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Home » BFA ’14 Abigail Lucien Interns at Small Craft Advisory Press

BFA ’14 Abigail Lucien Interns at Small Craft Advisory Press

Published March 3, 2014

Since the beginning of January, I have had the pleasure of interning at Small Craft Advisory Press located at Florida State University’s Facility for Arts Research in Tallahassee, Florida. Small Craft Advisory Press (SCAP) is an artist book press that concentrates on enabling artist to create experimental and collaborative artist book editions. Book artists from all around come to Tallahassee to create collaborative art works at SCAP, employing its unique facility of traditional and contemporary means of book making. As an intern, I work on the many individual steps in the intricate process of creating an edition of artist books.

Day by day my intern work changes and revolves around the projects happening at the press. Some days I am stationary, working tediously on one job. Other days, I float around FAR completing a variety of tasks. On any day I could be printing business cards on one of SCAP’s three Vandercook presses, setting up artist book displays for FAR tours, tracing and cutting five-foot parachutes for Lake + Cloud (a collaborative artist book project by Katie Baldwin and Denise Bookwalter, director of SCAP), designing and creating new aprons for FAR visiting artists, laser engraving artist book enclosures, weeding laser-cut artist book pages, cheering on Allison Milam (SCAP press manager), or even occasionally taking on the responsibility of eating the last of a dozen donuts. My work at SCAP varies; therefore I am always in for an interesting day at the press.

I am very grateful for the opportunities interning at SCAP has given me. I am particularly grateful for my chance to work closely with not only the talented visiting artists who frequent the press, but also the local artists who call SCAP their home. As a printmaker, the skills I learn from interning at SCAP directly relate to my own craft as an artist. Familiarizing myself with the traditional tools found in a bindery (such as a guillotine, boardsheer, and various letterpress machines) in combination with the more contemporary tools you can find at FAR (laser cutter, CNC router, 3D printers) will contribute to my knowledge as a print artist. I hope to be able to apply the skills and knowledge I learn at SCAP to my individual artistic work in the present and future. There is always much to learn about the equipment housed at FAR, or different unconventional ways to use materials in book making, and there are always talented individuals around to learn the ropes from. I am very happy to be interning at Small Craft Advisory Press and will miss it dearly when my internship comes to an end.
http://smallcraftadvisorypress.art.fsu.edu/
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