Blog

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, June 4, 2019

First Collaborative Print Shop in the Northeast Opens in Lynn The Brickyard Collaborative, a makerspace that just opened its doors in Lynn, has launched the only letterpress, intaglio and silkscreen print studio available for use on a membership basis in the Northeast. Master Printmaker Mitchel Ahern, through his affiliations with the letterpress community throughout New England and Rochester, NY, has assembled a fully functional traditional print studio, dubbed “Book Arts at the Brickyard.” Among the presses they own are a Daughaday Model 1 tabletop press, a small showcard press, a Golding Pearl #3 platen press, a vintage sleigh press, a Potter #2 proof press, a wonderful vintage intaglio press, a small 4x silk screen press, a large paper cutter, and a beautiful Golding Jobber #6 that just needs some loving care after decades of neglect. While there are many studios and educational institutions that teach classes in letterpress and book arts, Ahern’s at The Brickyard Collaborative is one of only two where an aspiring letterpress devotee can actually print on an array of equipment outside of a workshop or class, and continue their career in traditional printing. “Every year thousands of students graduate with art degrees in Massachusetts, many with degrees in printmaking. But, it is difficult and expensive to set up a print shop in a small apartment or even in an artist’s studio. We created the Brickyard Collaborative Book Arts studio for people who want to print, and need a place to do so. With letterpress, intaglio and silkscreen stations we’re forging a community of artists to print great things. Letterpress, silkscreen and intaglio printing have a physical presence you just don’t get from digital prints. You can sense the hands of the craftsperson in the work. There is a significance to a handmade print that enhances event invitations, posters, cards and other important ephemera.”      -Mitchel Ahern Side-by-side with 21st century digital printing and imaging workstations, the Brickyard Collaborative Book Arts Studio is a throwback to another era of handset lead type, cast iron and the unmistakable sounds of the 19th century print shop machines. A full range of workshops is offered, including Introduction, Intermediate and Advanced Letterpress classes as well as Letterpress Printing on Fabric.  More information can be found on the website, www.thebrickyard.org. About The Brickyard Collaborative The Brickyard Collaborative is a MakerSpace in Lynn community, with two additional facets – an entrepreneurship support network of shared business facilities, mentorship and resources, as well as facilities that augment the several academic STEAM programs in the area. The Brickyard Collaborative serves primarily the city of Lynn and surrounding communities of Saugus, Nahant, Swampscott, Peabody, Danvers, Salem, Marblehead and Beverly and will build Lynn as a center of innovative thought, work, and economic strength for the North Shore. The Brickyard Collaborative is founded on a philosophy based on the power of cooperation, collaboration, a positive and supporting community of diverse, creators, builders, designers, entrepreneurs and students of any age, and is fully equipped with a Digital Studio, a Book Arts Studio, a full machine and woodshop as well as 3D printing and laser cutting capabilities. Learn more at www.thebrickyard.org Contact The Brickyard Collaborative at ted@thebrickyard.org, or call at 978 621 5178.

 

Well, there was a reason I, personally, wanted to get this thing (the makerspace) up and running.  I have a motorized, robotic easel for photographing artwork that I’ve designed and built for about 10 years now, and I occasionally get orders for them…  right now I have two on order, and I had to block off some time to build them.  I got most of the parts in, and could start work this weekend.

For all the time and effort I’ve spend getting The Brickyard up to speed, this is the first time I’ve used the shop for an actual project.  I’ve used the 3D modeling station to design and refine the motor mounts, and the 3D printer to print them.  I used the wood shop to fabricate the frame, the metal shop to cut and make up parts of the mounts, and the electronics shop to wire up the wireless motor controls.  Between all that, while the stain and varnish were drying, I got to spend some time prattling around the shop, taking care of little details that needed taking care of.  You know…  emptying the trash and hanging some lights.

The layout of the shop works well.  I used mostly the table saw, and the new blade cuts like buttah.  There’s plenty of runout for it, which I needed with the new 102″ frame.  The cutoff saw had a few issues, which just required some adjustment on the blade guard.  While I was at it, I put one of our gang of shop-vacs on it, and solved the “cutoff saw shooting sawdust all over everything” problem.  The bench sander wouldn’t start.  What’s the first rule of troubleshooting again?  Check cords and connections?  If the motor is actually plugged in to the power switch, it works a whole lot better…  That gave me a chance to true up the belt and check the bearings, and make a note that we needed a new belt and disk.

One of the first things I did while the frame was gluing up was to assemble the new lathe and test that out.  It’s a sweetheart.  All of the tools are painfully dull, and by that I mean dangerously so, but I was still able to cut a little test cylinder on some scrap wood.

The scroll saw, the big one, had some seriously funky shit going on with the power switch, (an actual wall-light dimmer instead of a switch) and I jumped it and plugged it in to test it.  It works fine.  I left it wired up, dimmer discarded, with a little pigtail power switch we inherited from somewhere, and it’s waiting for some blades.

I threw together a little framing to support the vent duct for the Glowforge, and Casey was in making stuff on that, giving us a chance to test that out.  It’s not ideal, but it’s working about 80%.  It only gets backed up with fumes if you do a long burn with smokey materials.  Needs some more work, but it’s usable.

In the meantime, I got to see the thing at work, engraving some ceramic tiles.  Cool stuff!  Since it can use Adobe Illustrator files, there’s a cool crossover into the Digital Studio resources as well.

Finally, I needed to use the Electronics Lab to solder up the wireless power supply for the motors, and since it was the first time I’d used it, it took a while for me to collect all my tools and parts, but in the process I was able to unpack a lot of the stuff that came from the garage in Salem and get myself organized.  I spread out on the Big Table, and it was amazing.  In the past I’d do this stuff on the dining room table, or on a crowded workbench in an unheated garage.  I was able to test-wire up the speed controller for the motors (didn’t work, since motor controllers don’t like the negative voltage that happens when you reverse the direction) and go on to Plan B (a variable pot.)

All in all, 3 days of work, 3 days of seeing people coming in and out of the shop, using it for their projects, having some time to sit and chat, about 30 total hours of work, topped off with some amazing BBQ with Kelly, Luther and Teresa on the fringes of the rugby field in the setting sun of Memorial Day.

Sorry, no pictures of that.  My camera was about 10′ away, and I was sitting down in one of those chairs that makes getting up to get something you don’t really need to survive (you know, like another can of ThunderFunk, perhaps) an ill-advised effort.

A great weekend, and a fantastic Memorial Day at The Brickyard, Year 1!

Ted

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.