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As an admirer of screen printing, I was pleased to get the opportunity to go along to a screen printing day by Red Hot Press. This was a gift for me so it was a nice push to get hands on with this art. I had a pretty good idea of how to screen print already but had never gotten around to doing a print on my own before.
I was welcomed in by the lovely Sarah Mander who does many courses at Red Hot Press. This was my first course with her and the company. I was introduced to the friendly group and was happy with the class size. They take a maximum of 8 people and it works just right. A good touch was the way that they asked each person to explain why they were there. It was interesting to hear everyone's reasons and how they will go on to use this skill. There were a mixture of people, including trainee teachers and people who were retired. Many were doing screen printing for the first time but some had been to other Red Hot Press courses before and loved them.
We brought our favourite images with us for this course. The very helpful Sarah taught us how to trace, cut and screen print our picture. The nifty bit that I liked was that we worked on our own individual space with our own materials. I brought in an image of a lion and this is my unique artwork...
For my first few goes at screen printing, I was pleased with my outcome that I came home with. I got to pick my colours from a selection of paints and was guided through the steps for making my prints and how to improve my skills. It felt like I was a Miss-Busy-Body sometimes and I did my first picture really quick. This was probably my creative over-excitement. Sarah was always around to help with any questions I had too which I appreciated. It also helped that tea and coffee was on tap!
We were asked to bring our own lunch from home and on the break we chose to all sit together. Everyone was chatting about who they were and where they came from. It didn't feel like a competition - everyone was in it together.
I now love screen printing even more than I did before this day. It was nice to see the different art work that other people created. There were beaches, mushrooms and building landscapes to name but a few. I left with lots of ideas to get started on at home.
If you are interested in going along to their screen print days, Red Hot Press is based in Southampton and you can find their list of dates here. Do be aware that you may need to bring additional items, which they will clearly list for you on an email before your course. These cost me no more than £10 and I can use these to carry on with screen printing in the future.
Let us know in the comments below or on social media - have you ever done screen printing or is it something you'd like to give a try?
