Print Workshops

On Saturday I ran a couple of print workshops for Ministry of Craft, screen printing in the morning and lino print in the afternoon.
They were both great groups, I love seeing what people come up with , all such different designs! My next workshops are on the 4th of April, you can book here if you fancy giving it a go!

Printmakers help each other!

Split fountain experiments!

Avocadude. This was my design!

Lino cut card designs

Experimenting with overlaying colours. Looks amazing!

Juneathon Week One round up

I've had a good and busy week, in which I have exercised everyday but had no time or inclination to blog, so here's a little round up instead.

 I made a start on bigger geometric drawings in my studio. Really pleased with how they're evolving. This is about a metre across. Tricky to get a good picture. I'm going to try and make a little time lapse film of me making one. This will involve me learning how to make a time lapse film, hmmm.

 On Friday I went to a meeting in Liverpool at Open Eye Gallery. Exciting things happening, which I'll talk about later once things are confirmed! It's a great space, enjoyed the Martin Parr photographs. I went over to the Tate Modern and checked out the Constellations exhibition too.

 The weather was beautiful, I had such a nice day pottering around and checking out some galleries and drinking lots of good coffee. Went to Bold Street Coffee and managed to find the Baltic Bakehouse, which was boss, la!

 Went to the Science Fiction exhibition at FACT, which really spun me out. There were loads of little doors to go through , it was like being on a space ship (I imagine). There was this weird film with a talking lychee (or durian, who can say?) in it which I enjoyed.

 On Saturday I got soaked for the umpteenth time cycling into town to teach a screen printing workshop at Fred Aldous. Lovely group, always love seeing how different everyones prints are. Next workshop dates are in September, you can book on the Ministry of Craft website.

 I was a little late with my Weekly Word Drawing. This week's theme was 'Head'. I had a few different ideas, but hastily knocked these smug moon heads out. Trilby versus fez, which will win? (Fez, obvs.)

 I am trying to be healthy and eat well and not drink, so made a radish and fennel salad with lemon and mint dressing, to accompany delish tea made by my pal. First Saturday night booze-free since time immemorial.

 This morning Nick and I drove out to Longdendale and ran up and down a big hill. It was mega!

 Nice day for it! And by 'it', I mean a very sweaty 10k run.

Ate a bacon butty, watched the tennis, then distressed some cats.

Miles cycled: approx 70
Miles ran: 6.8
Yoga classes completed: 1
Units of alcohol consumed: ZERO!

Weekend Morning Routine

Saturday depends on whether I'm working in the shop at Manchester Craft and Design Centre. If I am, then it's up and out on my bike to the studio. If I'm not in the studio I may well be running a workshop somewhere, like Fred Aldous for the Ministry of Craft. I often run in the morning too, distance dependent on whether I'm training for something. Porridge or eggs and green smoothies will be on the menu.

Actually I'm not a huge fan of routines, but I also think they're good for me. I've got a strange brain sometimes, it's full of conflicting ideas. I try to meditate everyday, weekend or not. I use the Headspace app as I'm not very good at staying focused without guidance. I very rarely have a long lie in, it's no fun on your own! I also feel too guilt-ridden and as though I'm missing out on some fun times if I lounge about too much. I usually try to make plans to see friends and do something interesting like attend Sunday Assembly, go to a life drawing class, or a nice long bike ride in the country. In the evening I like to go to gigs, parties and suchlike. Fun times please. Last Saturday I went to an amazing event called Drawn to the Beat at Victoria Baths.

Basically, I believe that life isn't happening at home.

FutureEverything Workshops

Hello! I'm way behind on posts, I've been super-busy running, cycling, printing and teaching workshops! Here are some photos from the HANDMADE workshop at Victoria Baths. It was a super-fun, busy, hectic day!

