Beginner Block Printing Workshops- a review

I’ve had a great run of workshops over the last few months! I hosted two adult groups at Creative Nomad Studios, and one family workshop with a private client in their beautiful home. The adult workshops ran for 4 hours! This may seem like a daunting amount of time to attend a workshop, but I assure you- we used all of those 4 hours, and could’ve used more. Carving and printmaking is a wonderfully meditative activity, and it is a treat to each attendee to be able to dedicate their time fully to it. When else do you have 4 hours to sit and focus on one thing, outside of work? For most people, this is rare. So- for me to be able to offer this feels special. It is about more than printmaking, it is about offering this time where you can focus and really dig into something. I do this with pleasure because I know how amazing it feels to lose yourself in the creative process.

An image I carved during our workshop, inspired by a beautiful painting by Patricia Clemmens.

The family workshop ran for 2 hours, with 5 guests ranging in age from 6 to adult. For this workshop I provided images, so we didn’t have a dedicated time for drawing, and got into carving almost straight away. I have found that kids are much less reserved in their carving, and don’t hold back as much as adults- thus we are able to finish carving our blocks quite quickly. It is great to witness art being made so freely, and it reminds me of how much we hold ourselves back as adults. Kids don’t worry so much about each line being “perfect”, they enjoy the process and move on: it’s a refreshing perspective. We also stamp our blocks with ink pads, and kids tend to go wild for this part! I brought along my bin with every stamp I’ve ever carved and gave everyone free rein to stamp what they wanted.

I don’t recommend this back hand carving, but he is following the #1 rule of “carve away from yourself!”

A lot or people ask me about children carving with the sharp tools, and you’d be amazed at how adept they are with some instruction and reminders- so far I’ve never had a problem.

I don’t have any workshops booked at the moment for the near future, but if you are interested in having me come teach at your event- please reach out.