Indian block printing on silk

Service Description

This creative and practical workshop will take you through inspiration from the museum's historic pattern books, to designing your own motifs, carving and hand-printing on to reclaimed silk from a local factory. Your teacher, art school director and artist Becca Smith, will demonstrate the carving and printing process at the beginning of the session so you can get a feel for the process and results, then show you her favourite pages of pattern design from the museum's fantastic pattern book collection for your delight and inspiration. There will be plenty of tips, tricks and hacks to get symmetrical designs and if you don't feel confident drawing a design, Becca will help you with this too. You'll leave with your own unique pieces of hand-printed silk, plus your printing blocks and a sense of connection to our textile heritage, from Indian artisans, via William Morris, to the men and women of Macclesfield and Leek who hand printed silk for millions of garments and furnishings.