Printing with the Photocopier: Making an Artist's Book—An Upcoming Class

Left: An artist's book I made using some of my 2011 Minnesota State Fair Sketches and a black and white photocopier. The covers have a window cut out and a tipped in color print of my Spin Art.

 

For two Monday evenings this spring—March 26 and April 2—from 6 to 9 p.m. I will be teaching a class on creating artist's books using the black and white photocopier as your press at MCBA. 

Learn how to prepare and layout art and text to create an artist's book to be printed on the photocopier. In the first session we will discuss ways to gather, to size, and to create artwork that will reproduce well on the black and white toner copier. (You do not have to be computer savvy to create your final masters—paste-up techniques will be demonstrated. Alternately you can elect to work on the computer and I can give you suggestions for that as well.)

We will discuss ideas for layout and design. You'll learn the various parts of the book and their importance and function. Students will also learn how to customize the size of their final structure.

Students will then have a week to prepare their printing masters on their own. During session two we will print your pages, fold and collate them. The pages will then be bound into a Japanese stab bound book with decorative sewing and a colorful paper cover.

This is the perfect way to make editioned artist's books, or share your work and images with friends and family to commemorate a special occasion. Each student will make 2-3 copies of her/his book in class, but will retain the masters for future copy-making.

Working with color (on color printers or color copiers) and different cover options will also be discussed.

Join me to start planning and creating your next artist's book today!

$90 ($80 for MCBA members) + $15 supply fee

Early bird registration for certificate program enrollees: $80/$70, expires 2/27

All skill levels welcome.

Comments

[Zoe]

If only pigs really did fly, and I could too, easily, I'd be registered in a millisecond.

[Christina Trevino.]

I hope you will later on write about this workshop. I am in the process of putting together a short edition of some of my poetry, but without any money to print. I have a laser printer for my Mac and I was wondering if it would be the same quality as a photocopier.

[Roz Stendahl]

Christina, I got your note on Facebook and answered there but just in case you miss that (I miss everything on FB) I won't be writing about the workshop later, except maybe to show a photo of the class at the end with their new books going out into the world (that makes me happy). I have published a video on sewing a Japanese Stab binding, but the design stuff and handling images, creating a paste up etc. won't be the subject of a video or on-line class, any time soon.

If you have access to a printer that works with your Mac you'll actually get higher quality than from a photocopier because you'll be working from a digital file that is an original, where as the copier will be using a printout of your Mac file and so essentially second generation.

All of that and ways to proceed are explained in the class. And why you might want to do one versus the other.

(Students in class will actually have the option of printing digital files directly to MCBA's printer/copier.)

Do a cost analysis on your consumables and see if it is worth it to print at home instead of doing something else. (Some laser printers' toner cartridges are expensive!)

Also, if running your printer is expensive or you can't get the quality you want (since laser printer quality varies greatly)consider laying out your book on your Mac in InDesign and then uploading it to Blurb or Lulu. Then you only have to buy a copy for yourself and promote the book—people can then buy it directly from the printing company with no prepayment from you for massive quantities. It might be the least expensive option when you weigh everything.

I hope you have fun with your project!I'm sorry you aren't near by to work with us.

[Christina Trevino.]

Roz, thank you so much for your answer, it gives me a direction, as I am not any smart about new technology, I am still way back there when I helped my friend Jaime setting type at his small printing bussiness in Mexico City. (Sigh).