaking, and conservation. Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally. Visit http://www.milewidepress.com/
Lisa Kokin
Lecture: Friday, May 22 6:30 PM
All lectures are free and open to the public.
Lisa Kokin will conduct a slide presentation of her work in found materials: bookmaking, altered books and reassembled books from 1991 to the present, focusing on content and materials.
Workshop:
Tome is Where the Art Is: Altered Books
Saturday & Sunday, May 23 & 24, 9–5
Limit 10 / 2 sessions / $150 + $40 materials fee
Working with the interplay of text and image in an already existing book, we will use various methods of blocking out text to create a new, undoubtedly more interesting story than the original book contained. Odd juxtapositions of text and image, as well as humor and quirkiness, will be emphasized. Several simple transfer techniques will be taught. Collage, sewing and the addition of small found object sculptural elements will assist in the total transformation of the book into a readable work of art.
Bio: Lisa’s work in mixed media installation, artist’s books, assemblage and sculpture deals with memory and history, both personal and collective. Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad. She is represented by the Jenkins Johnson Gallery in New York and the Donna Seager Gallery in San Rafael, CA. She lives in Richmond, California. Visit www.lisakokin.com.
Spring 2009 Classes:
Some classes do have supply lists, and these are either given out at the first class or sent to registered students with your registration confirmation. After your class, if you are unable to pick up your artwork, you may have the Center mail you your work for an $10 shipping and handling fee.
Brown Bag Bindery
Sylvia Alotta
The first in a series of classes that will help book artists set up a home bindery affordably. Using layers of milk paint the students will make a piercing cradle, finishing press and sewing frame. The equipment is knock-down and comes complete with a carrying tote so that students can enjoy using them at home or workshops anywhere.
Section I
Saturday, April 11 9–4
Section II
Saturday, June13 9–4
Limit 10 / 1 session / $75
(Members $68) + $150 materials fee
Materials: Found and Altered
Jamie Thome
Make art from found objects. Rauschenberg. Picasso. Ed and Nancy Keinholz. Duchamp. They all did, and now their work is in big, important museums. Assemblage is interesting, sometimes even provocative. It can be deeply expressive, as in the work of Joseph Cornell, or a cheap laugh like Salvador Dali's Lobster Telephone. However you approach it, assemblage has endless possibilities. In this class, we will look at a lot of different expamples of found object art, then we will scavenge around the Center's fabulous, diverse neighborhood (especially in the alleys) for stuff to use in our art. We will experiment with collage, assemblage, book forms, resin casting, simple printing (with and on alternative surfaces), and found poetry. Basically, we'll just have so much fun our eyes will bug out from the possibility of it all. Plus, we'll be environmentally correct, what with all the recycling and all.
Saturday & Sunday, May 16 & 17, 10:00–4:00
Limit 10 / sessions / $ 144
(Members $130) + $20.00 materials fee
Spring Community Class Instructors:
Sylvia Ramos Alotta received her MFA from Columbia’s Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts program. Before coming to Columbia, she was as an Automotive Designer for General Motors and proprietor of Design Alotta Inc. Currently, Sylvia is the sole proprietress of the Sharpest Pencil Bindery and Letterpress Shop.
Jamie Thome received her MFA in Book and Paper Arts at Columbia in 2000. She spent a year in the mentorship program for emerging women artists at Artemisia Gallery in Chicago. Her work has been shown internationally in juried shows. Along with her husband, a potter, and two other Book and Paper Arts alums, she works out of Vespine Studios in Pilsen.
SUMMER 2009
The Marilyn Sward Visiting Artists Series:
Note: In order to register for the Visiting Artists Series you must be a member of the Center for Book & Paper Arts.
