Dynamic Demos

Ink made from crushed beetles. Shepard Fairey's secret weapon. Screenprints that look like paintings. Cold wax and oil paint "develop" a screenprint like a photograph. These techniques were revealed at Pyramid Atlantic's 2012 Book Arts Fair. Denise Bookwalter of Small Craft Advisory Press whipped up a cochineal concoction on a hotplate, and showed a variety of other naturally made screenprinted inks in her sampler book (top). Rubylith—an obsolete material in graphic arts—is front and center in Rebecca Katz's work. She showed her unique method and shared her sources for finding the stuff. (center, photo by Lisa Helfert.) Resident artist Allison Bianco's prints are a mix of traditional flat screenprinting and her "painterly flats"— a mono print method of applying ink. (above, left). And finally, Dennis O'Neil treated viewers to a collection of prints from his Handprint Workshop International, demonstrating that the screenprint medium is flexible, sculptural and truly dynamic.