Hi Everyone! Hope the last few weeks of the fall 2025 semester are going good, can’t believe it’s already almost over! The last few weeks in the printmaking studio I have been working on an accordion book project for my Screen Printing class. It took a lot of planning and many small steps to get there, but I finally finished it and I am very happy with the product! The assignment was to create any sort of accordion booklet, any size, any amount of folds, and about anything you want using at least 2 different printmaking methods. For me, the first thing that came to my head was a booklet about country music of course, so that’s exactly what I did.

The Process

To start, I wanted to create multiple versions just incase I messed up and also to see how slightly different orientations would play out. So I cut up long pieces of paper that were 30 inches wide and 5 inches tall, so I could have 6 sections that were 5x5in each. I didn’t want it to have a straight edge though, so I used a tool that I could easily rip the edge of the entire paper and make it looked like a rough edge. I also didn’t want a standard white background, so I decided to watercolor the background using a mix of oranges and browns, and then took crumbled up paper towels to dab on top to make a textured effect.

Before I even started printing, I had to create some graphics that I wanted to screen print onto my screens. I had a total of 7 graphics, including the famous HonkyTonk sign, some pictures of Johnny Cash, George Strait, and Alan Jackson, an old Grand Ole Opry poster, cowboy boots, and a musical note graphic. Once I “photo emulsified” those onto my screens and my watercolor was dry, I started printing in class. Before I did all of that though, I made my own sort of American flag shape on a different screen with just some tape. It turned into a happy accident when I created a “ghost print” of it on top of a rectangle the same size. Starting the prints and figuring out where to put them was the hardest part, so I just placed two of those flags in random spots and hoped for the best as I went along.

Another thing I had to think about was the colors and which print was going to be what color, but I decided on using the maroon color I used for the flag, with an orange-peach color and then black. I started printing the things I wanted maroon, and that included the George Strait and Johnny Cash silhouettes. Then I went on to the orange graphics, and on every single print they are in slightly different spots as I was playing with the orientations. Lastly I did the black, which was the Grand Ole Opry poster and the silhouette of Alan Jackson.

After I finished all the graphics, it was time to figure out typography. For the second method of printmaking we had to have, I wanted to include wood type that I use the letterpress for. So I picked out some different wood type and formed the words Strait, Jackson, Cash, Opry and Country Music for the cover. ‘Country Music’ was the only one I didn’t use the letterpress for, I wanted the letters to not be in line and be all different styles, so I hand pressed those onto each of the cover pages. The rest of them I lined up so that I could roll them onto the papers using the big letterpress machine.

Lastly, once I finished the typography it was almost done and I wanted to include some more personal touches. I decide to hand write some of the famous lines/lyrics of each of the singers, like “Here for a good time” from George Strait, “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” from Alan Jackson, and “I walk the line” from Johnny Cash. Then I just drew some stars as well to fit the empty spaces and add more dimension.

This was one of my favorites out of the 4 prints, I honestly couldn’t decide but I think this is the one I’ll show during our class critique!

Thanks for reading, it was a long process to explain but I am very happy with my overall experience and product!!

Ella