In 2010 I ... took a printmaking class

My first ever Mpls Community Ed class: printmaking. At Diana's suggestion we registered for this two-session printmaking class (just $25!) with D's coworker, Maura. I was definitely nervous that this class would take much more artistic skill than I possess, but the instructor was great (and a bit nutty) and made the first class easy to understand.

Beyond that, the three of us agreed we really appreciate the lack of structure - our printmaking guide gave us a rundown of the night's activities and really let us do anything we wanted. A very refreshing change from how I remember classes going ...

D & M were much more prepared than me, having brought images they wanted to transpose into prints, so I stuck with basic text projects. The simplicity of it was almost laughable - we were given thin sheets of Styrofoam and pencils to impress our designs.

M designing a card template into Styrofoam.

After designing our text/images/patterns, we were given rollers with black ink and paper - the next step was to simply smooth the ink over the Styrofoam, press paper over top and voila: a print!

My first attempts at text prints.

D got smart with her Styrofoam and trimmed it to make a more interesting frame for her text:


Easy, cheap, fun - the first round of printmaking was a success and a fun stress-reliever, too. This Wednesday we're back in class for our second and final session, where we'll actually be carving patterns into rubber eraser-like material. Fingers crossed I can handle the upgrade from Styrofoam.