Back in April, I went to Boulder, Colorado to teach a class at The Makerie entitled "Crafting Content". The ambitious idea was that my students and I would document the experience of this creative retreat and create a commemorative book. We hand-assembled the notebooks at the end of the weekend, but I've just released this digital flippable version to share online. See all my posts from Boulder and the Makerie here.
video by Janine Vangool of UPPERCASE magazine Hands of the Makerie at the Boulder Chautauqua. April 11-14, 2013
Brad's collection of typewriters are housed in their cases on a shelving system he devised.
During my last few hours in Boulder, I was happily surprised with an invitation to visit Brad O'Sullivan's letterpress studio. (We featured Smokeproof Press back in issue #8's Letterpress Sampler. Copies are still available for sale in our shop.)
Thank you to Allison of Bird Dog Press for making this happen and for my Crafting Content partner-in-crime Heide Murray of All Good Wishes who also drove me to the airport after our visit. (Check out Heide's amazing felt creatures.)
Brad shows us one of his many machines.
A gorgeous "Floating Shift" key.
Allison and Heide admire the details.
An Italian Olivetti art deco-era in mint condition.
An Hermes Rocket in hot orange.
A later model Hermes Rocket is workhorse grey.
For me, the ephemera of typewriters are part of the appeal.
An Odell Typewriter wooden box.
Thanks, Brad, for climbing up and retrieving one amazing machine after another.
A cursive model.
Brad saves ink samples in old film cannisters, with typewritten labels of course.
In addition to the typewriter collection, there were plenty of things to keep an eye happy at Smokeproof Press.
Note the collection of UPPERCASE magazines on the upper shelves!
Thanks again, Brad, Allison and Heide for your hospitality.
Loved instructor Allison Bozeman's style.
Re: joyce
Like candy.
Not sure what this is, but I like the way it looks!
Designs for printing.
Lots of happiness in this class!
Piles of supplies.
Hands-on instruction.
Always place the brayer on its handle to avoid damaging the cylinder.
Printmaking on the Excelsior.
Allison and Holland made a numbered edition of 100 inserts for our bookmaking project.
A great class at the Makerie. Maybe next time I can do more than snoop with my camera!
From the Makerie website: "Allison Bozeman wears many aprons as a letterpress pixie / woodtype worshiper / indie ink siren / vintage fabric vixen and owner of BirdDog Press in Lyons. What started as a penchant for pen and paper in the digital age, an obsession with a more tactile, interactive experience grew. Feathered with more than 14 years of design expertise in her cap, Allison began spreading her wings into letterpress printing, non-traditional materials and a handmade eco-friendly approach. BirdDog Press was born when a rescued hunting dog inspired a design + letterpress studio with a trained eye for craftsmanship in place of perfectionism, a love of pattern and perspective and a collaboration of history and modern technology."
Find out more about Bird Dog Press here.
Jennifer Mercede taught doodling and painting.
Lots of great supplies; looks like a lot of people bought fresh pencil crayons and paints.
Students were coached on stream-of-consciousness writing and drawing.
This class was held in a tent.
Free yourself with mark-making.
My Crafting Content class was held in the Missions Hall on the Chautauqua grounds.
Alas it was too chilly to spend time out on the porch.
After going "out into the field" to document the stories of the Makerie, students congregated back to the classroom to craft their stories.
In the foreground: Fran, Ellen and Alix.
My class on day one.
A pile of books I've published over the years.
New technologies of content gathering.
Work in progress.
Students made backgrounds for their pages through collage and assemblage.
I brought a selection of rubber stamps from home.
My students from the first day. (We were too busy with our print deadline for a class photo on day two!) Thank you to everyone who took my class and was along for this big creative experiment. I'm impressed with what we were able to accomplish!
Out of necessity, I worked every waking minute, even during our picnic lunch.
By the end of the first day, my eleven students had produced 44 pages of content!
The second day's class was smaller, with just 5 students: but we had a tighter deadline looming. But we pulled it off and had a final book with 84 pages!
I prepared all the final files which were sent as pdfs to a local digital printer. After some technical delays, the printouts were delivered that evening for our bookmaking party.
The grand assembly line, ready for everyone to collate their own books.
Relief and exhaustion at seeing it all come together. If you have photos of your finished book, please link to it in the comments or send me a picture. I was too busy to take any photos of the finished products and it would be nice to see your customized covers.
Sophia prepares the event signage.
Proprietor Mia Semingson unpacks some new inventory.
