On August 13th Melanie will be teaching Pressure Printing on the Vandercook. To register contact www.is183.com or call 413-298.5252.

What is Pressure Printing? Pressure printing, also known as stratography is a printmaking technique where you place a textured flexible plate underneath the printing paper that you run through the press over an inked matrix. The result is a mysterious atmospheric surface similar to rubbings and ghost prints. It makes for great back

grounds as well as functioning on its own as an image.

Here is Catt Chaput with a pressure print that she made during our quickie drop-in pressure printing workshop last weekend.

So how does it work? Create a low-relief collage using torn or cut layers of paper, tape, labels, leaves, string, stickers, fabric and more. (Just nothing hard like beads or with too much dimension.) The pressure from the different textures as it goes through the press lets some ink get to the paper in varying degrees–resulting in a lovely halo-like, silhouette image. It’s a pretty magical and easy process.

In this workshop, we’ll look at various pressure printing samples, discuss materials and then create a few different collages to put through the press. After lunch, will work with stamps and stencils that we make ourselves to add additional layers to the prints. (Bring your own lunch or go out to one of the great lunch spots in North Adams.)

It’s going to be a ton of fun! So register today!