Inge Bruggeman
Text and Image: The Space Between
Lecture: Friday, June 12, 6:30 pm
Open and free to the public
Workshop: Saturday & Sunday, June 13 & 14, 9–5
Limit 10 / 2 sessions / $200, includes materials
Using letterpress processes, including the use of photopolymer plates and Inge's own alternative techniques, this workshop will explore the dialog created between seemingly disjointed text and image relationships. We will look closely at the space in between—where there is room for ambiguity, humor, and thought. This class will embrace the idea of an image that does not illustrate and a text that does not define.
Tom Killion
Japanese-Style Woodcut Printmaking on the Vandercook
Lecture: Friday, June, 26 6:30 pm
Open and free to the public
Workshop: Saturday & Sunday, June 27 & 28, 9–5
Limit 10 / 2 sessions / $200, includes materials
Tom Killion will instruct students in his Japanese-style woodcut printmaking techniques in a two-day workshop. The first day Tom will introduce students to the Japanese key-block technique for making multi-color block prints. He will discuss the design and creation of effective images, the use and maintenance of Japanese carving tools, the choice of block materials, and Japanese handmade papers and traditional inking techniques. The second day Tom will demonstrate his own modified key-block technique using the Vandercook proof press and oil-based inks. Students will have an opportunity to begin their own woodcut projects, and receive basic instruction in carving techniques.
Emily McVarish
Pushing it: Printing Photographs on the Letterpress
Lecture: July, 17 6:30 pm
Open and free to the public
Workshop: Saturday & Sunday, July 18 & 19, 9–5
Limit 10 / 2 sessions / $200, includes materials
Relief halftone printing of photographs not only can yield surprisingly vivid results but also offers a range of possibilities for creative expression. This workshop will cover digital file preparation for duotone and 4-color printing, photopolymer plate making for halftone images, technical aspects of relief halftone printing, and experimental techniques for manipulation of color separations and registration.
Visiting Artists’ Biographies
Inge Bruggeman lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She teaches a variety of courses at the Oregon College of Art & Craft and runs Textura, a small business specializing in letterpress prinitng and structural considerations for artist books and unique design projects. She also makes fine press artist books under her imprint INK-A! Press as well as other text-based art work. Inge's work is shown and collected widely.
Tom Killion, a native of Northern California, uses the landscape of that region as the inspiration for the prints he makes, using linoleum and wood, strongly influenced by the traditional Japanese Ukiyo-ë style of Hokusai and Hiroshige. Killion founded Quail Press in 1977, where he has produced editions of several handmade books and more than 300 woodcut print images. His work can be seen at www.tomkillion.com.
Emily McVarish is a book artist, writer, and designer who lives in San Francisco where she has operated her presses, Axel and Otto, since 1990. Her work is held by major museums and libraries and has been widely exhibited, most recently in “New West Coast Design: Books” at the San Francisco Center for the Book. Emily McVarish is Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at California College of the Arts. With Johanna Drucker, she co-authored Graphic Design: A Critical History, published by Prentice Hall in 2008.
CLASSES - SUMMER 2009
Letterpress Printing
If you are taking Letterpress, bring rubber gloves and an apron and prepare to get inky.
Letterpress II
Stacey Stern
Have you mastered the basics of mixing ink and setting type? Are you ready to take your letterpress printing to the next level? Letterpress II provides students an opportunity to practice their skills while expanding their repertoire with new techniques. Students will spend a significant amount of time learning how to merge Illustrator digital techniques with traditional Letterpress image- and text-making techniques. The class will also cover polymer plate-making and printing, pressure printing, monoprinting, linoleum and woodcuts.
10 Week Session
Tuesdays, May 19–July 21, 6–9
Limit 10 / 10 sessions / $360 (Members $325)
+ $40 materials fee + $50 refundable distribution deposit (If paying by check, please write a separate check for the distribution deposit.)
Intensive Session
Monday–Friday, July 13–17, 10–5
Limit 10 / 5 sessions / $360.00 (Members $325.00) + $40 materials fee + $50 refundable distribution deposit (if paying by check, please write a separate check for the distribution deposit.)
Papermaking
Please note that it is impossible to make paper without getting wet, so please dress accordingly and wear galoshes or boots.
