Lino printing workshop the other day..

At the beginning of the month I spent a happy day running a couple of lino printing workshops at Papervillage in Bristol - oh what fun was had!!

Several people signed up for both workshops and so spent an entire Sunday lino cutting, which is a feat of endurance for the most seasoned printmaker, and they barely paused for a cup of tea so dedicated were they!

But hey, they left with bundles of prints and as some claimed to be complete non-arty beginners I think they did so well, many fine artworks completed.

What I always love is how unlike my work the work produced on courses I teach is!

Look at all the zingy colours...   makes me think I should try out something that isn't black... the image above worked brilliantly as a block for rolling 3 different colours onto one block - no aligning or registration needed here!

In the morning we did mostly one colour prints (to get everyone started as it was a complete beginners course and you really need to play about a little to find out what the tools do and how to ink up and how different papers can print) - in the afternoon everyone could go in a different direction, some choosing to do multiple blocks, one brave person went straight for a reduction print and others played around with multi-coloured inking to get the results they were after...phew.

Great work workshoppers, here's more printing fun...

Big Print Day

Free printing activities for anyone, young or old, beginner or already printing...

at 1 Dean Street, BS3 on Sunday 29th Sept at 1pm

register here or phone Papervillage on 0117 9639452 if you want to come along - it's all free - mono printing, giant printing, leaf printing, printing with toys, messy printing, clean tidy printing, we'll print it all!

Photo taken by Makers

I also had a lovely time at Makers running a beginners lino printing course at the end of August -such a great group of workshoppers, who all got along really well and all produced great work, as prints and greetings cards.

I'll be back there on 1st of December to Print Christmas - printing cards, gift tags, wrapping paper, bunting, place cards etc using lino and rubber stamps and I'm sure we will have mince pies and mugs of tea (no alcohol whilst lino cutting, safety first, then festivities...) so sign up if you are free, it will be great fun.

The Naked Hedgehog Project

Photos by Lou


This is your chance to join in with a fun summer project - The Naked Hedgehog Project.

We've printed lots and lots of hedgehogs, but they need your help, they don't have prickles...

...you can make prickles any way you like - sewing/painting/printing/sticking/college - the choice is yours and then you can make your little hedgehog into a toy/cushion/clothing/bunting/a bag/anything else you can think of...we've made ours into little hedgehog shaped cushions...

In the Autumn we are having a window display of hedgehogs at Papervillage in Bristol as lots of regulars to the shop are joining in (as well as a local Brownie pack) but there is also a Naked Hedgehog Project Facebook page and it would be amazing to have a collection of hedgehogs living there together.

If you fancy having a go and joining in you can get hold of your naked hedgehog here (they are £3 each) or if you are in Bristol pop in to Papervillage.  

I'm so excited to see what everyone does and can't wait to have a Naked Hedgehog Project Facebook page populated with lots and lots of happy, prickily hedgehogs!!

Would you like to join the Naked Hedgehog Project??

fabric block printing a dress

Last weekend I ran a workshop on block printing fabric at a Bristol craft shop.  As part of the workshop we collaborated on a block printed girls dress and it came out so well, I was really pleased with it!  The dress is still waiting to be sewn up but I couldn't wait to show you how the material came out, brightly coloured and with a rough 'nature' theme on unbleached cotton - perfect for a summers day... when we have one I'll post a piccie of the finished frock.

fabric printing workshop

This is what I'm doing on 3rd March - if you fancy coming along give Vic a ring at Papervillage.

What I love most about lino printing is that you really can print on anything (maybe with the exception of family pets) and once you start printing on fabric it is very hard to stop...

lino printing workshop

I'm teaching a couple of workshops in Lino Printing this Autumn and the first one is coming up soon - summer holidays are over everyone, start signing up for evening classes, art workshops and Christmas craft fairs right away...

This workshop is for beginners, so if you've ever fancied giving lino printing a go book a place and we'll have some fun (and tea and biscuits too, of course).

luminous lino loveliness...

I spent a  really exciting day teaching lino printing at Paper Village in Bristol this weekend.  Lots of people trying printing for the first time, hopefully leaving with lots of ideas and inspiration and also a brave group who I pushed into doing reduction lino prints (where you gradually carve away more and more of your lino block as you add colours, until there is almost nothing left, so no going back!).  With a bit of brain stretching as they worked out where to start and a race against time in just a three hour session some great prints were made and hopefully the seeds of some fabulous future lino prints sown...

My terrible photography means that I can't show everyones work, so sorry if yours hasn't appeared here!

 Lou did pretty well to get her printing done while taking great photos of the morning session though so you can see lots of those prints here...

Reduction printers hard at work...

coming soon...

I'm teaching a couple more lino printing workshops at the fantastic Papervillage soon...

'Beginners' and 'Improvers', both on April 1st.  These have been such good fun so if you are in the Bristol area and fancy a try, or have done it before and fancy a refresher get in touch with Papervillage and come along.  You could even be a beginner in the morning and an improver in the the afternoon!

I'm hoping that we will have some great multi-coloured prints by the end of the day, and it's such a good, versatile technique for home printing without lots of equipment too.  I am slightly biased and obsessed...

Just look at the concentration.  It's a serious business.

lino printing workshop

 
This weekend I will be running a lino printing workshop at Paper Village in Bristol as part of their HUGE printing project.


It is running this Autumn with workshops in nearly everything printwise.  I'll be there this Saturday though, helping people get to grips with the tools and hopefully not wiping up too much blood...