The art of printmaking: A guest post by Susan Schwake

Today we are thrilled to bring you a guest post from Susan Schwake. Susan is going to be teaching at Teahouse in September: Playful printmaking Sept 8-9th

I asked Susan to write a bit more about why she loves printmaking and why we will love it too! ~ take it away Susan!

Playing around with printmaking -

Printmaking by definition is the act of making graphic works by hand.

Many things come to mind for people when they are thinking about printmaking. Sometimes people think oh it's too technical - too perfect/exact - etchings by DaVinci and Dürer while other may think about cutting themselves with sharp tools in the 9th grade art class.

While lino cuts and acid baths are all part of one kind of printmaking, there is another side which is more accessible, more spontaneous, more painterly and much much more playful.  It's the sunny side of the printmaking street that I have strolled  for the past 20 years and am so excited to offer my two day workshop at Teahouse this September.

Printmaking for me is about working with found materials (think bubble wand, corks, papers, etc.) and printing plates made from gelatin and cardboard. I use pure pigments in liquid form, waterbased printmaking inks and brushes, screens and brayers to transform these plates into singular works of art - as well as bases for mixed media works. Stencils, simple screen printing methods, relief printing and dozens of additional tricks of printmaking without a press are in my repertoire and I love to share the secrets with others. 

Everyone is able to take away dozens of papers for other projects and plenty of finished works to frame. The methods are repeatable at home with simple materials and small spaces. Your own style emerges when working in this medium as well as your own marks and you are left with a new vocabulary.

I hope that you will join me for a joyous two day workshop in printmaking at Teahouse on September 8 and 9th.

Susan Schwake is an artist who has been printmaking since collage. Her gelatin prints have been used for bookcovers, fundrasiers for the tsunami relief fund for Japan and are in personal collections around the world. Her new book "Art Lab for Kids" has a whole chapter filled with printmaking processes that she has used and taught with thousands of people, young and old. Most of all she loves teaching printmaking processes to others and finds great joy in their discoveries! You can also find Susan online and her blog. 

Getting our sewing on**

Last weekend we had Maya Donenfeld in the house showing us how to repurpose old Tyvek mailers ~ it was so great!  I love Maya's new book ~ Reinvention too.  She shows us how we can recycle, repurpose and remake items.  Truly an inspiration.  And totally patient too :)

We had a small intimate class and it felt just right.  Pixie was here and graced us with a nice meditation and a pull from her cards ~ it all felt just right. 

We  painted, stamped and hand sewn our pouches and it was so interesting to hear how we were going to use them ~ from holding money to secrets to the sacred.  We all house such important pieces of our souls in what we make.

It was such a treat to host all who came to the workshop and to Maya's book signing.  Such a great day at Teahouse Studio. 

Won't you join us....

the Magic of Encaustics: a guest post from Jess Greene

Today we are thrilled to bring you a guest post from Jess Greene of Seek your Course. Jess is going to be visiting Teahouse twice in the next few weeks - once for her Jumpstart Creativity tour and once for her Personal Narratives in Wax encaustics workshop.

I asked Jess to write about why she loved working with encaustics...take it away, Jess!

base layersEncaustic - hot beeswax and resin - is everything you want in an art medium and more. When hot it is a vibrant, colorful liquid that quickly produces transparent or opaque layers. When cold it is strong and solid enough to hold 3-dimentional shapes and to carve into. It accepts transfers, collage, stencils, embedding objects, and a wide variety of other art products. Wax can express and work with just about anything. In other words, it is the perfect medium to use when expressing what happens in our heart and soul. 

hot palettesharing our work

I started working with encaustic paints a few years ago. I immediately loved the appearance of the foggy transparent layers and the aged look it provided. Within a year I had set up my own studio, was taking every encaustic workshop I could get to and was learning as much as I could about the seemingly endless ways of using the medium. I learned that the misty translucency of the medium was just one way of using it. I learned and experimented with encaustic sculpture, books, and assemblage. I painted and painted some more. I even completed a month-long residency in Spain last fall to paint in encaustic for an entire month. It was transformational and I was hooked for good.

student work mosaicstudent workstudents working

work in progressBe intrigued by this medium. Come and learn its secrets in my two-day workshop. We will construct the beginnings of a personal narrative of symbols and stories. We will learn the tricks of manipulating hot wax. And then we will put the meaning into the wax. Encaustic will take us to new places. Join us!

About Jess:

photo credit: Danielle Intile of Winsome SmilesJess Greene was inspired to begin painting by artist blogs and the stories that artists post about their work. She started seeing herself as an artist after she went to her first art retreat. The amazing community of artists she found there led her to start Seek Your Course, an online database for creative learning opportunities. In 2011 she quit her day job as a teacher and spent a month in an artist residency in Spain. Her work focuses on telling stories of loneliness and happiness. Most paintings feature houses and represent the self on a search for places of safety and love. Find out more on her website.

Magic::

We had the lovely and awesome Courtney Cerruti here this past weekend teaching Image Transfer and we all told her she needs to add magician to her business card because she is! 

She showed us like 5 techniques for image transfering onto artwork, paper, fabric ~ it was total magic!

Everyone that came out was great fun  ~ the place comes alive when we have other kindreds to share it with.

The lovely Catalina ~ this is her third class with us and we just adore her! (don't you also just love Mati's words "show the world your magic" on our wall?!

Courtney surprised us with her typewriter "olive" too...what a special treat :)

have you seen?

Have you seen this new website Creative Bug yet?  

It looks pretty awesome and we have some great friends behind it and know some of peeps creating for it!

Check it out if you haven't ~ I bet there is something there just for YOU!

and

I'm super stoked that Shuttersisters has declared June ~ Colour Month!  Check it out and download the calendar. June is such a great time of year to be looking for all these colors with all the spring/summer blooms in full swing.