white christmas in camp

"Born and raised in Los Angeles, I was a city boy who never saw snow in the winter, but you always heard about Christmas’ based on books. New England was where it snowed and all that good stuff. Well anyway, my first year in camp it starts to snow during Christmas. The block fathers built a simulated chimney in the mess hall with a stage and Santa Claus came from the outside through the mess hall window through the chimney into the mess hall where we are celebrating Christmas just like we used to read about. You know, snow and a real Santa Claus and that was the first year Irving Berlin’s white Christmas came out. And man, to me that was my first experience of a real Christmas. Even though we were locked up that didn’t have any bearing on how happy I felt. The only gift we received was some stuff that was sent by a Christian church outside. I got a bar of Palmolive soap. It was hard to get so this was a great present. Most of us got nothing else."

- Robert Uragami, who at the age of fifteen was incarcerated in a concentration camp in Amache, Colorado. He was a student at Amache High School in 1942, the first winter he spent in camp.

Introduction to Linoleum workshop in Berkeley!

Introduction to Linoleum

Instructor/hostess: Patricia Wakida

Date: Saturday and Sunday, February 5-6, 2011

Time: 10-3 p.m. both days with a lunch break

Place: Heyday Books, located at 1633 University Ave.Berkeley, CA 94703. It is walkable from North Berkeley BART!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day….this two-day introduction to linoleum block printing will teach the basic steps for linoleum block design, use of the carving tools, and hand-inking and printing. One of the unique aspects of this particular course is that we will use very little to no electric assistance- this is all hand work!

Day 1: transferring image or drawing onto the block, using carving tools without gouging, pulling proofs.

Day 2: completing the block and experimenting with printing methods.

Materials to bring:
1. An idea of the image 4" x 6". Do sketches at the 4 x 6 size so we can transfer them to the blocks (allow a border). If possible, bring a right reading, old-fashioned Xerox (not a laser print!) copy of your image to class to transfer onto the block. Remember that block printing reverses your image so that it prints right reading. This is especially important (and challenging) for carving text!

2. If you have woodcut or linocut tools of your own please bring them.

3. Papers (anything larger than 4" x 6") from your own collection if you'd like to experiment with those, although I will bring a supply of papers to print on.

4. Pencils and erasers, sharpie pens (fine and fat), xacto knife. These are all optional.

Workshop fee: $30 per person plus the $7 materials fee. Materials fee: $7 (includes one 4 x 6 linoleum block, ink, and paper). I'll lend folks my linocarving tools, inking brayers and various tools for hand-printing. Additional blocks can be purchased from me the day of the workshop at $3 apiece.

Your hostess: I'm a hard-core bibliophile and book artist with a background in trade publishing. My relations to books are kept tangible and toothsome by running wasabi press, making illustrated letterpress books, broadsides, posters and cards on a Chandler and Price press stashed away in a tiny garage studio in Los Angeles. My book arts education began with an apprenticeship in Japanese papermaking in Mino, Gifu- prefecture, Japan in 1996, followed by an apprenticeship at the Arts and Crafts Press under linoleum block artist and letterpress printer, Yoshiko Yamamoto, in Berkeley, California. I've also worked as a teaching assistant in the book arts program at Mills College, the San Francisco Center for the Book, and ASUC Art Studio. Just last year I tore myself away from my beloved Oakland (home for 23 years!) to take the position of Curator of History at the Japanese American National Museum.
Me web site: www.wasabipress.com

To reserve a space:
Send a check or Paypal fee to Patricia Wakida
wasabipress@yahoo.com