Materials Lab Workshop: Making an Impression
About
Try your hand at a range of printmaking processes and learn how to “read” a print to identify different types. — This event is at capacity. Join assistant paper conservator Abby Schleicher and research curator Francesca Bewer for a workshop focused on art and science. You’ll discover how different printmaking techniques record both intentional design and the physical traces of making. Through hands-on experimentation using a variety of tools, pressures, inks, and papers, you’ll see how each technical choice leaves distinct traces—and why no two impressions are ever truly identical. We’ll look at a selection of prints under magnification and specialized conservation lighting to “read” their toolmarks, plate wear, inking, and condition. Linking studio experiments with close looking from a conservation perspective, this workshop will give you a concrete framework for identifying print processes and a richer appreciation of the material complexity of printed images. This workshop is one of four offered this fall that explore different media through the lens of art and science. Take one or take them all! The four workshops are: Saturday, September 19: Landscape Drawing with Optical Devices Wednesday, October 7: Color Alchemy—Pigments and DIY Paint Friday, November 6: Making an Impression Friday, November 20: Casting Connections—Molds, Replicas, and Questions of Authorship
