This week: honor your mother (or a mother figure)

Printmaking is a centuries-old practice, one of its benefits being the reproduction of multiples. Not every technique produces this effect, however-- like the monotype process. Because no lines are incised onto the printing plate (unlike in etching or woodblock), the clarity of the image is lost after the first run of the press. You'll be left with what's called a ghost, or a diluted version of your original image. While the creation process involves loss, it also involves the revelation of something new-- a one-of-a-kind image. Never again can you replicate the same one.

Aren't you totally curious about making one yourself?

Come join us this Saturday, May 4 for our Annual Mothers' Day Printmaking Workshop at the Craft in America Center, where you can do just that. Sign up for Session 1 (12:00-2:00pm), Session 2 (3:30-5:30), or BOTH! Printmaker Christina Carroll will guide you through the experience. Her artwork is incredible, evidence of which you can see next door at Freehand Gallery. (Ask about her egg carton series.)

For the workshop you can bring your own design or derive inspiration from our current exhibition:

Seeing Into It: Messages in Glass

Paul Mariono and Susan Stinsmuehelen-Amend

March 22, 2014 - June 28, 2014

 Here's an example of a print from one of Christina's previous workshops:

At the Center you will paint your design onto Plexiglass with water-based oil paint. Once the plate is inked, you'll place damp printmaking paper on top of it. Next you'll apply pressure onto the surface, which will transfer your image from the plate to the paper. The plate is then pulled away from the inked surface, revealing your image.

Sign up here!