| Mark Making Turned into Books

Explore the possibilities of adding calligraphy and hand lettering to your books.

Handwriting gives one’s personality to the page; adding spirit and intention. During this week long intensive, you will create a multitude of pages that can be incorporated into books or other works of art. Jan Owen’s class, Mark Making Turned Into Books, is for the artist who wants to add hand lettering to unique books or for polymer plates then letterpress multiples.

The class will use a variety of tools: pens, brushes, sticks with inks and acrylics to write on special papers that are suitable for binding or displaying. A preliminary brief primer of formal calligraphy will show letter style development. By looking at historic and contemporary layouts and design formats, students will have a chance to understand the basics of page design. The next stage of the class will experiment with starch paint and decorated paper. It is a wonderful (forgiving) surface to write on. The class will make paste papers for an accordion fold book or broadside and add words for final projects.

Let your imagination run free as you explore these easy to learn techniques.

Please bring an apron (or pick up one in the MMW+C store) or old shirt, plus short poems, songs, or text you might want to use as inspiration. Feel free to bring any specialty paper, photographs, or ephemera that you would like to incorporate.

Image Credits:  © Jan Owen