Repeat Patterns: Block Printing

$134.00
sold out

Saturday January 25, 2025
10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Instructor: Sarah Aranha
Materials Fee: $58 (includes carving tool to take home) or $36 if you bring your own (paid to Instructor)
Students: 8

In this playful full-day workshop, students will be immersed in all things pattern! Together we will learn how to create a repeat pattern block, techniques for making a two-colour print, and how to seamlessly block print our designs onto fabric.

We’ll begin with an introduction to repeat patterns and block printing, looking to artists and artisans for inspiration. We will then go over different approaches to creating a repeating pattern by hand, and then sketch, design, and carve our linoleum blocks. The second half of our day is all about printing and experimenting. Putting our designs to the test, we will print our repeat patterns on yardage or other fabric items.

We will leave lots of time for trial and error, for playing with colour combinations and layering, and for some collaborative block printing. Come prepared with pattern ideas! If you have a specific idea or project in mind, the instructor will email participants in advance for input.

You will leave this workshop with printed yardage for future embroidery or sewing projects, and many samples. This workshop is designed for all skill levels: beginners will gain basic skills in carving blocks, developing repeats and making prints. Those with some experience in either block printing or surface design can try more advanced techniques and experiment with layering prints and building complex repeats.

Let me know when this workshop is available

Saturday January 25, 2025
10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Instructor: Sarah Aranha
Materials Fee: $58 (includes carving tool to take home) or $36 if you bring your own (paid to Instructor)
Students: 8

In this playful full-day workshop, students will be immersed in all things pattern! Together we will learn how to create a repeat pattern block, techniques for making a two-colour print, and how to seamlessly block print our designs onto fabric.

We’ll begin with an introduction to repeat patterns and block printing, looking to artists and artisans for inspiration. We will then go over different approaches to creating a repeating pattern by hand, and then sketch, design, and carve our linoleum blocks. The second half of our day is all about printing and experimenting. Putting our designs to the test, we will print our repeat patterns on yardage or other fabric items.

We will leave lots of time for trial and error, for playing with colour combinations and layering, and for some collaborative block printing. Come prepared with pattern ideas! If you have a specific idea or project in mind, the instructor will email participants in advance for input.

You will leave this workshop with printed yardage for future embroidery or sewing projects, and many samples. This workshop is designed for all skill levels: beginners will gain basic skills in carving blocks, developing repeats and making prints. Those with some experience in either block printing or surface design can try more advanced techniques and experiment with layering prints and building complex repeats.

Sarah Aranha is an artist and maker who works with textiles, watercolour, and gouache. Her work explores the still life genre, and draws from the patterns, interactions and routines of the everyday. A skilled arts facilitator, Sarah has taught block printing, still life drawing, meditative stitching and more with community groups and organizations such as The Bentway, FoodShare, East End Arts, Youth Rising Above, Northern Contemporary Gallery, and the Parkdale Free School. Sarah holds an MA in Adult Education and Community Development from the University of Toronto and a BFA Hons (Visual Arts) from York University. She lives and works in Toronto.