Intro to Letterpress

Learn the basics of printing letterpress at The Soapbox, from setting type, to locking up your form on the press, to printing (and cleaning!) using the Vandercook cylinder press. Other methods of image making will be discussed. Explore our type drawers and gain the basic skills you need to work during Open Hours. A materials fee covers paper, ink, other consumables, and studio maintenance.

Please note: Masks are required for this workshop, regardless of vaccination status. The instructor reserves the right to ask you to leave if you do not comply.

About the Instructor

Belle Handler is a disabled artist living and practicing on Lenapehoking. Her work and studio practice emerge from the intersection of lived experience with disability, and reproductive print technologies spanning from traditional letterpress printing to contemporary computer-aided design and CNC machining.

She is a letterpress fellow and board member at the Soapbox Community Print studio in Philadelphia, and holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Haverford College. As a studio assistant in the Hurford Center's Maker Arts Space, Belle expanded her studio practice to include art education and community-building. Her current work focuses on the history and technology of handset type and the idea that artmaking and printmaking are pivotal resources for disabled communities and individuals.

$40 for Current Members of the Soapbox/$45 for Non-Members

Plus a $15 materials fee that covers ink, paper, and use of our equipment.

Host or Publisher The Soapbox: Community Print Shop & Zine Library