This three-hour class allows your imagination to run wild! 

Pressure printing is using torn paper and other low relief materials placed on the back side of a sheet of paper which is then printed against an inked tint block. The unequal amount of height means the thicker areas print darker than the rest of the paper. A sense of dimensionality can occur.

For instance, several layers of overlapping torn paper can result in receding mountains. A thin cut-paper house could seem to fade into the background behind a thicker cut-paper picket fence in the foreground.

What sorcery is this??

Solvent printing is spritzing an inked tint block with, oddly enough, solvent, to break up the film of ink, bubbling and puddling and running. A sheet of paper is printed against the manipulated tint block. The results can stand on their own or be used as background for printing text, endsheets of books, whatever one can imagine. This is free-flowing, uncontrollable, and unreproducible fun!

Three hours will have never gone by so fast - a time-warp everybody!

Class runs 11am - 4pm with a 20 minute break for lunch.

No supplies or prior experience required.

Instructor: Brian Allen

After a 40-year career working with letterforms and typography, 20 as a digital font engineer, 10 with a solo commercial letterpress print shop in Raleigh/Durham, NC, Brian has retired to Philadelphia to luxuriate in the arts, crafts, and culture here. He particularly enjoys the warmth and hospitality of the citizens. It affords ample opportunity to activate his sardonic sense of humor.