Summer Workshop Take l...

It has been too long since I did a workshop at home. Other work commitments, kid commitments, life, the universe, everything was in the way, but I had arranged 2 for this summer and the first of which was yesterday reminded me just how much I love doing them.

I had the best group of ladies here yesterday. First of all there was my Bee buddy Di. It was fantastic to meet Di and despite her insistence that she couldn't draw she produced a fab leaf design (bottom right) that she was quite rightly proud of.

Two lovely ladies came from down the road in Doncaster. I had met Rebecca when we had both exhibited at BCTF and she brought along her friend Tina. The final lady that made up the foursome was Maya, all the way from Copenhagen! I was beyond flattered that Maya and her hubby planned a little Yorkshire mini break around my workshop...praise indeed! Maya and I had been chatting over IG and it was just wonderful to have her here in my home at a workshop.

The day was just perfect...enthusiastic and talented ladies...beautiful weather so we could lunch on the deck...just the perfect way to spend a day. I think they all went away feeling like they had had a good successful time and I'm watching keenly to see how their screen printing progresses after the workshop and the fact that they all went home with a copy of my book!

i LOVE teaching screen printing...

i love sitting around my kitchen table creating with enthusiastic fun people. 

 i love that every workshop is different and everyone comes with their own take and own designs.

 i love that everyone gets caught up in my enthusiasm rather than thinking i am a manic nutcase...although to be fair they probably quite rightly think that too.

 i love that everyone gets as excited as i do to venture down to the depths of my cellar eagerly anticipating what their designs are going to turn out like.

 i love as their hearts skip a beat that moment before they see the first print, wondering if what they imagined would transpire.

i love seeing them using my oh so high tech hoist system as though it was the most natural way and best invention ever .

i love seeing their beaming faces after the success of just one day's printing.

i absolutely FRIKIN love teaching screen printing!

friday workshop take 2

 friday came around mightily speedily this week. 

it seems only 2 minutes ago that lizzie came over for a one-one workshop and here i was this week with jess, her mum wendy, vicky and chrissy round for their workshop.

 in my former life i used to be a teacher and doing these workshops has made me realise that it's not the teaching i grew to dislike, but the being in a classroom teaching unmotivated kids.

 teaching screen printing on the other hand has given me my passion back. 

when you have keen, star students in front of you and you get to pass on the wisdom of something you are passionate about, well quite frankly life doesn't get much better.

it is a privilege to have such lovely people come and want to learn something new and to show as much passion as i have.

 it was quite an intense day, in the best possible way. everyone was full of ideas and creative juices were running high.

i never saw such looks of concentration in the classroom.

 when all stencils had been cut we headed down to the print room (the basement) and after a quick session on how to actually pull a screen everyone set to work on their own screens.

 

i don't know about them but i was beyond excited at this point! i couldn't wait to see how their designs were going to turn out.

seriously, i needed to give myself a pep talk at this point.

and what star students they turned out to be...

after the printing and the cleaning up came the magic...

 seeing their designs transformed...

how cool are all of these?

i just love how different each and everyone's work is...

vicky brought her fab bird and birdhouses design printed out and ready to cut...

chrissy punched holes a crazy to make her striking design...

wendy did 2 - she used cat post-it-notes as silhouettes to cut out - and also took inspiration from melissa bombardiere's wonderful belbird design (i love melissa's work)...

and jess produced a wonderful piece that looks  tribal.

 the next workshop isn't until march 15..i'm not quite sure how i'll get my fix until then, but it's certainly something to look forward to.

if you fancy joining me for a fun passion  filled friday (does that sound wrong?) there are still a couple of places left for march 15. 

please do join us (mother's day is march 10 so put in your request for a great gift)...you can book a place here.

wonderful way to spend a friday...

what a fantastic way to spend a friday!

i had the pleasure of liz coming over for her one-one screen printing workshop.

liz has done a couple of screen printing courses before and so had a good idea of what she was up to.

she claimed she wasn't very artistic but if you see what she produced i think like me you would disagree rather swiftly.

liz brought some sizzex paddle punches with her. I haven't seen these before and they are so cool! It would be very difficult to cut these shapes for stencil printing and liz used these in such a creative way. I just love the effect she achieved.

we spent some time talking techniques (actually we didn't stop talking for the over 3 hours liz was here) so that we could perfect her already more than basic skills.

 one advantage for liz booking a one-one session was that she had more me time (not necessarily an advantage you might say) and we were really able to work on her skills.

she also had plenty of time and could work on 3 different designs.

 whichever workshop you book on you get tote, tea towel and fabric pack to work with.

i love how the stars came out on liz's tote!

with a little bit of time left liz set to work on her 3rd design - partly hand cut, partly sizzex paddle punched. 

how cool is her tea towel? just genius!

liz really was an a* student in both attitude and aptitude and i had such fun hanging out and 'playing' with her today.

thanks liz for a wonderful time!

if you would like to come and do a fun workshop there are a couple of places remaining on my march class or like liz you could book a one-one for that little bit more me time.

next week i have my next group workshop and i can't wait!