Melissa Jay Craig's work will be featured in a show at Vespine Gallery (www.vespine.org) beginning November 6th, 2009. She'll be here talking about her work on November 15th, and teaching for us as well. Check out the "Workshops" section, and sign up today!

Holiday shopping anyone? We have hot off the presses gift certificates for someone special. And yes, we think you're very special. Find a way to leave this post lying around your computer screen to drop a very tasteful hint.

New tables in the silkscreen studio

Thanks to Robert & Robert of Positive Tangents. Months and months and months ago, we need to get a very dangerous, very heavy guillotine cutter out of our shop. It had a broken safety, and people kept sticking their hands in it. Anyhow, we posted it free to a good home on Craigslist. Robert Kriesgen wanted it for art unlike all the scrap metal dealers who contacted us. He said if we ever needed some carpentry work in trade - let him know. We called last week, and he and his partner Robert showed up with an entire wood shop today. I hear the nail gun next door right now. We found these doors in the alley behind my house, and now they're tables. They even brought us a book - The Complete Guide to Wood Finishes - to show us how to use epoxy to flatten out the surface of the table. Went to a salvage store to find interesting newel posts for legs for the table. Really amazing - Robert K. said he believes what goes around comes around. In their case I hope it's true. Actually, in several cases I hope it's true, but in their case it would be good things : ). rkiesg@positivetangents.com Good stuff.

This is a snapshot of our new brochure. We printed it for the Printer's Ball, but it didn't dry in time. Coated paper + humidity + no time = messy fingers. Anyhow, we hope you can see one of these in person some time soon. If you'd like to come by and grab one at the shop, feel free. They're dry now. Two days after the event they were made for. So it goes.

So what exactly is an artist's book?

We've just updated our website to include the latest additions to our workshops, one of which is Intro to Artists Books. What exactly is an artist's book you ask? Well, check out the workshop listings on our website to find out! We are really excited about this class so we hope that you will be excited too. Class size is limited to 10 students.

We Love Faux Wood Grain!

We love letterpress printing and we love the look of faux wood grain! Above is a bar mitzvah invitation we created a few months ago for a custom client using our favorite wood grain pattern. This faux pattern was designed in Illustrator and then printed from polymer plates on one of our Vandercook proofing presses. 

I made this poster at the Hamilton Type Museum.

I made this poster this past weekend at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.  It's all from their gorgeous wood type collection.  Will post more photos as soon as I get a chance.

Three Non-Adhesive Binding

This is just one of the three books you can make in Three Historic Non-Adhesive Bindings with Juliayn Coleman.  Juliayn trained at the North Bennet Street School in Boston (www.nbss.org), and is a very patient and knowledgeable.  She's eager to share her love of bookbinding with people of all skill levels.

This class runs Saturday, May 9th from 10:00 - 6:00.

Intro to Digital Letterpress

Intro to Digital Letterpress is one of our most sought after workshops! We have offered this class 3 times and it has been a ton of fun each time. This sample is from the class taught in the Fall of 2008 by the super talented Stacey Stern (of Steracle Press). Stacey is a wealth of knowledge and we feel so lucky to have her teach here at the shop.

For those of you wanting to learn how to make your very own polymer plates, and print designs from them then Intro to Digital Letterpress is the class to take. We offer it often so call us or check our website for the next scheduled class.

Coptic Book Workshop

This was the first workshop in our new space at 1127 Florence.  Jen taught the class on our amazing new tables.  If you've ever been to a workshop here before, you'll be amazed at how roomy our new space feels.  Jen is also offering a class on Artists' Books beginning March 31st, and an Altered Books workshop on April 11th.  We're in the process of adding Juliayn Coleman's Three Non-Adhesive Bindings class, too.  We hope on May 9th.  Watch our workshop offerings.  Once the taxes/accounting's done, more will come.

If you don't know what altered books are, you should checkout the blog at Shelter Bookworks.  She's got a great set of photos of Thomas Jefferson's altered Bible.  If I get permission, I'll share more of it here soon.  

Gocco Coptic Stitch Workshop

Our coptic stitch gocco workshop this past weekend was a huge success! Here is a photo of the students in action.

Gocco Embelished Coptic Binding Workshop

Check out these awesome books created by one of our instructors, Jen Thomas. These Gocco embellished coptic stitch masterpieces were a big hit at the Renegade Craft Fair this summer despite having to tread through the monsoon weather.  All of the books we had on hand were sold out in minutes, and as a result we decided to offer it as a class. Here are the details which you can also find on our website:

Gocco Embellished Coptic Binding with Jen Thomas

Saturday, February 28th

10AM - 4PM

$72 (+15 material fee)

ABOUT THE SHOP
The Evanston Print & Paper Shop is located on a quiet street of Evanston, Illinois. We are a community art center for bookbinders, letterpress printers, artists and designers. We draw on the talented pool of book and paper artists in the Chicagoland area to host workshops in bookbinding and printing. We also rent space for printing and binding to those who have completed workshops, and would like to continue to hone their skills.

Please contact us at:
847.475.7674 or Eileen Madden at (847) 373-3617 to sign up for a workshop or to reserve time in our studio.