PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
These in-person Wayzgoose Workshops must be registered for separately than the main conference. Remember you must register for the Wayzgoose to participate in one of our workshops. All workshops take place from 9am-4:00pm on Friday, November 7, 2025.
Weaving a Letterform Workshop
Instructor: Amy Copeland
Length of Workshop: Full Day (9am-4pm)
Location: Off-Site, Intertwined Yarn Shop
Cost: $125
Learn to weave shapes that create letterforms using a small-frame tapestry loom. Rectangles, triangles, circles, and curves are all aspects of letters’ geometric nature, and participants will learn different techniques for creating them in a woven tapestry. They will also learn the basics of weft-faced tapestry weaving and leave the workshop with the ability to weave letters and other designs of their choice.
Each participant will choose an uppercase letter from a woodtype font, which will be printed to size by the instructor before the workshop. No previous weaving experience is required!
*Printing with Pixels — A Collaborative Typeface
Instructors: Brandon Gamm and Javier Viramontes
Length of Workshop: Full Day (9am-4pm)
Location: Off-Site, Lester Public Library
Cost: $125
From Alphablox to Fregio Mecano to Super Tipo Veloz, letterpress has a long history of using grid-based shape systems to create modular typography and illustrations. PRIXEL, short for “printing pixels,” takes this idea further with play. A cross between LEGO and letterpress, it uses a set of silicone movable type and gridded typesetting plates to allow users to quickly create pixelated designs. These setups can be stamped by hand or run through a traditional letterpress.
In this workshop, we’ll use PRIXEL to collaboratively design and print a full A-Z alphabet. Participants will take home a hand-printed type specimen booklet.
Come From Away / Democratic Broadside Workshop
Instructors: Cynthia Marsh and Marnie Powers‑Torrey
Length of Workshop: Full Day (9am-4pm)
Location: Museum
Cost: $125
Come From Away’ is a term used to denote people who were not born in the town where they currently reside. It is a small-town description of the ‘other’ living in a closed community. The truth is that we all come from away. No matter the date or era, we are all immigrants to the Americas.
The workshop will explore democratic broadsides, immigration and heritage. Prompts will be provided to further investigate concerning family relationships, language and customs. Participants will pen a narrative that will guide their broadside’s creation on the presses. Each participant will leave with their broadsides and any they have exchanged with others.
The Shape of No: Refusal, Renewal, and Reflection through Print
Instructor: Desiree Aspiras
Length of Workshop: Half-Day (1-4pm)
Location: Off-Site, Inky Blues
Cost: $75
Historically, letterpress has often served as a medium for resistance, allowing people to assert their No against injustice and to affirm their identities and values through the printed word. In this workshop, participants will engage No as a generative practice. Through guided prompts, this workshop will explore what it means to approach No as a practice of discernment and alignment in our artmaking and lives. Participants will sense into the possibilities of No - no as refusal, no as protection, no as a space-maker, and no as a threshold.
Participants will leave this workshop with a print representing a personal or creative No, and reflection prompts they can bring into their own life and art.
Embracing the Imperfect - Expressive Techniques to Create Texture on Press
Instructors: Elizabeth Isakson‑Dado and Maddy Underwood
Length of Workshop: Full Day (9am-4pm)
Location: Museum
Cost: $125
Learn to remain flexible and spontaneous on press, embracing the imperfect qualities of type and image in letterpress printing!
This workshop focuses on creating beautiful backgrounds for a small edition of letterpress prints, highlighting several alternative processes for dynamic, relief-printed imagery.
Guided by collaborators Liz Isakson-Dado and Maddy Underwood, participants will explore collage techniques for texture layers, with materials like craft foam, oil board, wood glue, and more. Each participant will letterpress print their own short message in black ink with Hamilton wood type on top of their imagery.
This class is an exciting exercise of working with color and shape for beginners and seasoned printmakers alike!
