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Our
ateliers.
STATTLAB offers facilities, material, knowhow and support for different art techniques – such as
- black and white film processing and photo developing,
- studio photography, analogue or digital
- screenprinting and etching,
- bookbinding,
- life drawing and much more…
Below, we describe our different ateliers. You can see them as STATTLAB sections – but they are not strict separations, and most of our members are active in more than just one area…
Analogue photo laboratory
Analogue photograpy is fun and can deliver results, which go beyond the digital process concerning esthetics, style and expression.
We have everything you need for the classic analogue black-and-white process (also for the more experimental ones). We have a large darkroom with several workstations and booths, equipped with, among other things, 35mm, medium format and large format enlargers (the latter for sheet film or glass plate negatives up to 7x10”). In addition to developer trays and basins, there is of course space for cutting and preparing photographic paper. Some of our lenses and set-ups allow extreme formats and enlargement scales. In addition, we have enough space so that even with the most unusual working methods, users rarely get in each other's way...
For developing the negatives we have a separate room with light proof cabins for opening the film cartridges and filling the developing spools with absolute darkness. Furthermore, there are separate basins for washing the material, mixing the photochemistry and handling the film developing cans. Of course, there are separate film drying cabinets for drying the negative strips in a hanging position. And also there are several light tables for sifting and cutting the negatives.
For processing the fixed paper prints, there is another room with big windows for good light and special basins for rinsing and soaking the prints. For drying and pressing baryta paper we use two heating presses in different formats.
Fresh photo chemicals (film and paper developer, stop bath, fixer, wetting agent etc.) are provided by STATTLAB. If you are planning a special processing procedure, you are welcome to bring your own products – provided they are not dangerous (we only use relatively harmless, degradable substances in STATTLAB and avoid more toxic procedures such as colour film development).
photo studio
You would like to shoot in a photo studio and work with professional light (floodlights, flashes, reflectors, softboxes, etc.), backdrops and maybe even work on a set with several people (models, make-up, designers, etc.)? Or do you simply plan to photograph objects with good daylight in front of a neutral background?
We have a large white room with high windows, with different kind of lighting and various curtains and backgrounds that will allow you to do all this. We call the room the "White Cube" because it is a multi-purpose room, but mostly it is our photo studio. The White Cube is also equipped with basic tripods and various flashes, lights and reflectors.
All of this is available to our members and workshop participants. And even more important: we have an active community of users who are happy to share their knowledge and pass on their know-how to you.
screenprinting
Screen printing is a printing technique that allows you to print lines and shapes with sharp edges – anything without greyscale, even with fine detail. It allows you to do small and medium runs, and it can be adapted to formats ranging from stickers and bottle labels up to 70x100cm posters. Anything flat can be printed upon – textiles, cardboard boxes, slabs of concrete, skateboards... At STATTLAB, we mostly use acrylic based printing inks, which can be printed wash-resistant on textiles or weatherproof for outdoor use with the appropriate hardeners and additives. But theoretically it would even be possible to print sugar icing on cakes, or enamel paint on tiles, or metal paste on circuit boards... Some of our artists have printed with puff-up paste or low-in-the-dark inks, or have printed on sanding paper and glass. And a while ago we even screenprinted tattoos with henna paint on the skin of party guests.
Many of our users print t-shirts, bags or art posters, book pages or record sleeves. Monochrome or with different colour layers, opaque or translucent, in gradient dot pattern or in full tone, with ink-mixed colour gradients or flat, highly precise or freehand... There are hardly any limits to your imagination from our side!
Our printing studio is equipped with several printing tables in different formats with various features such as vacuum suction plates for paper fixation, rails and squeegee guides, balanced screen holders with counterweight, etc. – and we also have several four-colour carousels for textile printing. We have two UV exposure tables and a large format exposure unit with a vacuum frame. Our screen printing darkroom is equipped with a rear-lit cleaning unit with a high-pressure cleaner for coating and decoating as well as for washing also large-format screens, as well as a drying cabinet. And of course there are drying racks for the finished prints.
Users of our screen-printing workshop have free access to a large stock of the association's own screens in various sizes and meshes, which are regularly re-covered. The largest screens allow printing in approx. 70x100 cm, the smallest are suitable for repeating patterns. The screen coverings range from coarse mesh (36 T, for rough pigments, highly absorbing substrate or extremely thick ink application) to mesh in 70-90 T for printing graphics on paper or very fine mesh, up to 120 T, for graphic printing with the finest details on smooth paper.
Ink and paper – or whatever you want to be printed – are provided by each user. There is always some basic or leftover material for testing, of course (but you have to bring yourself the handmade fine art paper and the large tin of metallic pink). But everything else, the elementary stuff, is available and provided by the lab – this includes in particular the screen chemistry (emulsion, decoater, ghost remover) and other helpers such as disposable gloves, tape, spatulas and piles of paper wipes.
The acetates/ transparent films that are necessary as a template for screen production can also be printed out from us in formats up to A3.
bookbinding
It started with someone wanting to make beautiful notebooks – the pages were supposed to not just be stapled, but have a beautiful binding with stitched pages and a hardcover book jacket. Or maybe it started with a project for an art portfolio, sewn together from original drawings or photographs. Or with a book project for which the printed sheets came from our screen-printing studio – we don't know any more what exactly happened.
But in any case, we now have the equipment, the space, the material and the know-how to make books of all kinds and shapes. This includes various cutting machines, presses, as well as rolls of binding material, stacks of grey cardboard, buckets of book glue, bookbinding twine, needles and so on....
life drawing
Every second Wednesday of the month – well, that was until the pandemic intervened, but hopefully soon again – we have live drawing sessions in the evening at the White Cube. STATTLAB provides nude models as well as props and the setting (sometimes even drinks...). Members and external course participants have the opportunity to draw in a relaxed, non-discriminatory atmosphere.
Life drawing is exciting: You have to react spontaneously to different poses of the model, you have to cope with the pressure of time constraints, also, try to overcome your shyness, dare to exchange feedback… Try it out for yourself, you will see it’s fun!
To be continued soon, hopefully...
and much more…
Your favourite project or technique is not listed? You are interested in a specific process, you know where to get the necessary material and you are able to inspire and teach other club members or at least you know where to find the necessary knowhow?
Then it could be possible that STATTLAB soon has another department. We are always open to new ideas and believe that the purpose of the lab is to support creative minds and their ideas...
