Introducing: Adam Robinson

1.What is your background?

My background, well I started getting serious about my interest in art in high school when I took an advanced placement art course that started an hour earlier than normal school hours. I then went to college at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) where I received a BFA in 2001. While studying there I focused in graphic design, photography, and printmaking. I have had an interest for a while in the connections among these three disciplines, so when I saw there was a letterpress course offered at SAIC I signed up for it. The course was taught at the letterpress studio at Columbia College, since at the time SAIC didn’t have a letterpress studio (they do now). This course was taught by Catherine Ruggie-Saunders. A few years ago when I wanted to find a way to start doing some letterpress printing again I found out about the Rob Roy Kelley Collection and the Design Lab at The University of Texas at Austin. I spoke to Kevin Auer, who ran the studio there at that time about possibly using the studio there outside of class time. He agreed to let me do so after a refresher class on letterpress printing. He also told me about the ABAC, and I contacted them about possibly volunteering in exchange for access to their equipment.

2.What do you enjoy about letterpress?

I enjoy a lot of things about letterpress. I enjoy the physicality of it; when hand setting type you are physically rearranging the type and leading and spacing and the furniture when it comes time to lock up the type. I also appreciate the connection to history all the way back to Gutenberg (many folks don’t know there’s a copy of the Gutenberg Bible here in Austin at The Harry Ransom Center that is always on exhibit). I like that letterpress is both a technical and a creative process which compels you to slow down when you’re doing it.

3.Do you prefer to work with a particular letterpress machine or type face? Why?

I prefer working with the cylinder presses especially the Vandercooks; there is a lot more control available with them. I also really like working with wood type, which I first worked with at UT. The wood type makes one slow down even more because most of it is old and in turn requires you do some make ready work in order to get good results. Of course there is also chromatic wood type, a wonderful trick that allows for printing with two colors to look like printing with three.

4.When did you begin volunteering at ABAC?

I started volunteering at ABAC around six years ago.

Edible Books! with Mary Baughman via Facebook Live

Thursday, March 19th, 7-8pm

Due to concerns for public health, this program will be broadcast only.
It will be live on the ABAC Facebook page.

Half Price Books, host of the Austin Edible Book Festival since 2014, has just announced that this year, the April 1st event is canceled…. However, Edible Book Lovers still have a chance to celebrate this weird art form.

Edible Book Festivals around the world celebrate books, humor, and imagination through the creation of dishes inspired by books and puns. Edible Book Festivals are fun and silly. Right now fun, silliness, and creativity are just what the Dr. ordered.

Are you hungry to learn more about Edible Book Festivals? During the Facebook Event to be broadcast from Austin Book Arts Center, admire inspiring images of past Edible Book Festival entries. Imagine the taste of materials you can use to make an edible book. Learn tips to prepare Edible Books with ingredients you already have at home.

Using a variety of delicious materials, Mary Baughman has created at least one yummy book for each of Austin’s past 17 Edible Book Festivals. Mary conserved inedible books at the University of Texas Ransom Center for 40 years, and now Mary serves up information about Austin Book Arts Center where everyone can have fun and learn about all sorts of book arts.

This event is part of ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly happenings are free and open to the public.

Kyle Durrie visits ABAC with her Moveable Type truck

Kyle Durrie of Power and Light Press, Silver City, NM
Thursday, March 5th from 6-9pm at ABAC

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This event is in collaboration with Amplify Austin, a city-wide 24 hrs of giving beginning at 6pm on Thursday, March 5th and extending until Friday, March 6th at 6pm.

Click here to support the Austin Book Arts Center.

Please note NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL!
All gifts are needed and appreciated.

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The indomitable Ms. Durrie is once again hitting the open road in her “Moveable Type” truck for a tour of the southern states. She will be setting up shop at the Austin Book Arts Center to engage visitors with letterpress demos and a stunning array of letterpress printed merchandise.

This is the second tour of the “Moveable Type” truck. Back in 2011-2013, Durrie traveled around the country in this same truck, with the mission of sharing the craft of letterpress printing. She is visiting small towns and big cities to spread the good word about printing the old fashioned way, by hosting public pop-ups, letterpress demos, and letter-writing events along the way.

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ABAC also has about 100 cans of free ink. Yes, that’s right, FREE INK! Come and take it.
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Cartonera Book Publishing

Thursday, February 20th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Artist Presentation
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

Join us to hear a brief history of the Latin American cartonera movement, from cardboard collectors to artists and writers who create cartoneras. See beautiful samples from Mexico and learn how folks of any age can publish cartoneras.

Jesse Gainer is a former elementary teacher who now works as an associate professor of literacy education at Texas State. He is interested in how young children develop language, literacy, and critical thinking, and ways teachers can bridge school-based instruction to children’s at-home languages and cultures.