Five Days, Five Fibers (and at least five things to do with them)
Shawn Sheehy
Great art begins with great paper! Are you a printmaker frustrated with the paper choices at the art supply store? Are you a sculptor eager to cast with an inexpensive, lightweight medium? In this five-day intensive you will learn to prepare fiber and produce sheets using five of the most popular papermaking fibers: cotton, abaca, flax, kozo and hemp. Preparations and techniques will be based on common recipes used for producing paper for printmaking, photography, sculpture and more.
Saturday–Wednesday, July 25–29, 10–4
Limit 10 / 5 sessions / $360
(Members $325) + $55 materials fee
Bookbinding
For bookbinding classes please bring your own scissors, bone folder, needles, rulers, self-healing mat and X-acto knife.
Techniques covered in each bookbinding class rely on the work done in previous classes and therefore regular attendance is important. Please check your summer vacation schedule before choosing a bookbinding session.
Bookbinding I
Jamie Thome
Interested in creating your own artist’s books? Making blank books for writings or drawing? Or even someday rebinding your favorite books? Whatever your long-term goals, it all begins with learning the basic techniques of book construction. Bookbinding I will introduce you to the history, tools and techniques of hand bookbinding all in 8 quick sessions. You will learn about paper, cloth, boards, adhesives and methods of folding, sewing and gluing. You will construct a variety of book structures, beginning with a single sheet of paper and progressing to a multi-section hard cover blank book.
Tuesdays, May 19–July 7, 6–9
Limit 10 / 8 sessions $288 (members $260) + $40 materials fee
Intensive Monday–Friday, June 1–5, 10–5
Limit 10 / 5 sessions / $360.00 (Members $325.00) + $40 materials fee
Bookbinding II
Sylvia Alotta
Once you have mastered the basics of book construction, you are ready to learn the traditional skills needed for creating a classic round-backed case binding. Bookbinding II will provide students the opportunity to hone the techniques learned in Bookbinding I and will introduce some of the fundamental terminology and skills of hand bookbinding, including rounding, backing, and hand-sewing endbands (both German and French styles). Completion of Bookbinding I is a prerequisite for the class.
Thursdays, May 21–July 9, 6–9
Limit 10 / 8 sessions / $288
(Members $260) + $40 materials fee
Intensive Monday–Friday, June 8–12, 10–5
Limit 10 / 5 sessions / $360
(Members $325) + $40 materials fee
"But I Can't Draw!": You Can Make a Graphic Novel
Neil Shapiro
If you're a fan of graphic novels and would like to create one of your own, fear not. The critical element in any graphic novel is the story, and there are many techniques for communicating it in pictures. As the title says, even though this class is about visual storytelling, you’re not going to be judged on how well you draw. Whatever your skill level, we’ll collaborate to get your visuals & your words working together.
Wednesdays, May 20–June 24, 6–9
Limit 10 / 6 sessions / $200
(Members $180) + $40 materials fee
Designing the Picture Book
Ken Gerleve
Remember those picture books you read as a child? This class will teach you how to turn your original artwork and text into your very own picture book. Beginning with basic tutorials in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, we will explore techniques for page layout of multi-page publications, prepping original artwork, and digitally printing the results. We will then bind it into a book using your choice of one of two binding styles. Please bring text and sketches you’d like to transform into a 16 page book to the first class session. We’ll discuss the relative roles of image and text within each project and how the two elements combine to tell a story, after which you will finalize your artwork and text for use in your class project.
Mondays, June 1–22 (June 29 final meeting to show Books) 6–9
Limit 10 / 4 sessions / $144
(Members $130) + $25 materials fee
Introduction to Artists’ Books
Jen Thomas
Artists’ books continue to defy definition and often take many different forms—altered books, sculptural books, one-of-a-kind objects, beautifully printed and bound multiples. They remain a fantastically creative form for artistic expression and visual communication. In this class students will be introduced to several basic book structures and image transfer techniques that they can then build upon to create their own artist’s books. Students will be encouraged to view the book as a conceptual space and create an artist’s book every week to fully explore the medium. Leave any preconceived notions at the door. No previous bookbinding experience is necessary.
