Vandercooking: Image Making for Letterpress

Vandercooking: Image Making for LetterpressThis in person workshop takes place at CBA on April 12th and 13th, 2025 from 11: 00 am to 5: 00 pm. Saturday, April 12, 11: 00am 5: 00pm Sunday, April 13, 11: 00am 5: 00pm Please Note: Registration for this workshop closes on April 6th, at 11: 59 pm. About the Workshop: This in person workshop is taught by CBA instructor Elizabeth Castaldo. The Vandercook presses are useful tools for a variety of projects and can be fun to use for many image based

This in-person workshop takes place at CBA on April 12th and 13th, 2025 from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

• Saturday, April 12, 11:00am - 5:00pm
• Sunday, April 13, 11:00am - 5:00pm

Please Note: Registration for this workshop closes on April 6th, at 11:59 pm.

About the Workshop:

This in-person workshop is taught by CBA instructor Elizabeth Castaldo.

The Vandercook presses are useful tools for a variety of projects and can be fun to use for many image based processes that can stand alone or be used in combination with hand set type. This workshop will cover a variety of hand made image making techniques such as pressure printing, collagraphs, and linocut.

Through these techniques, you will explore color, transparency, shape, and layering of imagery to create a series of prints. This class will focus on a playful and spontaneous approach to letterpress, but the resulting prints can be used as the beginnings of an artist's book, a printed edition, or a series of unique prints, and next steps for these types of projects will be touched on as well. Anyone with an experimental spirit will love this class. Letterpress experience will be helpful but is not required.

Fun Fact: Image making on the letterpress is so special because while it is a tactile craft that’s made slowly, it can be reproduced infinitely and shared widely, while still maintaining that human-made feeling.

Required Materials:

• Pencil and eraser
• X-acto knife with blades or snap off utility knife
• Relief carving tools (optional)
• Textured materials for making collagraphs - such as lace, dried or artificial leaves, yarn or string
• Any special papers you may want to print on

All other materials will be provided by CBA at no additional charge to the students. 

About Elizabeth Castaldo

Elizabeth Castaldo is a New York based artist, printmaker, and bookbinder. Working with collage, drawing, and printmaking she creates works on paper and artist’s books that explore nature and the divine feminine. She has completed residencies at Arquetopia in Oaxaca Mexico, the Center for Book Arts, NYC and Printmaker’s Open Forum, Oxford PA. Castaldo received her MFA from SCAD Atlanta where she was a Dean’s Fellow in Printmaking and her BFA from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has been exhibited nationally including with the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Center for Book Arts, Saint Joseph’s College, Oklahoma City University, Landing Contemporary, Empty Set Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She teaches printmaking and book arts at Parsons School of Design and the Center for Book Arts. Her work is held in many private and institutional collections including SCAD, The University of Alberta, Carnegie Melon University, Yale University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

All images courtesy of the instructor.