EXPLORE THE PRINT SHOP
Watch the video below to follow Karen and Jolene’s tour of the print shop.
Typeset Video
Watch Jolene set up the movable type and prepare the printing press to print!
Print and Pass Video
Jolene uses the Vandercook press to make a print and then hands the paper off to Karen who shows how to use an etching press to print woodcuts.
PRINTING PRESS
HOW DOES A PRINTING PRESS WORK?
Letters, called movable type, are put together to form words. Then they are placed in the bed of the printing press, and where they are covered in ink. When the press pushes paper down onto the letters, the ink transfers onto the paper, creating a print.
WHEN WAS THE PRINTING PRESS MADE?
Printmaking began in Europe around the 1400s, but was used even earlier in East Asia. The printing press that Jolene uses in the video is a Vandercook press, which were first made by Robert Vandercook in the early 1900s.
WHAT ISÂ SO IMPORTANT ABOUT PRINTING?
Before the creation of the printing press, everything had to be written by hand. Imagine if all the books you read had to be written this way. If you wanted two copies of a book it would have to be written out twice. That's what life was like before printing. When the printing press was made, books became a lot easier to make, and a lot cheaper to buy, which allowed more people to be able to read them!
ACTIVITIES
MAKE YOUR OWN STAMP
Woodcuts and printing on a press both essentially work like stamps. For woodcuts, a design is drawn into a block of wood and then covered in paint or ink. When the block of wood is pressed down onto the paper, the ink transfers, leaving the design on the paper. Click the button below to find a video that explains step by step how to make a simple stamp with whatever materials you have handy.
WOODCUTS COLORING PAGES
Karen showed you an example of her own woodcut in the video. Woodcuts are made by creating a design in a piece of wood, covering it with ink, and then pressing the woodblock and paper together. Some woodcuts were then hand-colored. The Davison Art Center put together a coloring book of woodcuts that you can access at the link below.
