i haven’t spoken much about my personal life on this blog. as selfish as this may sound, this site is my space. just mine. and those of you who are parents will understand how precious having some space of your own is! however to give some background to this post allow me to share: my son is turning 3 on sunday. its been an incredible few years, but its been like having my brain on ‘hold’ for most of that time. at the beginning of this year i vowed to start working towards something and investing more in my interests and mental wellbeing. step one was to start reading again. step two was to try and be more health conscious and step three was to extend myself and edge outside of my comfort zone.

cut to nine months later and i’m just getting around to step three.

a few weeks ago i decided i wanted to do some screen printing, but having only done so a couple of times with lots of help from other people, i wasn’t really comfortable just diving in. so i had a peek at the centre for adult education website and found a 2-day intensive course taught by the excellent nathan gray.

part one of the course was last saturday, and we did some prints using paper stencils, and some using the speedball blockout and resist fluids. pictured above are my stencil prints. i’m really happy with that technique and i feel very inspired by the results. don’t you think they look a bit scandinavian? the blockout and resist fluids gave some people great painterly results but cleaning it off the screen with a high pressure hose makes it something i can’t really do at home. coming next week, the results of our photo emulsion prints!

i really recommend (anyone who as the time) taking a course. it might sound trite, but aside from picking up some new skills i’ve met some great new people and its just so nice to do something different with my weekends. next on my list to learn is proper coptic bookbinding, and letterpress printing.

have you taken any good courses or have something in mind you’d like to learn?