The eclectic images created by Pull Club Girl-Powered Printmaking are as whimsical as they are colorful: a bright-orange cat no bigger than a thumbtack hanging laundry on a line; crisp yellow peaches topped with healthy dollops of cream; a cluster of black-and-white rabbits curiously sniffing the air.
The vibrant, hand-drawn designs, which appear on fabrics, bags, pillows, T-shirts and more, are the brainchildren of Amy Scarpello, Chelsey Hughes and Linda Winder. The friends established the all-woman studio last year as a space to advance their knowledge of printing arts, and their colorful products have been for sale at local events like Crafty Supermarket and the Northside Record Fair.
“Being an all-girl studio allows us the space to embrace our interests as women printers and artists, be it reveling the pure ‘cuteness’ of something or playing up ideas of a girl work space,” Scarpello says. “We love having a space to embrace both ends of the spectrum without any second-guessing.”
Alumnae of the Art Academy of Cincinnati, the friends pursued printmaking in school but found it difficult to continue the practice after graduation. Printmaking requires a specialized space with specific and sizable tools like printing presses and computers, plus room for materials like fabric and dyes.
“We all sort of fell in love with the process,” says Winder, who primarily studied illustration at the Art Academy. Hughes, who also studied illustration, minored in printmaking, and Scarpello majored in sculpture. All three longed to continue honing the craft after graduating.
When a friend informed the group he was leaving his space at Walnut Hills’ Essex Studios, the three women jumped at the opportunity to convert the location into a printmaking studio. The promising lead ended up falling through, but the group was more determined than ever to acquire a space of their own.
“It’s one of those things (where) we didn’t really realize how much we wanted it until we almost had it,” Hughes says.
“It was something we were going to do no matter what, whether we had the space or not,” Winder adds. “We were going to find a way to do it.”
Soon, that desire became a reality — the friends settled on a space in Camp Washington and quickly loaded up the studio with all the necessary furniture and tools. The cozy space allowed each member to delve back into printmaking headfirst, taking on both individual and collaborative projects. Each member spends between 25 and 30 hours a week at Pull Club — named for the pulling motion used to create prints — balancing their projects with full-time jobs.
The process, the friends explain, is different for every piece, with each one presenting new challenges and triumphs. “With printmaking, I feel like you never stop learning,” Hughes says. “There’s so much you can do with it.”
All it takes is a quick scroll through the studio’s Instagram page to see how true that statement really is. The range of products the friends have created is immense, and even identical patterns are printed in vastly different ways. For example, Pull Club’s rabbit pattern — which also incorporates small strawberries and flowers — appears on a black-and-white pillow, a navy-blue hand pouch and fabrics in a variety of pinks and purples.
“You can’t just pick it up and do it,” Hughes says of the printmaking process. “You have to work through it.”
That process typically begins with a client meeting and an idea. The group is contacted by clients with specific requests, and after talking through the project with the clients, Pull Club illustrates, produces and prints the design. Pull Club also creates sellable studio collections for pop-up shops and indie markets, for which members prepare by discussing themes and color palettes to make sure their individual printed pieces are cohesive.
Once an illustration is finished, the drawing is scanned to create a digital file. To preserve the integrity of hand-drawn images, the group prints directly from original illustration scans.
Transparent films are printed in separate colors, creating multiple layers; screens are then coated with a light-sensitive emulsion that burns the image into the screen, creating a stencil for ink to land on. Each layer of color comes together to form a complete image.
The trio also hand-dyes their own fabrics prior to printing — a process that involves mixing a dye bath, adding salt and setting the color with soda ash.
The studio’s products were available to the public for the first time during the Crafty Supermarket in May, where patterns like the bunnies and cream-topped peaches made their debuts.
“We loved having a chance to not just print but see the product through from start to finish,” Scarpello says of their involvement in the event. “A great example is the peaches and cream pillow. We were able to design a pattern that is cute but subtly subversive.”
Members are passionate about working with local artists and organizations like Wave Pool gallery and the Art Academy, for which they recently designed and printed tote bags and key chains for the class of 2020. Currently, Pull Club is printing boxes for Hot Bod pool floats — body-length eye-, hand- and boob-shaped floating devices — for locally based company Working Girls.
The studio is also devising summer-specific T-shirts.
“We are a little obsessed with suns wearing sunglasses and hot dogs,” Scarpello says.
In the coming weeks, Pull Club’s website will be updated to allow customers to purchase the tees, as well as other select items, online.
With operations in the studio now in full swing, members recently had a “reckoning moment,” Scarpello says, in which they realized they needed to treat the studio as a serious part-time job in order to make it successful — a goal the friends are more than willing to commit to in the name of the art they love.
“We love that there is a community of badass women in Cincinnati doing amazing things,” Scarpello says. “This is a total inspiration and we celebrate being a part of this.”
For more info on PULL CLUB GIRL-POWERED PRINTMAKING, visit pullclubstudio.com.
This article appears in Jun 29 – Jul 6, 2016.