This morning, as Melanie cleaned the Vandercook, she exclaimed, “I’m a changed person!”. Printer friend Kate Barber recently suggested that we try cleaning the press with baby oil instead of vegetable shortening. It works like a charm! The ink lifts off of the rollers much more quickly and easily than the shortening. It may have … Continue reading
Latest Entries
Saturday’s Paper Dresses Meet-Up
On Saturday afternoon, a number of Paper Dresses artists gathered again to continue their experimentation and begin constructing their final pieces. A lot of ideas are solidifying, and we are all even more excited about this project with each passing day! Don’t forget to stop by PRESS to contribute some of your thoughts to Paper Dresses in the form of … Continue reading
Make Your Own Mantra Workshops!
Interested in learning about letterpress printing? Sign up for a Make Your Own Mantra workshop! There are two this summer, and one is next week! There are only two spots remaining for the July 16th workshop! July 16 // August 20 // 5:00 – 8:00 PM // $55.00 Learn the basics of setting and printing … Continue reading
Self-Folding Paper?!
We just found out about an invention by Ata Sina: self-folding paper! Small cuts are made in the flat paper and then thermoplastic polymers are attached. When heated at 110 degrees Celsius, the polymers shrink, causing the paper to form a 3D shape according to the cuts. Applications that have been brought up so far … Continue reading
The Printing of Oceania
Intern Jonas has been working on his personal project, Oceania, these last couple of weeks. It’s a book that works as a maze. You turn the pages, tracing your way through until you get to the end. Of course, the structure of the book is sometimes called a “maze book.” These books are made on … Continue reading
What’s Your Mantra Opening Night
DownStreet Art 2014 has begun! We had a wonderful time at last night’s opening of What’s Your Mantra ! Thank you to the over 400 people who came by to celebrate with us! We had a great night printing, chatting, and getting to know all of you! Our latest monthly mantra card features a quotation from … Continue reading
What’s Your Mantra? Opens This Thursday!
What’s Your Mantra? officially opens on Thursday, June 26th, as a part of the DownStreet Art 2014 kick-off celebration! Join us from 6:00 – 9:00 PM to view Alke Groppel-Wegener’s prints, participate in your own mantra-making activity, watch us print the latest monthly mantra card, and enjoy light refreshments! PRESS visitors are participating in the exhibition by … Continue reading
Books and Printing
We have started an employee book club here at PRESS! The first book we read was The Secret History by Donna Tartt. To practice our typesetting and printing skills, we each chose a word to describe the book and set on the press bed. Melanie chose SPOILED, Nicole chose FOREIGN, and Jonas chose a Greek … Continue reading
Paper Dresses Revisited
This afternoon, the ever-expanding Paper Dresses team gathered again at PRESS for more artistic experimentation. Technical and conceptual ideas continue to be developed, and the group is really excited about the results so far! The possibilities for combining paper, type, and other materials are seemingly endless, and we can’t wait to see what these artists come up with! … Continue reading
Paper Dress experimenting begins!
PRESS hosted many of our paper dress artists Saturday. What fun we had experimenting with tyvek, printing, paper and more. Ideas are percolating. Research is abundant! Check out our collective Paper Dress Board on Pinterest to see some of our ideas. We started to consider how the performative element might change/influence our ideas. And if … Continue reading
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