Studio Visit SMFA
Some print studio you visit because the facilities are new, amazing, and full of futuristic machinery. Other you visit to because they hold an important place in the history of print. I would recommend that you visit The School of the Museum of Fine Arts’s print is worth a visit not for either of those reasons, but because it’s smartly efficient design in limited space and for the hilariously clever signage.
I hope you enjoy this visual essay as much as I enjoyed spending a day this past summer a this friendly den of printmakery.
Many more photos after the jump.
John Pyper & Jenny Hughes (on far left and right respectively) look on as Erika Adam’s (center w/ red apron) summer bookmaking crew enjoying themselves.
Fairies & solvents.
A lot of stuff in a not large space. A fair amount of tetras is required to make the mix work efficiently.
True.
Some kind of ingenious flat-stack situation. I’m still not sure how it works, but I think you need a repelling harness.
Close-up of the signage on the stack dryer.
I am not your newsprint, thank you!
This almost makes choking on toxic fumes look a cheerful affair.
Gotta get me one of these.
With the price of copper, they may want to lock-up this super-custom soaking bath.
Q-Bert pimped press.
This is the best sharps box yet.
I was told that with this machine, you push a button and it makes multiples.. why doesn’t my shop have one?
Rumor was they were looking to find homes for some of these.
Paper-making abounds!
Jenny Hughes and John Pyper enjoying the spacious views afforded the studio office.
Onto the screen printing studio.
Another summer session busy at work.
Wall of color.
Beware the Kraken!
Oh.. art school.
Some kind of fancy screen holder for emulsion coating.
Any good studio visit should end at the pub. Thanks to Jenny & John for a great visit!
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Most of those signs are from Rhonda Ratray
http://www.rhondaratray.blogspot.com/
http://www.ratray.com/
For real those are some of the best shop signs I’ve ever seen.
I need me some of them shop signs!
I actually just got back from the downstairs shop (etching and litho)! And yes, I’m pretty sure it was the signs that sold me on this school. When I get my own screen shop I’ll probably take a lot of cues from them…
P. S. – It’s all true!
That was so much fun / I work in several printshops / loved the perky signAge …
aww! I miss that shop! been too long… great post.
I’m a gonna STEAL some o them signs!
(And the press patterning)
great.
so good!
we could have used a lot of those signs in the intro to print class at kutztown. . .
nice to see our very own print/paper studios get a little love!
* most signs courtesy of the infamous rhonda ratray * may she live on
I especially like the screen grotto and the acetone melting warning!
When touring schools with my daughter, SMFA was the only one that left me feeling like I wanted to go back to school. And, I have my own printing studio! Love your signs, too.
p.s.-I learned the acetone/plexi interaction the hard way.
I ♥ the SMFA printmaking department!