Asheville Bookworks

BookWorks is pleased to offer a wide variety of workshops in 2008. We look forward to seeing you in our studio this year. Please visit our Instructors area, for bios, additional images and links to artists' individual websites.

More Marbling on Paper and Cloth
August 23 & 24
Saturday & Sunday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (1-hour lunch break)
Instructor: Steve Pittelkow

$195 + studio fees:

Register for this workshop

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Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

Designed for students with a basic understanding of paper marbling, this class will focus on more intricate and unusual patterns, including the Italian hair vein, Spanish moiré and other waved patterns. We’ll learn to make intricate flowers and other designs, too. Just in case it’s been a few months since your last marbling, we’ll start with a review of color mixing with a touch of theory and then get right into marbling. Bring special papers you may want to try.

Please bring the following items:

apron

Small Book Edition Exchange
August 26 and September 2, 9, 16 with Exchange Party September 23
Tuesdays: 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Instructor: Annie Fain Liden

$180 + studio fees: $10

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Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

This five week group editioning project is intended to encourage re-thinking and even simplifying your definition of a book, to develop a fun and approachable design that will be easy to reproduce and (best of all) to go home rich with one mini-book from each participant. The edition quantity will be determined by the number enrolled in the class, plus one extra which will be added to the BookWorks permanent collection. We will begin with a guided and timed “book sketch” project, move towards structure/aesthetic brainstorming, and meet for problem solving and group studio production time. (Be prepared to work outside of the set workshop hours.) Then we will close with a wine-food-book swap party.

Please bring the following items:

An awl, bone folder and cutting mat if you already have one
An exacto knife with extra blades
Scissors, pencil, eraser
A journal to take notes and have ideas in

Journaling and Your Creative Voice
for people who have taken Keeping Creative Journals
September 3, October 8, November 5 and December 3
Wednesdays (once a month): 6:30 - 9:00 pm
Instructor: Heather Allen-Swarttouw

$135 + studio fees: $5

Register for this workshop

credit card payments

Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

This class is for artists and creative people who want to take their journal keeping to another level. Drawing on the creative journals you began to compile in Keeping Creative Journals you will explore and expand your own personal artistic style. Often it is less daunting or intimidating to experiment with ideas and images in the smaller format a journal offers. Through continued journaling, engaging class exercises, collecting, collaging and other creative play, we will explore how these journals can lead to serious artistic discoveries and insight.

Please bring the following items:

current in-progress journal
existing unfinished journals
any blank journals/ sketchbooks lying around = potential journals

Please bring the following additional items:

favorite journal writing implement
glue stick
scissors
collections of ideas, postcards, cut out images that you have collected over time but not really had a place to put/ organize them
anything that you naturally use to doodle, sketch or design such as: favorite pens/pencils, colored pencils, watercolors and brush, markers, pastels, stamp and stamp pads, collage materials

Making Paints from Local Clay
Workshop limited to five pairs (one adult and one child).
September 6 & 7
Saturday: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm & Sunday: 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Instructor: Gwen Diehn and Jacob Diehn

$110 per student pair + materials fee: $5 per student pair
materials fee covers gum Arabic and honey solution

Register for this workshop

credit card payments

Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
Jacob Diehn and Gwen Diehn are again offering Partner Paintmaking for grandparents or parents and kids or for pairs of friends or any configuration of two people. This year the workshop will take place on two half days. On Saturday morning we'll go out together to collect beautiful colors of soil or clay or soft rocks. We'll come back to BookWorks in late morning to start the cleaning and pigment isolation process. On Sunday afternoon we'll grind and mix and grind and grind and mix and test and mix to produce watercolors in all of the colors we collect. Everyone will go home with knowledge of how to make watercolors out of local clays plus a small set of local clay paints.

Wear old clothes. Bring buckets, hammers, trowels, plastic grocery bags, old yogurt containers and other plastic bowl-like containers, glass spaghetti sauce jars, empty mint tins and/or plastic day-of-the-week medicine containers for storing paint in.

Experienced clay paint makers are also invited to come and learn new techniques and share your own knowledge.

Please bring the following items:

Bring buckets
hammers
trowels
plastic grocery bags, old yogurt containers and other plastic bowl-like containers,
glass spaghetti sauce jars, empty mint tins and/or plastic day-of-the-week medicine containers for storing paint in

Introduction to Handset Letterpress
Workshop limited to six students.
September 8 - 10
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (1-hour lunch break)
Instructor: Frank Brannon

$245 + studio fees: $25
studio fee covers all inks, solvents and other expendable supplies needed for printing and contributes to the on-going upkeep of the presses and paper cutters

Register for this workshop

credit card payments

Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

This three-day class will explore the basics of letterpress printing and hand typesetting, including type composition, mixing ink, press set-up, and printing on and maintaining the Vandercook Proof Press. Students will design and produce a small project of their own such as a business card, greeting or post card as well as participating in a group broadside project. Weekly open studio hours offers extra time to develop projects and skills. This class is designed as a stepping stone to advanced classes and future projects with BookWorks. Explore the ways that letterpress printing can add texture, words and a new dimension to your print and book work.

