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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Block Printing


Last week I went on a block printing workshop. I've never done any form of printing before and I'm not very artistic and by that I mean that I'm really rubbish at drawing. The workshop was taught by Gill Cairns who runs textile printing workshops in the Tavistock area.


We started out by sketching out our ideas on paper. This is where I was having problems because I can't draw. I decided to try to draw some simple shawls shapes. I drew four shapes to start with.


We then had to draw our sketches on to a piece of foam. Because it was only 1/2 day class, I decided to use only two shapes. So I chose a crescent shape and an asymmetrical triangle. I tried to draw a design on them but in hindsight, that may have been a mistake.


Once our 'stamps' were ready we got to mix our paint and start printing. I printed my shawl shapes using a gradient colour scheme. Once I'd finished I wasn't 100% happy. I thought it looked like a fiver year old had made it. I had a bit of time to spare so I quickly cut out two circles and randomly stamped those between my shawls. I'm happier with the end result although there were definitely mistakes. 


I learnt a lot and I will definitely do things differently in the future. I also learnt a lot from seeing what other people made. Next time I will make my shapes bigger and print fewer on the bag. We printed on a tote bag and I do quite like it. It's bright and colourful.


It was fun seeing the other bags and I particularly liked Sandy's bag. I love the star shapes and the fact that she didn't cover the whole bag.


I don't really have time for any new creative hobbies but I really enjoyed this, so this morning I popped in to a local craft shop and got a few supplies. I'm hoping I'll have time to play a bit later in the week. I've got some plain project bags that I fancy decorating.

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