Print Workshop

When Bobbie asked me last Christmas if I would be interested in holding a creative day for her birthday in the summer. I thought yes - five or six people perhaps, we could have a good time together. As we exchanged emails later on, I discovered in fact there would be about 15 of us!

At least we had a long time to plan it. It was going to take place in our village hall and because Bobbie wanted to make it an all day event, I thought we could fit in both cyanotype and mono printing. I gave the guests a list and some suggestions giving them the option to bring plant material from their own gardens if they wished.

As it got nearer the time there was a lot to do. I wanted to make sure I brought lots of plants myself so everyone had options so I foraged and picked, and then pressed and dried as you can get better prints when you have flattened material.

I also made some texture plates to make interesting marks and prepped some found papers to print on to..

I also needed to come up with some printing surfaces for everyone, as it would be too prohibitive to supply gelli plates all round. After some research and lots of experimenting I found some silicone mats that worked really well. You can see me demonstrating them in this video:

From the weather forecast I knew it was likely to be overcast on the day so I needed to have an alternative way to print our cyanotypes. Luckily I already had a UV lamp and I just needed to line a sturdy box with some tin foil and this would work almost as well as sunlight.

And it did work out well, especially as there was a place in the hall with a curtain and an electric socket which was perfect as a temporary dark room.

I was very lucky as they were a really lovely group. After giving a couple of demonstrations, everyone happily got into some creative play. There was such a nice atmosphere plus lots of wonderful food, birthday cake and bubbly although I didn’t partake until the end of the day!

One drawback of using the lightbox for the cyanotypes instead of the sun is that you have to leave a longer exposure time - 15 to 20 minutes compared to 5 minutes - but I helped everyone set up their prints and showed them how to wash out the unused solution and soon every available surface had drying prints.

It was quite an intense day and I don’t think I would do such a large class again attempting to learn two different sorts of printing, but I learned a lot about teaching (having previous only done it in videos) and I got some lovely feedback.

Best of all Bobbie was really happy with it and this is what she said the following day:

“Thank you. Everyone so enjoyed the day. Your workshop leading style fitted hand in glove with what I wanted as I knew it would just in spending a little bit of time with you.

Managing the different pulls from people wanting you at the same time, being in 2 places at once encouraging some, affirming others, instructing those of us who kept forgetting the process...me...😂😂 etc etc , you were so so good at this and always calm, gently, spacious and inspiring.....qualities of a good workshop leader.”

Please get in touch if you would like to have me organise a creative session for you and some friends.

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