Printing in Layers: Unfolding Story Through Zine and Print
Instructors: Ellie Prisbrey and Kennedy Adams
Length of Workshop: Half-Day (1pm-4pm)
Location: Off-Site, Location TBA
Cost: $75
This half-day workshop invites participants to explore the intersection of traditional letterpress and contemporary risograph printing through hands-on zine-making. Using pre-printed wood type, metal ornaments, and historic advertising cuts from Indiana University’s collection, attendees will create risograph-ready layouts through collage, scanning, and analog design techniques. Each participant will leave with their own risograph zine and a brief introduction to the riso process. Additionally, zines will be shared via a community vending machine installed at the museum for the duration of the conference. Led by MFA candidates in Graphic Design, this workshop emphasizes collaboration and experimentation for all levels of experience.
Note: A laptop is not required but may be helpful during the workshop.
Making Your Own Photopolymer Plates / Strategies for Tonality
Instructors: Francille Zhuang, J. Peter Moore and Jennifer Scheuer
Length of Workshop: Half-Day (9am-12pm)
Location: Museum
Cost: $75
This workshop will introduce strategies for exploring photopolymer plate development in home studios. We will introduce an affordable exposure system for creating and developing photopolymer plates and review techniques for effective image-making and printing. Participants will learn how to use everyday items to reliably create high-quality polymer plates.
These methods are intended to provide printers who lack access to a formal exposure unit an improvised setup with which to experiment. Much of the stigma associated with printing from polymers follows from the assumption that it represents an “easy” way out of the careful scrutiny entailed in composing forms from type. With this workshop, the hope is to challenge the idea that polymer implies outsourcing, while demonstrating the potential for novelty within the medium.
“Creative Flexing: The Movable Magic of Paper Flexagons”
Instructors: Benjamin Rinehart and Rachel Simmons
Length of Workshop: Half-Day (9am-12pm)
Location: Off-Site, Inky Blues
Cost: $75
In this lively, hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to create a range of flexagon structures and embellish them with hand stamping, drawing, and creative writing. Flexagons are single-sheet paper structures that can be flexed or folded to reveal hidden faces, creating an intimate, interactive experience for the reader. Their magical ability to transform a sequence of images makes them a fan favorite amongst book artists.
Attendees will be encouraged to share, play, experiment, and collaborate with fellow participants. Writing prompts and group discussions will help participants develop an idea for each structure, spark creativity and deepen engagement.
Instructors will also share their collaborative process through several artists’ book projects focused on flexagons and family relationships. Everyone will leave with a unique collection of interactive flexagon art.
Love and Elbow Grease for Very Large Machines, An Industrial Archaeology Experience
Instructor: Daniel Schneider
Length of Workshop: Full Day (9am-4pm)
Location: Museum
Cost: $125
This is an up-close, personal, and grimy experience with the heaviest industrial machinery in the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum’s collection. The wood preparation machines — carriage saw, four-drum sander, and height machine — were essential to the industrial production of wood printing type. By spending a day giving these giants a good cleaning and some minor repairs, participants in this small-group workshop will help the wood preparation machines shine on the museum floor. Participants will learn how to read the mechanics of industrial machinery and about the work environment these machines were part of historically, while helping make the museum display more engaging for visitors.
Print & Fold: One-Sheet Artist Books
Instructor: Jessica Spring
Length of Workshop: Full Day (9am-4pm)
Location: Museum
Cost: $125
In this fast-paced workshop, we’ll look at several artist book structures created from single sheets of paper, printed on just one side, then folded into final form. We’ll explore typesetting and composition with wood and metal type, plus ornaments and vintage cuts. Each participant will compose one page of the collaborative book, then we’ll lock them all up on press and print the form together.
Books should be dry enough to assemble before the end of the weekend, so everyone can bring a few books home. The focus will be on careful typesetting and composition, a few daredevil tricks, and looking at a variety of one-page structures for future book projects.