It’s early in the new year. My children are both in school/daycare and classes have not yet started. I look forward to this time all year. It feels wide open, full of possibilities, and lends itself to planning big projects. Really Big Prints is one such project. This summer will be our 5th (?) iteration of the event and the first time we’ve partnered with and printed at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum as co-host.
The Hamilton Manufacturing company made a name for itself in the 19th century manufacturing the wood type used to print newspapers, broadsides, and a number of other paper ephemera. Today Hamilton is a museum and educational center focused on stewarding the history of printing and letterpress printing in particular. Stephanie Carpenter is Hamilton’s Program Officer as well as being an artist, designer, and letterpress printer. Berel and I are thrilled to have her expertise and enthusiasm as we move forward into 2023 printing.
We’ll be printing this year from July 19th – 22nd, with morning and afternoon shifts available to artists. Somewhat new this year: Hamilton will be offering a relief printing workshop that will lead participants through the design, transfer, and carving of their block, finishing in time to print with us in July!
Continuing from last year: we will again offer a $500 scholarship to an underrepresented artist who would like to print with us. Applying for that money only takes a short statement at the end of our regular application.
It’s cold out and the days are short. It feels good to dream about printing big prints in the sun next to Lake Michigan. I hope to see some of you there.
