Coming Soon: 2011 PA Letterpress Calendar!

For the second year in a row, we've been lucky enough to have dozen talented designers/printers willing to donate their time, sweat and tears to create the Pyramid Atlantic Letterpress Calendar. Each designer was given a month, paper size and the freedom to design their page however they wanted. It's been so exciting to see the finished pages as they begin to appear in the Letterpress Studio! Drop by and take a peek - and come to the Pyramid table at the Book Arts Fair to buy one!

Get up Close and Personal with Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson, Book Artist/Paper Engineer

The Corcoran College of Art + Design and the Graduate Art and the Book program is proud to present a visit with paper engineer artist, Paul Johnson.

October 29, 2010

The Armand Hammer Auditorium

The lecture will start at 5:30 pm in the auditorium at the Corcoran Museum at 500 17th Street, DC. There will be a question and answer period directly following the talk. The lecture is open to the Corcoran population and the general public.

–All Welcome.

The Backpack Journalist visits Pyramid Atlantic

Sabeth
http://vimeo.com/channels/75194#1596..
Bill Gentile, The Backpack Journalist, is a pioneer in the field of Backpack Journalism™. He is a Journalist In Residence at American University in Washington, DC. visited and talked to Sabeth about her work at Pyramid. Check out the video. You can sign up for a class and see what awesome ideas and skills she can teach you to enhance your creations. Great for Book Arts, Prints, and textiles.

PRINTMAKING

Woodcut Portraits with Sabeth Jackson $200
November 13 & 20, 10am-4pm
For Class Description and Registration, click here

Thanks to our members!

As part of the Annual Appeal, Pyramid Atlantic thanks its members with handsome handmade bookmarks. Pyramid's fall interns and volunteers have been hard at work making paper out of cotton rag and old bedsheets. Quickly becoming expert paper makers, they have made over 100 sheets of paper-about a third of the way there! After the paper is pressed and dried, it is screen printed with the Pyramid logo, cut into strips, and trimmed on three sides, leaving an attractive deckle edge to peep out of a favorite read. We thank our members for their continuing support making what we do possible.

(Top: Wet paper being pressed. Bot: Mike makes paper like a pro.)

Conversations with Aziza and Chuta Kimura

Aziza Gibson-Hunter, one of Pyramid’s fall resident artists, sits with a pile of splayed books as she sketches and researches Japanese landscape artist Chuta Kimura. “I feel like I’ve been in conversation with this man,” Aziza relates. Actually, she has been in conversation with him for ten years, always returning to one Kimura catalog of landscapes of France. This fall, Aziza, always a figurative artist, is challenging herself to talk back with a series of landscapes inspired by Kimura.

Like Kimura, Aziza’s subject is the familiar landscape. Even so, this project presents unfamiliarity for Aziza as she has no previous interest in making landscape works. She decided she needed to be shaken up out of her normal working style, and through it, Kimura “is really giving me an education.” From studying Kimura’s work, his calligraphic line quality and the “gem-like” colors, Aziza is seeing how to break up the space of the landscape much like that of the figure. “You have to move into uncomfortable spaces and try something new."

She plans to make 10 large pieces on handmade paper, incorporating screenprints, monotype, painting, and other processes. As she tests the reaction of layered inks and different papers, Aziza’s conscious interrupts the working process asking, “Who do you think you are that you can be able to sit down and rock this thing?” But as she continues working, she does. The creative process usually has its own objectives, so check back to see the progress that Aziza makes in a few weeks!

Vandercook Maintenance with Paul Moxon this Sunday!

Vandercook guru Paul Moxon is coming to Pyramid all the way from Mobile, Alabama this weekend! He'll be teaching a short version of his popular Vandercook Maintenance class, which you can register for here.

In the class (which I took a year or two ago and really enjoyed), Paul walks students through the process of taking apart a Vandercook and putting it back together! It's a great way to build confidence about working with machines, and of course these beautiful machines in particular. It's also a great way to get a sense for which things to tinker with when you're troubleshooting printing problems. And if you've ever fantasized about clearing out a place in your garage for a Vandercook, he provides information about sizing up presses to judge their value, and how to move them safely.

Paul runs the Vanderblog, the most thorough collection of information on Vandercooks on the web or otherwise, prints under the name Fameorshame Press, and teaches workshops like this one around the country. He's also a jokester and a fun person to learn from. Hope to see you on Sunday!


We'll get these babies whipped into shape!