While you are no-doubt lollygagging your summer away, we’re working hard on preparing the studios for this fall.

While most things aren’t changing too quickly here, a major difference will be Book Arts.

The Book Arts facilities in Dolphin have moved! Flat files, book presses, and the board shears have all been relocated to the Station Building.

There is now a dedicated Book Arts space in Station. This will afford everyone a little more elbow-room in Dolphin, a little more room in Book Arts, and more studio time across the board.

The photo above is from the old plaster room in Station. We’ve taken over that room and Station 101, the first classroom next to the guard desk. We have a sink, AC, doors that lock, and nice big work tables for you. There will be a new (well, old) guillotine for you in the space as we didn’t want to move the big one from Dolphin (that board shears was enough).

Papermaking and Letterpress remain in Dolphin.

We hope you love it…

**EDITED >> See Below!**

Welcome to the end of semester S U P E R C R U N C H !!!

A few things we want to pass along.

We know that buildings on campus are open 24 hours. However, we are keeping ours on on the usual 7AM – 2AM times.

Let me say that again. BUILDING HOURS WILL BE FROM 7AM – 2AM.

Why you ask? Because only bad things happen in this space after 2AM. You’re tired, equipment breaks, no one’s here to troubleshoot, things get stolen or lost or whatever. It’s just bad news. Don’t kid yourself, you know it’s true.

I’m sorry but that’s just how it is. Please remember are MANY times during the week that studios are unoccupied. For example:

Etching is open:
Wednesday from 2PM – 2AM
Thursday from 3PM – 6PM

Litho is open:
Monday 7AM – 4PM
Wednesday 2PM – 2AM
Thursday 3PM – 2AM

Screenprinting is open:
Monday 3PM – 2AM
Thursday 8PM-2AM

EDIT>> FRIDAYS ARE OPEN TO MAJORS, CONCENTRATOR, AND ANYONE IN CLASSES!
Come in and work!

Then of course everything is open from 10PM – 2 AM, and all weekend. For those of you particularly upset about this, remember that if you go to bed early, the shop is nearly EMPTY on Saturdays + Sundays before noon.

As far as the last day for access, the building will shut down on Sunday, May 9th. Details on this will be sent out as that date approaches.

Thanks all, good luck on all of your finals. Kyle.

The building will have limited hours over the week+ of spring break, beginning this Friday night, and extending through the last Sunday of break.

Image found at http://www.vintageprintable.com/wordpress

Pay attention, here you go:

Friday, March 12 – Sunday March 21.
The Dolphin Building will be open 7 AM – 11 PM.

Additionally, we will have limited workstudys on hand during the week, and Kyle will be away on business. Please take extra care to be tidy, courteous, and thoughtful while working in the studios.

Happy printing all, and enjoy the (hopefully) lovely weather.

Classes have just been canceled for the remainder of today (Tuesday, February 9th) beginning at 3 PM, and will be closed through tomorrow. ‘

Details are here.

GO HOME, (I am soon!!!)

Paper Studio and Sunday Lab Hours.

The papermaking lab is now officially open on Sundays for students who have studied papermaking in book and print courses.
Carrie Tuccio and Sarika Sugla are co-directors of the Dolphin Press : Paper Studio @ MICA.
Carrie will be running this semester’s open Sunday workday.
-The supervised hours are on Sunday  noon to 5pm

-To sign up, students should email Carrie Tuccio at ctuccio@mica.edu early in the week, by Wednesday preferably.

-If you need  pulp prepared, you will need to let Carrie know one week in advance. Use her email so she can plan a week ahead.

Enjoy….. best,g

(more…)

So our new Pressure Washer for the Screenprint Studio is finally installed, plumbed, and fully functional.

Why did we replace an otherwise fully functional pressure washer? Because they swear to us that this one won’t explode when you ignore or abuse it.  They promised, I’m believing them.

It’s name is KRANZLE and it was made in Germany.

SO, the new operating procedure?

Don’t touch the switch on the back of the wall anymore. Just leave it on.

On the face of the unit (the big shiny thing next to the washout sink) there is a switch near the bottom left.  It is marked ON and OFF (weird, huh?).  There is a slight delay when you turn it on, but it’ll kick right in strong.

Turn it on, wash out, turn it off. Easy peasy.

The advantage of all of this is if you need to, you can let the handle on the gun go and turn the spray off without turning the pump off… It won’t kill the machine.  Now, this doesn’t mean that you can just turn it on and walk away, but it won’t explode anymore.

