Print as a present

A few weeks ago these lovely ladies came to learn lino printing in my studio.  The idea was put to me by Ruth [on the left] that I might run a lino printing workshop as a birthday gift for her mum Louise [2nd left] as a fun and sociable and creative celebration for various friends and family.

They booked a 4 hour workshop, giving plenty of time to develop designs and ideas.  They started by finding inspiration from books, magazines and each other.   They were all so encouraging of each other and  enthusiastic to learn, it was a pleasure to spend the day with them.



                             

Once the designs were finalised then the fun of carving the lino could begin.  Some people chose to concentrate on one challenging and detailed design while others produced multiple smaller lino blocks.

 

After a short lunch break it was time for the messy part of the process to begin!  Mixing colours and rolling out and applying the ink to the printing block.  Everyone learnt how to burnish by hand with a wooden spoon to rub the ink from the block onto the paper.  There was also the opportunity to use the table top printing press in my studio, but I was interested to see that most people seemed to prefer to burnish by hand, as I do myself.

 

For me the best bit is gently pealing back the paper to reveal your print.  It would have been hard not to get swept up in the group's excitment and enthusiasm for each others work as each new piece was completed.  At the end of the day the drying line had some really beautiful work hanging on it.

If you are interested in booking a group lino work shop for a gift like Ruth did please get in touch.  My studio is is not huge so numbers are limited! 

Inked up

 

Over the February school holidays I ran two workshops for children at Prema Arts Centre, teaching relief printing. 

The classes were very well attended and the children produced some fantastic results.  The younger group [aged 5-7] used polystyrene printing blocks, making marks on the surface with pencils, cooky cutters and even lego.  We worked on a theme of butterflies and flowers.  These children really enjoyed experimenting with mixing colours and putting muliple colours on each block.  Everybody had a go at rolling out the ink and using my printing press as well as wooden spoons to burnish.

 

The older children [age 8-10] started with lino printing blocks and they used lino cutting tools to make their designs.   We used a theme of leaves and trees to start off with, but with the introduction of polystyrene blocks to speed things along there were soon all sorts of woodland creatures appearing!  As well as everyone producing their own individual prints we also produced one large shared piece. I thought this was really successful and I was hugely impressed with the children's ideas and creativity and their ability to work together.