Linda Anderson, a retired elementary teacher, currently conducts classes for artists and educators at ABAC. Linda will show examples of cartonera books children and adults can use for publishing their writing.

Introducing: Greg Ciotti

Here’s another one from the Biblio Files, a periodic profile of a community member, highlighting what makes ABAC an awesome place to work and to learn!

Greg has a radio show on KOOP and has served as Master of Ceremonies at each of ABAC’s annual fundraisers.

How did you become involved at ABAC?

I believe that Dave Sullivan suggested that I needed to talk with his better half [ABAC Board Chairperson Mary Baughman] on my KOOP radio program.

What would you like ABAC fans to know about you?

That ABAC opened a new world of expression for me.

What forms of book arts do you study?

Currently I am drawn to the use of type face for design, specifically P22.

Why do you think the arts and art education are important?

The Arts are second in importance only to reading in that they help us both learn and express.

Greg Ciotti and Rick Kegler

Spring Open House

Saturday, February 8th from 10am-5pm
Austin Book Arts Center
5501 N. Lamar, Suite C125, Austin, TX 78751
Free admission; Enjoy refreshments and door prizes.

The Austin Book Arts Center invites the public to an Open House. Come visit the Studio and see what’s new!

Spring registration has begun. Learn about the new schedule, with many exciting workshops for children and adults being offered for the first time! From medieval bookbinding to DIY photopolymer, golden touch paper to leather working, there’s bound to be a class you can’t pass up. Volunteers are onsite to lead demonstrations in bookbinding and letterpress printing. Attendees may print a keepsake or bind a book.

Heavy Prose with Jim Trainer

Thursday, January 16th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Jim Trainer Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

Self-publisher, personal journalist, singer-songwriter, storyteller, and poet Jim Trainer will discuss his creative process and the importance of publishing as the completion of that process. From composition to printing and binding to performing live, the written word is rife with potential better served, and even shaped, at the street level and when heard, read, and shared. Jim will touch on personal journalism, the why of art and creation, and ultimately how poetry and your personal vantage point as a writer will often ring truer than the hard news.

Jim Trainer will perform and share his work as part of the discussion.

Letterpress Play: Fostering PLAY for All!

Thursday, December 19th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Kyle Hawley Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

Kyle Hawley is a letterpress printer and creator of LetterpressPLAY. Kyle’s designs inspire curiosity and wonder through zero waste paper toys, cards, posters and more!

Letterpress PLAY’s paper products employ a full range of printing methods using lead or wood type, blocks, or polymer plates and are printed by hand or with machines dating back to the Industrial Revolution. Experience Kyle’s handmade paper toys!

More information may be found here!

Homemade cookies and hot chocolate by Laura Agnew.

Free Paper Making Workshop with Yama Ploskonka!

Join us for a brief lecture “Forbidden Paper Making of the Spanish Colonies” and then learn the basics of making paper by hand.

Friday, October 11th

Activities start at 7:00 P.M.

While the Spanish were the first to print books and make paper in the Americas, “something” happened. No paper made in Spanish America exists, those papermills disappeared, while the British not only caught up, but were making paper and books everywhere they could.

Perhaps some papermaking happened “underground”, as the Spanish authorities were generally not friendly of such things (because tariffs, did you know?) The Jesuit Missions in the Paraguay “might” have made paper in the 1720s, there is some curious evidence discovered in Austin, of all places.

A brief presentation about some facts of history, and why that “mystery” matters even today, especially today, will be followed by a hands-on workshop where participants get to make by hand a sheet of paper to take home that looks like it was made in 1724.

Yama Ploskonka is catching up on life as he chose a few years ago to become a papermaker when he grows up. He was a teacher, computer and robotic geek besides much else in many places, and generally spends his time now sharing ways of making things before those skills gets lost and forgotten. Since 2016 he started Papel Texano in Austin, to encourage people to make paper and especially to use handmade paper for prints and books, like it had been for hundreds of years

The Good Life: Letterpress

Thursday, October 17th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Kyle Schlesinger Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

You may have heard that printing is good for you, but nobody really talks about why. Like yoga, printing is beneficial to your mind, body, and even spirit. It is physically satisfying, mentally engaging, and repetitive enough to bring on a tranquil feeling. In a world mediated by technology we don’t understand, it is empowering to work with machines we can apprehend visually and mechanically. Moreover, letterpress is good for the environment, and it fosters community, teamwork, creativity, and a special view of history. Want to live the good life? Come to Austin Book Arts Center and start printing.

Kyle Schlesinger is a printer with twenty years’ experience. He is also the proprietor of Cuneiform Press, a literary arts organization based in Austin.