As award-winning, nationally recognized artists, The Little Friends of Printmaking have done graphics for Nike, NPR, "Guitar Hero I and II" and are currently working on the Comedians of Comedy's tour identity and San Francisco's indie music festival Noise Pop.

But as Milwaukeeans, the husband and wife duo of James and Melissa Buchanan are perhaps better known for their posters announcing the twice-annual Art vs. Craft fair -- or now as the dynamic, über creative teaching team at Discovery World's Print & Publishing Lab.

With the state-of-the-art print lab -- something the Buchanans were able to build from the ground up to include all the requisite equipment needed for a professional screenprinting shop -- at their disposal, the couple conducts the Inkblot Academy, an ongoing series of teen and adult-focused evening classes in basic screenprinting and print design.

"It's a boot camp," explains James. "You come in knowing nothing and leave with six, two-color screen prints. We go over the basics of the process, the equipment, the technique and how to design for screenprinting. It's basically the first month of a college screenprinting class compressed into six hours. It's intense, but people have a really good time."

The lab has been open about a year, with the two-day Inkblot Academy running once a month. Some of their students enjoy it so much they return month after month, establishing themselves as "Super Champions" in the eyes of their teachers.

"The idea was to develop programming where you can keep coming back," says James. "The first time might be a little rough, but then you can come back and know more and you don't have to listen to us babble -- you can just work and use the great space."

Eventually, they say, the plan is to divide the classes into two segments, one for beginners and the other as studio time for the returning Super Champions. And at $30 for members / $40 non-members, who wouldn't return to work in this graphic designer's dream space with access to an exposure unit, a TMI Jaguar parallel arm airlift screenprinting press (capable of producing 3x4-ft. prints), a T-shirt press, four vacuum tables, and eight manual height-adjustable table stations?

"We're never want to teach somebody something where the first step is to buy a $20,000 piece of equipment," explains Melissa. "You can do (screenprinting) in your basement -- you can do it with a light bulb -- and we go over that the first day. We give them a list of vendors we work with if they wanted to do it from home. But most importantly, we want to be a resource for people who want to come back and use the space."

 Page 1 of 2 (view all on one page)

Next >>

Post a comment / write a review.