Students try their hands at binding

On Thursday, May 12th, students attended a session on binding at the Bailey Art Studios. Professor Kendra Frorup demonstrated how to cut and assemble the boards, paper, and cloth to make portfolios for the class's letterpress postcards.

Prof. Frorup explains how to cut the paper for the pocket.

Students assemble the boards and bind them in paper and cloth.

Aaron Fagan putting together his portfolio.

Prof. Ina Kaur praises the work of a student.

Florida artist Barbara Stubbs sorts the students' postcards.

May Term Students Explore Printing Processes

Florida artist Michael Massaro (back to camera) explains silk screen printing.

Students in the intensive “Printing, Publishing and Book Arts” May Term class with Paul Moxon spent Wednesday looking beyond letterpress to explore other printing techniques. Here Mike Massaro explains silk screen processes in the Bailey Art Studios.

From silk screening, the students moved to the fine printing studio where UT art professor Ina Kaur demonstrated intaglio and relief processes, including printing from wood and linoleum cuts.

Professor Ina Kaur demonstrates how to thin ink to the correct consistence to print from linoleum cuts.

Professor Kaur's print studio includes presses for printing dry point and engraved plates as well as linoleum. Students compared the operation of Vandercook presses to the Takach presses in the art department and considered using mixed media in the book projects they will complete during the class.

Professor Kaur discusses examples of linoleum prints, woodcuts, and engravings with Barbara Stubbs and Kendra Frorup of the art department while Paul Moxon (at left of photo) compares the studio presses to the Vandercook presses students are using at the Tampa Book Arts Studio.

A Letterpress May Term with Paul Moxon

University of Tampa students gather at the composing stone while visiting professor Paul Moxon demonstrates the process of tying standing type on a galley.

Summer is nearly here and the University of Tampa is a quiet place after graduation, but students with the stamina to take a semester's worth of classes in just two weeks have stayed for May Term. Eleven UT students in art, English, and creative writing met early on the morning of May 9th for the first of fourteen consecutive classes in "Printing, Publishing, and Book Arts." The course is an introduction to the art and history of the book. It includes studio experience with letterpress printing, typography and typesetting, principles of editing and publishing, creative writing, graphic design, illustration, papermaking, and bookbinding. The primary aims of the class are to introduce students to the aesthetic, cultural, and material dimensions of the reading experience, to enhance their understanding of how physical and visual presentation shapes a reader's perceptions, and to introduce the history, craft, and art of the physical book.

The course is being taught by guest faculty Paul Moxon, a studio letterpress printer and editor of the American Printing History Association Newsletter, as well as a nationally known workshop instructor and Vandercook press consultant. He prints for hire and publishes limited edition books and broadsides under the imprint Fameorshame Press. Assisting Paul are Carl Mario Nudi, a veteran printer and TBAS letterpress coordinator; Henry Wehle, Intertype operator; and three of UT's own faculty members: Kendra Frorup, papermaker, binder, and book artist; Ina Kaur, fine art printmaker; Richard Mathews, printer, publisher, type founder.