Thank you so much to all the enthusiastic artists who came out to block print onto textiles, swap clothes, sip tea, and chat around the table at this workshop! It was such a pleasure to spend the afternoon together getting creative. We started out the day with introductions, and June and I touched on the overall intent of the project: to invite community exchange, connection, and generosity through creativity. For this workshop, we had a table full of garments from local thrift stores to print on. At the end of the day, participants had the option to either take their creation home with them, or leave it with us to be donated back to the thrift store with a meaningful handcrafted touch for it's next owner (and a little tag telling about the project). In this way, the intentions of sharing creativity and generosity will ripple gently outwards into the larger community. In order to print on garments, we used stamps, sponge brushes, and textile block printing ink. Many beautiful tests happened on scrap paper as we experimented with different designs and felt out how much ink and pressure was effective. As always, it was interesting to see the different approaches participants took, from boldly covering entire garments with a single repeating stamp, to carefully creating intricate symmetrical designs with many different images, to subtly embellishing a corner or pocket with great consideration and restraint. Block printing was a new process for many of the participants, and there were a few moments of smudged designs or too much ink leading to blobs rather than clear transfers. As a facilitator, I have a lot of investment in participant's feelings of success, and so it was really refreshing to see the humor, patience, and willingness to keep trying and experimenting that came with these small mishaps. At the end of the day, we had a beautiful drying rack full of garments to be passed forward. We also had a clothing swap table at this workshop, with participants invited to bring something valued but no longer used to exchange for something new to them. Clothing swaps are not only a good way to update our wardrobes but also an act of environmentalism and community sharing. Lots of clothes were exchanged, along with encouragement, compliments, and style tips and recommendations. We have another garment altering workshop coming up soon: Embroidery on Saturday Oct 19. (More info here). Hope to see you there!
-Keely Comments are closed.
|