SOUTHERN GRAPHICS COUNCIL CONFERENCE 2010

Lucky us!

Last week was a gathering of print people in philly's favorite print places in honor of SGC2010.
Together Greg Pizzoli, from UArts, and Matt Neff, master of The Common Press, put on the Democratic Down N’ Dirty DIY Screen printing BYO-Tshirt event.

On Saturday afternoon, to close the conference, we turned our presses onto print mode and burned a few screens for an Open House! With both Vandercooks running, and four screen-printing stations we made posters (pic below) for you to take home!

HERE ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CONFERENCE:

1. THE POMP, at thepompus.com.

Originally trained as a fine artist and tall-walker in West Philadelphia, Avery Lawrence, the proprietor, has relocated his experimental-production workshop to a used bookstore in Charlottesville, VA.

The Pomp offers an array of design services, in particular screen-printed rolls of paper towels and high quality t-shirts -- the shirts last longer.

2. OPEN STUDIO

A printmaking residency in Toronto, Ontario. The space looks beautiful..... lots of windows and light and kind faces.

3. Proyecto ACE

Printmaking residency in Argentina! Check it out!

WOOD TYPE WOOD BLOCKS WOOD LINKS

In light of our recent acquisitions, see images below of both the extremely large quantity of large wood type and wood block patterning (made from old furniture from India) and the engravings of silver pots, cups, teapots, and other such silver things, see this link and you will want to pee yourself.








Heres some information and here's some more if I spark your interest: link. First you should know that the majority of wood type was made by the J. E. Hamilton Type Company. Wood Type became popular in America during the Civil War, when the lead was needed for gunning people down, then Hamilton came into the picture and revamped things a bit. He originally worked in a chair factory. Then he thought: why am I making all these chairs, people are going to get bored of sitting, gotta give 'em something to do while sitting, let's bring reading to the table!!!. Then you know what he did, he switched things up a bit, changed the way woodtype was made. Instead of using Maple, he made the letters of the more cost efficient Hollywood, like a true celebrity, which he then glued to Pine to make them type high.


ALSO:

On First Friday, March 5, from 6 to 8 p.m., the Wharton Esherick Museum will be having an opening: "Wharton Esherick -- Rustic Modernist." This is an exhibition of Esherick woodcut prints, printed by the Common Press. The opening is located with a car at the Phoenix Village Art Center, 207-209 Bridge Street in Phoenixville, PA.