
This is how any good workshop should look – full of creativity all over the place!
I had an amazing day teaching lino printing/soft block carving at Beamish Museum on Sunday. There were three lovely ladies on the course, Celyn, Mel and Louise, two of whom had not done any lino printing before, one who had done it last at school.
We were very lucky as Celyn is the Skills Development Officer at Beamish Museum, and so we were able to have access to some inspiration from the vast Beamish stores, consisting of old advertisements and lino designs. We were also lucky enough to have a little tour behind the scenes of the collection too.



We started off the day with a few exercises in order to get used to the carving tools and materials, consisting of creating lines and marks, and then a monogram each.

We then moved on to designing our blocks and transferring them on to the carving material.

Celyn had very kindly shown me round the Beamish collection the other week so I could prepare some designs in advance for workshop participants, and she chose this Nectar Tea sign from the Beamish collection to carve and print.

Mel had come with a design already in mind, and worked on a print of the interior of a cathedral.

Louise chose one of my own designs Trees Along the Wear Valley to carve, and as you will see, she made it her own

When I had a moment or two spare, I worked on this two colour print taken from a design from a wallpaper of one of the houses in Beamish Museum, but obviously I didn’t have much spare time whilst teaching, so I haven’t finished it yet!
And once the designs were chosen and transferred to the carving blocks, the carving process began!



Once the carvings were all finished, then came the play part – printing! We experimented with different colours, background methods, etc., and I think you’ll agree, that everyone came up with the most amazing prints.











Aren’t they amazing? It was a great day, thanks so much to Celyn and Beamish Museum for inviting me to teach there, I had the most fantastic time. We are talking about putting another lino printing workshop at Beamish Museum on on 30 June, so keep that day free if you fancy coming along, and I’ll let you know nearer the time how to book.
Thanks to Mel and Louise for a lovely day, I hope you have enjoyed framing your prints!
Carrie