Please bring the following items:

small book or journal for notekeeping
pencil
printing paper, (paper will not be required on the first day) instructor will guide you to the best options for your personal letterpress printing projects
a favorite quote, haiku or word to help get ideas flowing

Encaustic Intensive
October 4 - 7
Saturday, Sunday, Monday & Tuesday:
10:00 am - 4:00 pm (4:30 pm on last day; 1-hour lunch break every day)
Instructor: Celia Gray

$250 + materials fees: $40
Materials fee covers all wax, paint, brushes, wood, paper and other expendables of the process.
Limited to six students.

Register for this workshop

credit card payments

Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

In this 4-day workshop we will cover all of the possibilities encaustic painting can offer. We will begin with the basics of this ancient technique of painting with pigmented beeswax, including tools and safety, making the encaustic medium and paints, and fusing layers. We will go on to explore the many ways to create imagery and texture by carving, incising, scraping, branding, collaging, transferring and using gold leaf. There will be demonstrations, discussion of historical and contemporary works, lots of work time and exploration, and plenty of time to learn from each other’s results. All levels welcome.

Please bring the following items:

10 wood panels no larger than one foot on any side (i.e.: pre made panels from art supply stores or ¾ plywood)
scissors
needle tool (clay needle tools work well and can be found at High Water Clay)
scraping tool (again, High Water Clay has great options but a small knife will work)
PVA glue
optional: flat porous material for collage, materials to apply to a board for low relief (found objects, scraps of wood, etc), fresh photo copies for transferring

Book Arts Sampler: A Primer
October 7, 14, 21, 28 and November 4, 11
Tuesdays: 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Instructor: Annie Fain Liden

$215 + studio fees: $35

Register for this workshop

credit card payments

Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

This six session workshop is the perfect opportunity to make books for the first time or to renew a long lost bookmaking past. We will focus on developing a solid foundation in various binding styles, book binding vocabulary, and quality craftsmanship. We will begin with some classics: making a book from a single page, pamphlet and accordion fold book structures. We will move on to tearing a text block by hand, working with paper grain, gluing a bubble-free cover and making accurate measurements without a ruler. Our last sessions will explore the versatile and lovely long-stitch and multi-needle Coptic bindings. Expect to go home with models and hand-outs for each technique, armed and ready to continue your journey into the land of hand-bound books. Students will also learn proper use of bookbinding equipment available at BookWorks studio.

Students taking this class in Feb / March may be interested in following it with an intermediate bookbinding class called “Book Arts Sampler: Beyond the Basics,” a weeklong workshop offered in July.

Please bring the following items:

4 medium to small, curved
binding needles
Awl
Bonefolder
Pencil, eraser, and scissors
Exacto knife w/ extra blades
A medium sized, metal (not plastic) “square”
Sturdy, medium sized glue brush
Self healing cutting mat
A journal for note taking

Introduction to Handset Letterpress
October 16, 23, 30 and November 6, 13, 20
Thursdays: 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Instructor: Gretchen Winger

$240 + studio fees: $25
studio fee covers all inks, solvents and other expendable supplies needed for printing and contributes to the on-going upkeep of the presses and paper cutters

Register for this workshop

credit card payments

Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

This class will explore the basics of letterpress printing and hand typesetting, including type composition, mixing ink, press set-up, and printing on and maintaining the Vandercook Proof Press. Students will design and produce a small project of their own such as a business card, greeting or post card as well as participating in a group broadside project. Weekly open studio hours offers extra time to develop projects and skills. This class is designed as a stepping stone to advanced classes and future projects with BookWorks. Explore the ways that letterpress printing can add texture, words and a new dimension to your print and book work. Six weeks including five weeks of workshop with the last class being group review and planning opportunities for on-going learning and letterpress projects with BookWorks.

Please bring the following items:

small book or journal for notekeeping
pencil
printing paper, (paper will not be required on the first day) instructor will guide you to the best options for your personal letterpress printing projects
a favorite quote, haiku or word to help get ideas flowing

Getting Started in Printmaking
October 22, 29 and November 5, 12, 19
Wednesdays: 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Instructor: Annie Cicale

$185 + studio fees: $25
studio fee covers printing blocks, inks, borrowed tools, and contributes to the on-going upkeep of the presses and paper cutters

Register for this workshop

credit card payments

Workshop Attendee(s)

by mail: Download registration form

by phone: 828-255-8444

Book Artists have always wanted to make multiple copies of their books. Traditionally printmakers have carved wooden blocks to make relief printing plates, and still work this way today. The modern student, however, can get started in this media with easily carved rubber materials, learning about design and printing without the difficulties of carving a hard material. We'll develop designs that can be used for prints, cards and books, and print small editions of some of our plates. A second process, collograph, will be introduced, giving you an additional process for printing. You'll learn the vocabulary, both visual and verbal, of printmaking, and plenty of techniques that you can do at home without a press. Your work may result in a limited edition book or in a series of prints or cards.

Please bring the following items:

Sketchbook with treasured images
Tracing paper
Pencils and erasers
Palette and/or putty knives (2-3)
Speedball linoleum carving tools
Woodcarving tools (if you have them)
Brayer (if you have one)
Wooden spoon with smooth edges, or a baren (Speedball makes a good one)
Paint rags
Bone folder
Apron

Other materials, such as paper and materials for collographs, will be discussed in class and added as the course proceeds.

Painted Papyrus Book
November 7 - 9
Friday, Saturday & Sunday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (1-hour lunch break)
Instructor: Daniel Essig

$315 + studio fees: $25

Register for this workshop

credit card payments

Workshop Attendee(s)