Wood Engravers Network Workshop Part 2/2

To read the previous entry on what happened at our workshop go here.

We had a blast in Houston, and followed up the next day with something even better. A trip to the Cushing Library at Texas A&M Campus. They were simultaneously having a book arts workshop of their own, so we met with them during their break from lectures and then got a tour and visited the print room. Lastly we made our way to the reading room, to explore the wonderful collections of rare books that were set on display for us. Abigail Rorer's books are always my favorite, and I never get tired of flipping through them and looking at the detailed engravings of animals and landscapes. Big thanks goes to Kevin O'Sullivan and Todd Samuelson who hosted us on our tour.

The collection in the library lobby. 

The print room.

A small parlor press was the source of much admiration. 

Kevin O'Sullivan explaining about setting type on wooden composing sticks.

Some hand bound books on display in the lecture room. 

Mould for type casting

Eric Gulliver and Carl Montford discussing the inking ball.

Reading room goodies. 

Block that the above engraving was printed from.

Old 19th century printing blocks. 

Carl Montford enjoying a book.

Clarence Wolfshohl deep in thought. 

Inari Krohn and me looking at a book by Gaylord Shanilec

Jim Horton

Yezid Vergara taking a closer look

Middle back, Carl Montford talking to Todd Samuelson.

The proper way to hold your tool.

After two days of visiting collections, everyone felt quite inspired, so we spent the next two days mostly in the studio working  away. We had a chance to sample some papers sent from Paper-Papers.com and blocks  provided to us by Jim Reynolds. Please see a more in depth review on those supplies in the next post coming up. :)

On Saturday morning some of the folks took a quick detour to the entomology department at A&M. We saw lots of bugs in boxes and got to ask questions about them.

Exploring the bug collections.

Heres a few more photos of the workshop. 

Group photo left to right, Back row: Jim Horton, Eric Gulliver, Jon Hinkel, Carl Montford, Yezid Vergara, Allen Pixley, Clarence Wolfshohl, Tony Drehfal. Front row: Sylvia Pixley, Letitia Alston, Mirka Hokkanen, Inari Krohn, Joanne Price, Michael Ferguson, Margaret Helms. 

We also visited Inari's solo show that was up at the Sead Gallery around the corner from the workshop one day. This is Inari explaining some of her works to Jim. 

Eric Gulliver and Inari's prints

Jon and Carl

Inari and I

Lunch at the Village Cafe.

Clarence's work station

Open portfolio night. We were spent to the public, and pulled all of our works out to show. 

Enjoying a night at the local brewery. Michael Ferguson, Carl Montford, Clarence Wolfshohl and Margaret Helms.

Joanne Price and Yezid Vergara.

Lastly, we had a group project for the workshop. An exquisite corpse print, that everyone could make a mini print for and that would be bound into a tiny book. Here are some of the entries, and I'll post about it when I get mine in hand. (Pages haven't been bound together yet.) 

I was so happy to be able to host the workshop. I really hope the kids are old enough next year to attend the one in New Jersey. If you want to learn more about the Wood Engravers Network, visit our website: http://woodengravers.org, we also have a Facebook page and Instagram account.