$150 • July 7-10
ages 5-10
Kids: Four-Day Printmaking Powerhouse Class invites young artists to roll up their sleeves and experiment with color, texture, and bold designs. Across four sessions, kids will explore different printmaking techniques and create a small collection of their own prints.
Day 1: The "Soft" Start Foam Plate Relief & Ghost Prints We begin our journey into the world of "multiples" using soft foam plates. Students will use pencils or "styluses" to etch deep grooves into the foam, creating intricate designs. We will learn the "Art of the Brayer"—how to roll out the perfect layer of ink—and experiment with Ghost Printing (making a second, lighter print) to see how the ink travels from plate to paper.
Day 2: Nature’s Textures & Found Objects Collographs & "The Junk Drawer" Print Today, we aren’t carving—we’re building! Using the Collograph method, students will glue textured materials like string, lace, bubble wrap, and leaves onto a sturdy base to create a 3D printing plate. Once the glue is dry, we’ll ink up the textures to see how the different "low-relief" surfaces create a beautiful, complex image that you can’t get with a flat stamp.
Day 3: The "Reductive" Secret Gel Plate Layering & Stencils Instead of carving away wood, we’ll "carve" away ink! Using Gel Printing Plates (or smooth acrylic sheets), students will roll out a solid color and then use stencils, combs, and Q-tips to remove the wet ink. This "reductive" process mimics the look of a woodcut but is much faster and safer. We’ll learn to layer colors on top of each other to create deep, "painterly" masterpieces.
Day 4: Solar & Kitchen Magic Sun-Prints (Cyanotypes) & Kitchen Litho For our final day, we turn to the power of science! We’ll use light-sensitive Cyanotype paper to create "Sun-Prints" using silhouettes of objects. Then, we’ll try a "Kitchen Litho" experiment using aluminum foil and oily crayons to see how water and grease repel each other to create a print. We’ll finish the session by "signing and numbering" our favorite prints, creating a professional artist's portfolio.