Shoestring Press

I’ve been a member for two months now and I like it a lot. I get access to all this excellent equipment. Lane is very generous with information on any topic. The input from the other artists who are willing to share stuff about their techniques is something I could never get in my little studio at home. Its a bustling atmosphere filled with people who are happy to be there and making beautiful things.

I took a screen printing class at Shoestring when they first started offering them. I was glad that it was run as a workshop with small groups and each group got individual attention. Lane and the rest of the folks at Shoestring were so patient with the billions different questions and asks from the class and showed enthusiasm for each group’s projects. We took over Shoestring for much much longer than the allotted class time, which was pretty generous of the studio. We came away from the class with prints from stencils we hand-​cut as well as more complex computer-​generated screens and a basic idea of how screen-​printing works in general as well as what is possible or would come out best on paper or fabrics. This class was way cheaper than other screenprinting labs around Brooklyn. I love that exploratory ideas were encouraged! I am so glad to have Shoestring as part of our neighborhood and I always refer anyone who wants to screen print to their workshops. My boyfriend also attends their Thursday night figure drawing sessions and loves them.

Asked for a lithograph to be made based on a drawing. Lane Sell seemed very hungup on the fact that I wanted a lithograph specifically, not a silkscreen. I thought this was odd but again specified a lithograph. It was something I had wanted to make but didn’t have the studio resources. He agreed and gave a price quote, roughly $ 100.00. I picked up the print, which was specifically for a friend who was a lithographer, and has been for 50+ years (and also an authority on lithography in the NYC area). I personally am much newer to printing. Anyway, long story short, (she had no background about the conversation where Lane said he didn’t understand why I didn’t just want a silkscreen) the first thing she said was «This is a silkscreen.» Apparently this was overtly obvious to her because of ink quality. I immediately realized that he had just decided that he knew better (even though I was paying him $ 100.00 and he had agreed to make a lithograph), and made a silkscreen thinking I wouldn’t catch it, which I didn’t but someone else did. Dishonest and lazy way to run a business.