Treewhispers
Treewhispers is an ongoing international collaboration that celebrates the connection between trees and humanity through handmade paper and artistic exploration. Participants contribute handmade paper rounds with personal memories, poems, images of tree rings, leaves or their beloved trees. These rounds, bound with bookbinding thread, form paper columns and create an ever-evolving forest of paper. As the project travels, it grows with new stories, new voices, and a collective reverence for nature.
Fun & Funky Arboreal Alphabets
This is a class for all levels with a focus on drawing, calligraphy, and incorporating nature, using trees as inspiration for creating fun and funky letters.
Students may bring in their own photos or cuttings of trees, branches, twigs, and leaves for inspiration, or they may use the instructor's samples. We will explore the interesting shapes found in these items and sketch letters based on those shapes. Then, we will illustrate the alphabets using paints, colored pencils, gel pens, markers, and other materials. Students will work at their own pace and may choose to create a variety of letterforms or a cohesive alphabet or short phrase.
Pulp Painting Nature with Don Widmer
Participants will learn the technique of pulp painting, creating imagery within sheets of handmade paper using plant pulp as a medium. We will design and cut our own stencils using nature as our inspiration. Then we will create sheets of paper, including round sheets, in keeping with the theme of the Treewhispers project. Participants will apply colored pulp using their stencil forms to the fresh sheets of paper. The wet sheets can be taken home to dry. Wear clothes that can get wet.
Writing for Children's Books with Juliet Bond
So you want to write for youth and you’re new to the business? Great. But writing stories for kids means going beyond the fun of a great idea. You must grasp the secrets of the industry while also mastering plot, word choice, word count, and voice. This workshop digs deep into the layers that create strong stories.
Amos Kennedy - Citizen Printer
A self-described “humble negro printer,” Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. is internationally recognized for his type-driven messages of social justice and Black power, emblazoned in rhythmically layered and boldly inked prints made for the masses. This event will celebrate the publishing of Kennedy’s monograph, Citizen Printer, from the Letterform Archive, with an author signing, an exhibition, and posters for sale at the event.
Chicago Calligraphy Collective Weathergrams event
Treewhispers is celebrating 25 years of their growing and ever-changing paper making initiative. The Chicago Calligraphy Collective (CCC) is excited to be part of the anniversary festivities! This special event is open to all, offering a hands-on opportunity to engage with calligraphy, weathergrams, and the inspiring Treewhispers exhibit.
Character Building with Audrey Niffenegger
This is a workshop for fiction writers, or anyone interested in creating characters for comics, graphic novels, creative non-fiction, etcetera. Students will concentrate on techniques for building groups of characters with complex interior lives and interesting relationships.
Tree Stories
In honor of Treewhispers 25th Anniversary, we are hosting a live story telling experience. Guests are invited to submit their tree-related stories to read live at the event. It will be held on January 29th from 6pm - 8pm.
We’re inviting all armchair story tellers, those who can deliver a good yarn or those seasoned in front of an audience; all are welcome. To enter your tree story for a chance to perform amongst the Treewhispers installation, follow the guidelines and submit your story by January 22.
About the Bark #1 with Melissa Jay Craig
Kozo fiber, the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree (Broussonetia papyrifera), makes beautiful, ethereal yet strong traditional papers. It is also a fascinating material in and of itself. Its strands separate into luscious lace-like patterns; it can be cast over objects and layered for strength, pounded into heavy sheets, or used to make delicate bark drawings.
Papercuts with Ken Gerleve
Papercuts with Ken Gerleve
November 23, 2024
1pm - 4pm
About the Workshop
In this class, students will learn the basics of paper cutting images, and will make a few of their own. This will include designing images, transferring them to paper, cutting safety and methods for display and storage. This introductory workshop will be led by instructor Ken Gerleve, and is a prerequisite for Gerleve's upcoming 2025 Tunnel Books and Toy Theaters workshops.
About the Instructor
Ken Gerleve is an interdisciplinary artist who uses narrative and image to tell stories, which are often darkly humorous. His artwork juxtaposes the traditional elements of the Gothic with contemporary culture. This can take the form of an illustrated book of original verse narrative, animation, puppet building and performance, or installation. He often uses Scherenschnitte, or paper-cutting, and dimensional book structures, like Tunnel and Carousel books, to create sculptural scenes reminiscent of the silhouette animations of Lotte Reiniger. Ken earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago.
Paper Models with Tom Greensfelder
Paper Models
October 26th, 2024
1pm to 4pm
About the Workshop
When I tell people that I've been collecting paper models for almost 25 years, the first thing I'm asked is "What are paper models?"
This workshop will not only enable you to answer that question, but you will also be able to proudly display a paper model that you built yourself.
During the workshop I will give a brief overview of the history of paper models and a short demonstration of technique. Everyone will get two paper models to construct... an Old Knight's Castle from Denmark and Ali Baba Entering the Cave of the 40 Thieves from Spain; both issued in the 1920s.
About the Instructor
Tom Greensfelder is founder of Greensfelder Design, where he has served clients from cartoonists Nichole Hollander and Lynda Barry to myriad arts organizations. He has taught at SAIC, Loyola University, and the Newberry Library and served on boards including Artists Book Works, CCCBPA, Chicago Calligraphy Collective, and, for 17 years, Teatro Vista (Chicago’s only equity Latino theater company). He has been collecting Paper Models for almost 25 years.
Bare Bones Open House Fundraiser
“Bare Bones” Open House Fundraiser October 13th 2-6pm
Artists Book House
4207 W. Irving Park Rd
Chicago, IL 60641
Friends! Family! Neighbors! Artists Book House would like to invite you to our new home on Sunday, October 13th, from 2-6pm. Come and learn about our organization, see our new digs and our plans to renovate it, and enjoy some pretty cool art from members in our community. The event will feature spooky window installations, architectural renderings, donated printing, bookbinding and paper making equipment, and examples of work produced in past and upcoming pop-up workshops.
While ABH is not yet officially open, the fundraiser will provide a preview of workshops to be held in the space until construction begins. Writers, artists, and the curious public are invited to visit and learn more about the organization and how to support ABH in this next stage of their mission.
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