Two Hands Paperie on Pearl Street was the beautiful bookend to my Boulder experience. Proprietor Mia Semingson was my assistant throughout the bookmaking class; she even picked me up at the airport! It was great to start the trip at this gorgeous store. Upon the conclusion of the Makerie on Sunday morning, Mia hosted me at Two Hands to introduce our freshly printed spring issue. Thank you to everyone for such a fine reception—and a big thank you to Mia for her help in keeping our two-day bookmaking project on track.
{ Two Hands Paperie has an online shop with free shipping on orders over $100 to the lower 48 US States. Take it from me, it is easy to spend at least $100 on such a great selection of paper goodies. }
Here are some Instagram shots of this evening's event at the Boulder Anthropologie store. Anthropologie* is always a nice venue for an event; so many beautiful things to look at. I really enjoyed meeting fellow Makerie teacher Molly Hatch; you may have seen her line of ceramics at Anthropologie or online. I am happy to say that Molly is also one of our Work/Life participants and I look forward to sharing more of her illustration work here on the blog and in print.
P.S. For those of you who can't be in Boulder, throughout the next few days you can use the discount code "makerie" in our online shop and get 10% off order.
*For those of you following the blog and twitter and asking about picking up the current issue at your local Anthropologie store, this is not possible. Although Anthropologie was a lovely stockist throughout 2012, they have decided not to continue stocking UPPERCASE magazine so you will not find issue #16 and #17 in any Anthro store other than Boulder at this time. We are quite disappointed since they were our single largest wholesale partner, but alas this decision is beyond our control (perhaps they will change their minds? Our arms are open!) Please see our stockist page for ways that you can help us find indie shops local to you to stock UPPERCASE magazine. Thank you!
Elke Bergeron is one of the teachers at The Makerie. This Thursday, she'll have some fresh handmade bags available in her online shop. This tote, above, caught my eye. It has repurposed from a vintage 1950s waxed cotton canvas tent!
The jumble of things in progress in my work area—the dear and the toy typewriter aren't coming to The Makerie.
Goodie bags for my students.
My suitcase is going to be quite full.
These transparencies will become the covers for our Crafting Content book project.
Repurposing some of my Eclecto notebook covers for this project. Alas, I had to retire my Eclecto line of notebooks after Finley was born.
Typewriter, guillotine, staplers. Only the staplers are coming with me.
I'm heading to Boulder, Colorado on Wednesday for The Makerie. It's going to be a full schedule and then some!
April 10
6-8pm An evening with the Makerie @ Anthropologie
April 11
Giving the welcome presentation at The Makerie dinner
April 12–13
Two full days of classes
April 14
UPPERCASE issue #17 launch party at Two Hands Paperie, details to follow.
If I can juggle it all, I will be blogging, on Instagram, Twitter, etc along the way.
You may recall our inclusion of The Makerie in issue #12's article on creative retreats. Makerie organizer Ali Dejohn has been so enthusiastic about UPPERCASE that she invited me to participate in next year's retreat. I've come up with a very ambitious project and class—we're going to create commemorative books, on site, that very weekend about our experiences at The Makerie! It will be like a journal, yearbook, sketchbook, photo album all rolled into one:
Students will learn the craft of curating and creating content during this collaborative weekend-long bookmaking experience. Through photography and writing, they will document the Makerie and its people and assemble it into a unique handmade limited-edition commemorative book. Each day offers a new group of students instruction time with Janine as well as time "in the field.” Students will also be required to convene on Saturday evening for the physical assembly of the books. Students will learn how to bind books using a hidden stapling technique that is suitable for art journals, photobooks and other projects. Not only will we be making an amazing publication to be enjoyed by all Makerie attendees, the content skills acquired can be used for student's own professional development and applied to enhancing their blogs, portfolios or perhaps even writing that book you've been dreaming about. All students will be considered for future collaboration with UPPERCASE magazine and some content may be published on the UPPERCASE blog or in future issues. (Please note that this is not a design and layout class; the focus is on creating content and telling stories.)
Photography: learn how to tell a story through photography and active observation
Writing: interview skills, practical writing
Making: assembly of unique handmade booklets
I'm very excited to be heading to The Makerie next year. Check out their website to discover the other amazing creative things that you can learn at The Makerie. Registration is now open!
Cover by Christy Batta
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UPPERCASE is a quarterly print magazine inspired by craft, design and illustration. A playful exploration of creativity, an affinity for vintage ephemera, and a love of handmade are some elements common in each issue. The magazine boasts high-quality paper and printing, a unique design aesthetic and incredible attention to detail.
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