Join Julia Seko and Greg Robl in Letterpress Card Printing! No experience is required for a fun workshop in which you set type and print your own greeting cards to celebrate spring, Mother's Day, or whatever you please. Participants at all levels of letterpress experience are welcome. Enjoy this playful but exciting departure from traditional card printing in which we will print 5 x 7” cards on Crane Lettra, a cardstock that works well for letterpress. The first print run will be a simple background collage of images from our collection of vintage engravings, large letters, or other symbols. Or participants can print on cards that were previously debossed (blind stamped) with a geometric pattern on the card front. Students may hand set type and print the interior message. The second print run will be of handset type. Participants can select a typeface with which to create a short message to print on top of the background.

Each person will take home 10 cards and envelopes. 

To make sure everyone has a chance to refuel, we've scheduled a lunch break. Packing a lunch is recommended.

Ages: 16+ 

All supplies and materials will be provided. 

Will be available to register on Wednesday, April 2 at 8:00 am. 

Do you journal when you travel?  Join Greg Robl to make a journal for your adventures! We'll spend a day building a journal with a leather wrap-around cover (to allow for expansion with all the nifty mementos you tuck inside it). The size will be about 5 inches across and 7 inches tall - a good size for including postcards and photos. We'll be able to personalize the journal with your creative ideas such as old maps that we can cut to size for signature wrappers and/or endpapers. If you'd like to add sketch paper or watercolor paper, we can cut that to size and sew it into your journal. And we can add envelopes for ticket stubs, pockets for larger ephemera, and perhaps glassine pockets for particularly beautiful business cards you find. The registration fee covers the workshop, the leather cover, waxed linen thread, ribbon for a bookmark, paper for the pocket, the envelope, and the paper for the signatures. We'll have the option to add a ledger for tracking expenses. Participants are welcome to bring any decorative papers from home that they'd like to use for endpapers or signature covers.

To make sure everyone has a chance to refuel, we've scheduled a lunch break. Packing a lunch is recommended.

Ages: 16+ 

All supplies and materials will be provided. 

Will be available to register on Wednesday, April 2 at 8:00 am. 

This colorful sketchbook is perfect for capturing summer fun. The pages are made with a rainbow of colored paper which are revealed on the exposed spine of the finished book. No experience necessary. Students will learn to fold and punch signatures, to sew with multiple colors of thread and to create an exposed spine case to show off all that interior flare! Join Brenda Gallagher for a rainbow of fun this June!

To make sure everyone has a chance to refuel, we've scheduled a lunch break. Packing a lunch is recommended.

Ages: 16+ 

All supplies and materials will be provided. 

Will be available to register on Friday, April 4 at 8:00 am. 

Students registered for the bookbinding class are invited to the letterpress shop to print a custom bookplate. This page will serve as the first page of the book that we'll bind on Friday. The book plate page will read, "This book belongs to ______" with the student's name. Students will choose a small cut from the Book Arts League collection and learn to set letterpress letters to print their names.

This book combines the soft opening of a leather spine with the sturdy firmness of board covers. The completed book opens nearly perfectly flat making it an ideal book for your journal writing or drawing. Creating your book involves sewing folded signatures through a leather spine with the long stitch. We will begin by getting acquainted with paper grain and its importance for the finished book. We will cover the boards of the book with decorative paper and once dry we'll drill holes in the covers to prepare for sewing. The leather spine will also need holes for sewing which we will pierce with an awl or drill. Paper signatures will be folded and pierced and then we'll take a short break for lunch. After lunch we will learn to sew the long stitch to bind the book. Covers will then be sewn onto the leather spine piece. By the end of the workshop, you will have completed your book, and have the skill to make more on your own. Class fee includes all materials we use to make a book: leather for the spine, a sheet of decorative paper to cover boards, paper for your signatures, a pair of pre-cut cover boards, glue, and waxed-linen thread. Students can borrow tools from the BAL or you can bring your own bookbinder's toolkit. Students will need: bonefolder, medium-weight awl, Xacto knife, scissors, ruler, and a bookbinder's needle. Optional: Students may elect to bring their own sheet of decorative paper for covering the boards. *

* Optional bookplate printing for Leather spine book

• Thursday July 31st
• 5pm-7pm
• $10

The evening before the longstitch journal class, students registered for the bookbinding class are invited to the letterpress shop to print a custom bookplate. This page will serve as the first page of the book that we'll bind on Friday. The book plate page will read, "This book belongs to ______" with the student's name. Students will choose a small cut from the Book Arts League collection and learn to set letterpress letters to print their names.

Register here

Making Momigami Papertaught by Julia Seko and Greg Robl

Momigami is a Japanese craft used to strengthen paper-- it has traditionally been used for making clothing and other sturdy items.  Konnyaku, a starch from an edible tuber, is applied to the long-fibered paper, which is then crumpled into a ball and worked until the paper is flexible, then is smoothed out to dry.  In addition to durability, the paper acquires a lovely, faceted surface from which the colors of the paper shine through. When dry, students can create a simple business card wallet with finished momigami paper.

Join us for a day of playing with paper fiber and creative folding.  

Thank-you Cards with Wood Typetaught by Julia Seko and Greg Robl

It's that time of year to send your thoughts of gratitude in a beautiful hand printed card! Students will use the Book Arts League's collection of wood type in multiple faces and sizes to set the words"thank you!" Words will then be locked up and printed on the Vandercook letterpress. Color choices or perhaps variegated colors will be decided on by the collected class. Each student will leave with a set of 8 cards with matching envelopes.