Hands-on Papermaking and Marbling

Adam Kuhns and Krystle Canan watch as Alysia Sawchyn lifts her paper mold from the vat of pulp.

This scan of part of a finished sheet of paper shows the pale blue color, gentle texture, and part of the deckled edges. The full sheet is too large for the scanner.

By the end of the first week, students were at work making and decorating paper that would be used in binding and printing some of their course projects. Prof. Kendra Frorup turned part of the sculpture studio into a papermaking workshop on Saturday. Students used specially built molds to make enough archival handmade paper to bind and to create paper labels for the class project book.

After students dipped and couched an assigned quota of sheets, they moved on to experiment with marbling. While the full class only spent spent Saturday on this activity, some students enjoyed the work and returned to do additional work in paper as part of their individual course projects.

As a first step in paper marbling, students floated colored inks on water and combed the colors.

The paper then placed on the floating inks were removed and set aside to dry.

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.

Letterpress Broadsheet Celebrates Poet Shane Seely's Reading at UT

Student volunteers Conner S. McDonough ( in profile on left) and Jenny Goodwin, both creative writing majors themselves, check an early proof of “Two Boys in the Woods,” a poem by visiting poet Shane Seely that they designed and printed as a letterpress broadsheet to celebrate his reading at the University of Tampa. It is the first time the TBAS has issued a limited-edition broadsheet in connection with the annual Writers at the University Series.

With the help of Carl Mario Nudi, letterpress coordinator at TBAS, Conner set the poem on a Ludlow Typograph. Jenny and Conner printed it on a Vandercook 4. Fifty copies were printed on dampened paper in two colors.

With careful attention to detail, Jenny and Conner carried out the work. Seely, whose 2009 collection The Snowbound House received the Levine Prize and was published by Anhinga Press, congratulated them on the result and signed all fifty copies. He is Senior Lecturer in English at Washington University in St. Louis. His poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Arts & Letters, Notre Dame Review, Bellingham Review, Prairie Schooner, and other journals, and on the Poetry Daily website.

In the photos below, Conner checks the inking and impression; Carl and Jenny adjust the lockup on the Vandercook.

Used Book Sale to Support Book Arts Studio

The University of Tampa Press and its Tampa Book Arts Studio will hold their first-ever used book sale on Saturday, December 4, from 9 am until 3 pm at the Music Room of Plant Hall. All proceeds will support the handcraft and antique letterpress printing activities of the Tampa Book Arts Studio on the University of Tampa campus.

Over a thousand books of all kinds have been donated for the sale by Friends of Tampa Book Arts Studio and other interested supporters. They range from classic and popular novels and nonfiction titles, to more unusual books issued in attractive illustrated editions or books about books and book collecting. Most books will sell for $1, paperbacks for 25 cents, and there will some better books at higher prices.

The Music Room is located just off the main lobby of the historic Plant Hall, the former H. B. Plant Hotel, on the University of Tampa campus.

Donations of books for the sale are still being accepted. Phone 813-257-3099 for information on dropping off books, or for other questions.

First Annual TBAS Letterpress Excellence Awards

New awards from the Tampa Book Arts Studio will recognize excellence and achievement in contemporary letterpress printing and design.

Letterpress publishers and book artists are invited to submit work published during the 2009 and 2010 calendar years, to the First Annual TBAS Letterpress Excellence Awards.

Private presses, independent publishers, and individual artists as well as trade and university presses are eligible to enter the competition. All entries must have been printed letterpress and completed during the designated calendar years.

Winners will be named in five general categories:

• hardback book
• paperback book
• artist’s book
• broadside
• ephemera.

Judges have the right to create special categories for entries that transcend conventions and merit special distinction.

There is no entry fee.

Judges for the competition are the Associates of the Tampa Book Arts Studio. Awards will be made on the basis of design, typography, materials, craftsmanship, creativity, and overall achievement. Content is considered only in relation to the manner in which the design and execution complement, enhance, and convey the spirit of the verbal or visual text to the reader.

Publishers of winning entries will receive a certificate of recognition. Their work will be featured in a letterpress exhibit opening at the University of Tampa and available for tour to libraries, book arts studios, and other venues for one year following the award. Profiles of winners will also be featured on the Tampa Book Arts Studio blog and in printed press releases.

Winners will be asked to provide additional technical information and returnable materials for preparation of the exhibit, including a separate display copy if available, samples of unbound pages, sketches of preliminary designs, copies of rejected trials or correspondence, photographs of the work during production or preparation, and representative supplementary letterpress work.

To enter the competition, a publisher, author, or artist should simply submit one copy of the book, along with the completed entry information. Any number of books may be entered. Books entered in the competition will not be returned and will become part of the Tampa Book Arts Studio Library Collections.

The deadline for submitting books is June 1, 2011.

Mail entries to:

TBAS Letterpress Awards
Tampa Book Arts Studio
The University of Tampa Press
401 West Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33606


TBAS LETTERPRESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS

The following information must accompany each entry, though it does not need to be provided on this form. Please type or print clearly.

Publisher:

Author of the Entry:

Category of the Entry:

Complete Title of the Entry:

Year of Publication:

Notable features of this submission:

Number of copies produced:

Retail price:

Brief Description of Press, Publisher, or Artist:

Contact Person:

Contact Information (including address, phone, and email):