More photos on my Facebook page! The next workshop I'm running is on the 30th June at Fred Aldous for the Ministry of Craft. In August I'm running some workshops for 10-15 year olds, so if you know anyone who'd like to have a go at printing in the summer holidays, send them my way! Details here: Craft Academy

Papercutting at The Whitworth

Last week I ran another paper cutting workshop at The Whitworth for the Crafternoon Tea Adult Learning Programme. I learnt a lot from the last one I did and had all-new cutting mats, fixed blade scalpels and lots of templates for people to use! I tried to keep things a bit simpler too and everyone produced some lovely cards and seemed very happy, so that was good!

I've got a busy month of workshops next month, some for the Ministry of Craft and one for FutureEverything, which is a collaboration with jewellery designer/maker Julia Roy-Williams (Wonderhaus). We'll be taking inspiration from the beautiful surroundings of the Victoria Baths and using a lasercutter to produce stencils for screen printing. Exciting stuff!

Papercutting workshop

Last Wednesday I ran a papercutting workshop at The Whitworth Art Gallery as part of the Crafternoon Tea series. It was a slight departure for me as I'd been asked to do something 'non-messy', suitable for the gallery setting. It was great to do something new and I really enjoyed researching the history of papercuts and all the different styles from around the world. Here is my little fox design:





This was my favourite of the day! So intricate! It was adapted from a template I got from the Scherenschnitte blog, which has loads of lovely designs to try out.

Wonderful Workshops

Hello! Not much blog action of late, but I've been busy working and playing. I went on a lovely holiday to Nice (via Nimes, but we don't talk about that...) which was super beautiful and lovely and sunny!
Last Saturday I ran 2 workshops for the Ministry of Craft, screenprinting in the morning and lino printing in the afternoon. As usual, I was impressed with the variety of designs that people printed.









If you fancy giving it a go, I'm running more workshops on Saturday 19th November, details on how to book here.
I'm also doing a papercutting workshop on Wednesday, October the 19th of October at the Whitworth Art Gallery, as part of their Crafternoon Tea sessions, which I'm really excited about as it's a bit of something different for me to research!

Ministry of Craft

Hello! Next Saturday I'm running a screenprinting workshop for the Ministry of Craft at Fred Aldous. There are still a few spaces left, so if you fancy giving it a go head over to the Ministry website and book yourself a place! We will be using simple stencil-cutting techniques and screen printing onto fabric. Bring some inspirational images and something to print onto! In past workshops people have printed onto t-shirts, bags, pillow cases and cushion covers. You could even print onto some lovely fabric and frame it, or make a sweet, personalised bunting for a party...Many possibilities! Hope to see you there! x

Workshops and websites

Hullo hullo, last month I did a little screenprinting workshop with some students from the Manchester School of Architecture. It went really well, they all seemed to enjoy it and produced some fantastic work. The blog for their project is here, I must admit I'm a little late with this post, tsk tsk. The last few weeks seem to have drifted by, and whilst things are going in the right direction, I feel like I'm coasting along, rather than being a driving force. I'll cut myself some slack though - the weather has been beautiful and I've been grabbing every opportunity to get out on the bike. I've even been going to maintenance classes, coming second in the puncture repair race on Tuesday!


She's looking nice, no?

I've finally sorted my Big Cartel site, so you can now buy direct from me, without having to set up an account. It links from my website and I feel it's a lot more professional.
Today I'm going to get on top of my admin and do some more site updating, I need a better system! Has anyone got any tips for getting a good routine in place when you're self-employed? I'm still in my pyjamas! xx

Crafting and grafting

The last couple of months have been all about workshops for me! It's been great, I've mentioned before that I always find them really inspirational and that my own practice moves on as a result. I'm on the last week of the Design for Life project, then I will be concentrating on Christmas and plotting the coming year...yikes!



Linocut inspired by the Egyptology collection at Bolton Museum



Linocut inspired by the bolt stamps collection at Bolton Museum



Mittens monoprint



Mittens linocut



Matryoshka doll monoprint with brusho colour




Matryoshka doll linocut, produced at my Ministry of Craft print workshop



Grumpy bird screenprint with bonded fabric elements, produced at my Ministry of Craft print workshop