Wednesdays, June 3–July 22 6–9
Limit 10 / 8 sessions / $288
(Members $260) + $40 materials fee
Five Japanese Bindings and a Box
Rae Ann Collins
This class introduces students to some of the most useful and beautiful Japanese bindings. Students will complete a set of five bindings of their choice, then construct a Japanese wrap-around case to house the collection.
Saturday & Sunday, July 11 & 12, 9–5
Limit 10 / 2 sessions / $168
(Members $150) + $50 materials fee
Some binding or boxmaking experience helpful but not necessary.
Registering for Classes
All community classes are held at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts, 1104 South Wabash Ave., 2nd floor, Chicago, IL 60605. To register for these classes and workshops, please use the registration form at the end of this brochure or call 312-369-6630 Monday through Friday, 10am–5pm or fax 312-369-8082. When you call, please be ready with your name, address, telephone number, which class(es) you wish to register for, whether you are a member (members receive a 10% discount), and how you would like to pay for the class. The Center accepts Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover, personal checks and cash. Please note that you are not completely registered until we have your payment. We will email you a confirmation of your reservation about two weeks before your class begins.
Preparing for Classes
Papermaking:
Wear galoshes or boots and expect to get wet.
Letterpress:
Bring rubber gloves and an apron and prepare to get inky.
Bookbinding:
It’s always a good idea to have your own scissors, bone folder, needles, rulers, self-healing mat and X-acto knife, but if you don’t have these tools, we’ll supply them.
Some classes have supply lists, and these are either given out at the first class or sent to registered students with your registration confirmation. After your class, if you are unable to pick up your artwork, you may have the Center mail you your work for a $10 shipping and handling fee.
Community Class Instructors
Sylvia Ramos Alotta received her MFA from Columbia College Chicago’s Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts program. Before coming to Columbia, she was as an Automotive Designer for General Motors and proprietor of Design Alotta Inc. Currently Sylvia is the sole proprietress of the Sharpest Pencil Bindery and Letterpress Shop.
RaeAnn Collins received her MFA from Columbia College Chicago’s Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts Program; her BA in Printmaking is from Aquinas College.
Ken Gerleve is an MFA student in the Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts program at Columbia College Chicago. His illustration and design work has appeared in several publications and he is currently writing and illustrating a serialized Gothic Mystery novel. His other interests include children’s literature, comics, graphic novels, felt puppets and paper cut illustrations.
Neil Shapiro holds an MFA in Illustration from Syracuse University. He worked as an advertising agency creative in Chicago for 35 years creating and designing campaigns for major clients. Neil has illustrated several children’s books and is currently working on another slated for release in December.
Shawn Sheehy makes artist’s books with handmade paper and publishes them under the name Paperboy Press. They can be found at the Newberry Library in Chicago, the American Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, Special Collections at UCLA, the Houghton Library at Harvard and many other collections. He teaches book arts workshops nationwide. He earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago in 2002. Shawn anticipates the publication of his first trade pop-up book in 2010. He is a co-founder of Chicago's Vespine Gallery.
Stacey Stern received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been teaching at the center since 1999. In her spare time she makes book art, wears pink wigs and is the sole proprietress of Steracle Press www.steracle.com.
Jen Thomas is a Chicago-based artist and writer. She earned her BFA in Communication Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University, studied printmaking at Plymouth University, Exeter, England and completed her MFA in Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago. Jen teaches at Columbia College Chicago and the International Academy of Design & Technology.
Jamie Thome received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago in 2000. She spent a year in the mentorship program for emerging women artists at Artemisia Gallery in Chicago. Her work has been shown internationally in juried shows. Along with her husband, a potter, and two other Book & Paper Arts alums, she works out of Vespine Studios in Pilsen.