Questions, just ask a Faculty member or Kyle. We’ll be happy to show you the setup.

And REMEMBER TO WEAR YOUR EYE AND EAR PROTECTION! This thing is cranking out almost 2000PSI.

Have a great weekend!

Dearest Printmakers,

As you might have guessed, access to the Dolphin Building will be limited next week. However, you’ll still have access to the building each day of Spring Break from 7am-11pm! Isn’t that grand? Unfortunately, there will be NO PRINTER HOURS. Sorry. Thursday March 12, 6-9pm is the last scheduled printer hours before the Spring Relaxation Fest, so come and get your films!

Happy Spring Breaking!

After the engaging conversation that took place at the department meeting yesterday, you will be pleased to know that the building hours will remain the same unless we are directed by MICA Operations. 

The faculty invites you to help make decisions on ways that we can better distribute our resources in the department. In the next department meeting, we can include a short discussion of your ideas and suggestions. 

Please help to adopt the new procedures that we have laid out for studio practice and lead the way to a healthier safer studio practice. Below are some of the new procedures.

-Gail Deery

Departmental Meeting Minutes:

We covered the following points in the Meeting yesterday:

The Bathrooms have been rehabbed… New sinks/toilets, repaired walls, floors, repainted. People spent a lot of time working on this, please take care of it.

We talked at length about the department Going Green.  We need to cut back on wasted materials, make the shop a healthier environment, and still keep everyone happy and productive in the shop.

Bullet points included:

- Safer cleaning materials for tabletops / palettes (vinegar, vegetable oil).  You will find more bottles of Vegetable Oil present, and far fewer bottles of solvent (Gamsol, Denatured Alcohol).

-Recycling all scrap and mis-printed rag paper (arches, rives) for the paper studio

-Conserving electricity when possible

-Orange-scrub soap will no longer be available – Lava Bar soap will be available at every sink. (we forgot to mention this in the meeting).  The bookstore also sells small bottles of Pumice Soap that will fit in your drawer if you so desire.

-Our crummy blotters are being replaced with a new system using Pellons and Bounty paper towels, as was demonstrated by Gail.  If you prefer, you may use your own bath towels, but they must be taken home when you are finished.  Any left behind will be thrown away, no questions asked.

-the shop used its entire YEAR’S supply of newsprint last semester. Unfortunately you must now purchase your own pads and keep them in your drawers.

Finally, there was MUCH discussion over attempting to limit shop access for safety and energy – conservation reasons.  After much consideration, we’ve decided NOT to limit hours this semester (see Gail’s letter above).

If you haven’t yet signed up for our mailing list, please do so on the lower-right side of this page.

Tuesday, Jan. 27th at 3 PM, there is a Printmaking Department Meeting.

All Majors and Concentrators should attend! 

We have many new policies and procedures to cover and demonstrate with you, most importantly, the fact that THE SHOP IS GOING GREEN!

The meeting starts at 3 and will end before 4pm classes.

Please don’t miss the meeting, we have much to cover… Miss the meeting and you’ll miss a lot.

Questions, contact Kyle, kvanhorn@mica.edu.

and I’m not talking about Ingrid’s Armageddon screenings.

Classes end this week.  This is the week universally known as Hell week. What makes this year different from most is the fact that there are no grace-period days the following week to move out of lockers, drawers, and studios.  Lucky you & lucky me.

So pay attention, I’m only saying this once:

SHOP ACCESS ENDS SUNDAY,

DECEMBER 21st @ 6 PM

All class-drawers and lockers must be emptied by Sunday.  Any work or supplies left behind will become property of the department or thrown away.

No questions asked. 

Majors and Concentrators may leave work and supplies in their ‘major’ and ‘concentrator’ drawers, but must empty any class-specific drawers or lockers they may have.

I strongly recommend planning ahead on this one.  Clean them out as your classes end, or piecemeal throughout the week. 

Your card turns back into a pumpkin on Sunday evening, so don’t procrastinate.

As usual, there is no building access over winter break.  Take time off, sleep in, work at your job, visit your family, whatever you like — but don’t try to come in.  I’ll be making enough of a mess reworking the shop for the spring classes without you.

If you think for some reason you are special, privileged, lucky, or otherwise an exception to this rule, don’t simply assume that you are. Talk to Kyle as early as possible, and definitely before Sunday.