Previous workshops (2024 and beyond)

Beaded Miniature Macrame Books

• Saturday, September 28, 9:30am-4:00pm—we'll break for lunch

• Instructor: Brenda Gallagher // www.brendagallagher.com

• Class size  Min 6 Max 12)

• Age restrictions: 16+

• Price $140

 

Students will make several miniature books with beaded spines. We will cut small pages and fold into signatures. Then a miniature case will be created by covering small boards with decorative paper and book cloth spines. Students will then make several beaded books. We will learn simple macrame using waxed linen thread adding beads in a variety of designs. Book pages will then be tied in with macrame weavings. Optionally, students can add a ribbon for hanging the book like an ornament.

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Optional materials to be provided by students:

• Beads of a variety of sizes (instructor will provide a selection)

• Scraps of decorative paper or book cloth you might wish to use (optional)

• If you have your own tools, please bring them. If not BAL has all the tools students need for the class: glue brush, bone folder, scissors, pencil
   

All materials will be provided by instructor:

• Bookboards cut to size 

• Paper for book pages 

• Glue 

• Thread for binding and sewing books 

• Needles 

• Waxed linen thread for macrame 

• Beads 

• Book cloth 

• Decorative paper

• Tools: glue brush, bone folder, scissors, pencil

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Letterpress printing Fall Greeting card workshop:
Collage and handset type

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• Saturday, Oct 19, 10-4 —we'll break for lunch

• Instructors: Julia Seko and Gregory Robl

• Class size: Min 4 Max 10

• Age restrictions 16+

• Price $140
   

No experience is required for a fun workshop in which you set type and print your own greeting cards to celebrate Fall, holidays, or whatever you please.  Participants at all levels of letterpress experience are welcome. Enjoy this playful but exciting departure from traditional card printing in which we will print 5 x 7” cards on Crane Lettra, a cardstock that works well for letterpress. The first print run will be a simple background collage of images from our collection of vintage engravings, large letters, or other symbols. Or participants can print on cards that were previously debossed (blind stamped) with a geometric pattern on the card front. Students may hand set type and print the interior message.

The second print run will be of handset type. Participants can select a typeface with which to create a short message to print on top of the background.

Each person will take home 10 cards and envelopes. 

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Mini Pencil Sketchbook Binding 

• Sunday Oct 20, 10am-4pm (we'll break for lunch)

• Instructor: Brenda Gallagher

• Class size: Min 4 Max 12

• Age restrictions 16+

Price $140

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Bind your very own miniature sketchbook with leather covers. This little gem holds your mini colored pencils and fits in your pocket! To begin, students will punch and sew suede leather covers to make slots for the mini pencils. Next we’ll fold signatures of sketchbook paper and sew into the suede spine. Perfect as a gift for the budding artist in your life!

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Experimental Momigami paper

and letterpress printed book 

• Saturday & Sunday Nov 2&3, 10am-4pm both days (we'll break for lunch)

• Instructors: Julia Seko and Gregory Robl

• Class size: Min 4 Max 12

• Age restrictions 16+

• Price $140 each day or $250 for both

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In our two-day workshop, students will prepare decorative cover paper on day one. On day two students will spend the day printing a broadside which will be cut, folded, and sewn into a small book. Covers will be folded and created with the decorative paper we created on the first day of the workshop. No experience is required, but do bring a sense of creativity and collaboration!

Konnyaku is made from a root vegetable in Asia that has been used culinarily since the 6th century CE. It can also be used as a paper sizing and strengthening agent; the paper is often crumpled and kneaded to make a strong, flexible, and durable product.  The result is known as momigami.

In our workshop on the first day, we invite participants to experiment with konnyaku paste on various papers. We will provide lokta (a sturdy colorful paper from Nepal that is versatile for many art projects) and brown, paper grocery bags, both of which make lovely momigami.

 

Participants are welcome to bring papers that they would like to try with momigami. Ideally, the paper would be fairly heavy - similar to a brown paper bag - and not sized.

 

We will provide the  prepared konnyaku paste which we will brush onto papers and allow to dry, We will also experiment with painting ink onto the paper before applying the paste.  The crumpling and working of the paper multiple times results in a sturdy and super flexible material akin to cloth fabric.

 

While our momigami dries, we will begin to design and create the content for the broadside that will be printed on the second day of the workshop.

 

On the second day, we will print fourteen pages of content on an oversize sheet of Arches Text Wove paper. The oversize paper will then be cut and folded using an intricate combination of meander accordion folding and pamphlet stitch binding to make a multi-page book. 

 

Collectively the participants will choose two ink colors and a theme for the book. Each participant will get to select cuts (images) for a page or two and set a few lines of appropriate text. Collectively we will write a colophon and print the momigami cover sheets with the colophon and a title.

 

Participants can join the workshop for the first or second day only or both days. The fee will be priced accordingly. Participants on the first day will take home some momigami paper. Each person attending the second day of the workshop will select a momigami cover for their own copy of the book we bind on the second day. Each person attending the workshop the second day will take home the copy of the book that we build.

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Coptic stitch book with woodburned covers

• Wednesday Nov 13, 10am-4pm (we'll break for lunch)

• Instructor Brenda Gallagher

• Class size Min 6 Max 12

• Age restrictions 16+

• Price $140 

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In this class, students will be introduced to the ancient art of pyrography, better known as woodburning. We'll begin the class by practicing our woodburning skills and then decorating our book covers which will be made of thin slices of hard wood. We'll seal the covers with a wood finish and while the covers dry, we'll begin preparing pages for the book. Students will tear and fold paper for interior pages, prep decorative flysheets and punch signatures. Finally, we will drill the cover boards and sew the book together using the coptic stitch. This book is a delightful gift for the book lover in your life!

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All materials will be provided by instructor:

• Wooden covers 

• spray polyurethane wood finish

• Paper for book pages

• decorative paper for flysheets

• Waxed linen thread for binding 

• Tools: bone folder, scissors, pencil, woodburners, needles, awls

• Students may bring a sheet of preferred decorative paper to use for flysheets (optional). 

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