Print making workshops

To introduce my year 10 class to their GCSE course, I decided to start with some print making workshops. Over fourteen weeks I taught them how to lino print, monoprint and collagraph print. They had to use the same design for each method so it would highlight the variances between the techniques.

They have produced some really high quality and experimental projects. We?ve been focusing on their page layouts and ways of making their sketchbooks more interesting. Some of their approaches have really impressed me.

I then challenged them to think about a way they could use their new printing skills to create something ready for today?s marketplace.

For the final response some of them chose to design packaging for an existing company. Others chose to create their own products from scratch.

This project was a much easier starting point for some than it was for others. Printing is a messy business and for those students who are very particular and work in a very regimented way, this can be a real challenge. So I am more than impressed with the way they rose to face that challenge and the way they have loosened up (ever so slightly) as a result of this.