Most people want to have a T-shirt printed with a picture of their face but have found that dipping their face in ink and sleeping face down on a shirt only results in inky sinuses and frightening Rorschach patterns. Leave a mark with today's Groupon: for $39, you get one BYOB printing class at Gowanus Print Lab in Brooklyn (an $80 value).
Gowanus Print Lab helps crafty customers bestow blank surfaces with individual design and color, transferring inspiration and art to objects both wearable and giftable. Libations and emulsions slosh softly under the hum and click of computers and traditional printing apparatuses, as conversation and instruction echo throughout the 5,000-square-foot studio. Screen-printing sherpas guide students through a colorful range of techniques and supplies, from inks and solvents to heat guns used to fend off cold fronts. Trick out a pair of chucks in the converse shoes screen-printing class to splash high-tops with presubmitted artwork (shoes can be provided by student or by Gowanus for an additional $40), or splash a skate deck with wicked four-color intricacies (skateboard provided for an additional $20). Budding musicians can fuel fan fervor with a range of printed band merchandise in a class that covers one color T-shirt printing, CD-jacket printing, and more, while plain T-shirts, tote bags, needlepoint projects, and paper (provided by Groupon holder) erupt with chromatic liveliness, like a piñata filled with angry parrots.
Attendees imbibe personally provided beverages as they absorb the finer points of ink mixing, while emptied bottles attempt to print new labels for themselves and head back to the store. Though not included with today's Groupon, Gowanus Print Lab also hosts youth classes and provides memberships for continued access to their facilities and services.
Gowanus Print Lab
The Gowanus Print Lab is a community screen printing studio established in October of 2010 in the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their goal is to create a nurturing artist community by providing exhibition space for emerging artists, affordable access to tools and a workspace, and education through design and screenprinting labs.
In the screenprinting labs, the teachers demonstrate how to make single- and multi-color prints before helping students customize T-shirts, totes, and even shoes with personal designs. Sometime they have group exhibitions and additional art classes. In the nearby Mac computer lab, they help students master complex software like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Sometimes, the staff tailors their programs to youths with interactive summer workshops, private events, corporate team building, and interactive galleries that engage the neighborhood's budding art community. or caters to a more adult crowd with monotype sessions featuring live models and beer. For the truly dedicated artist, they offer memberships with unlimited facilities access and private studio and individual equipment rentals.
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