more popular than cake decorating!

Yesterday we had our stencil workshop at Bleeding Heart Gallery as part of Brisbane City Council's Saviours of the Lost Arts.

I had a rushed morning with the kids, and getting everything sorted to take into town. {Printing screens, ink, blank tea towels + hemp tote bags, brushes, inspiration books, etc, etc, etc} Thanks grandparents for picking the kids up for me - giving me pure moments of quiet! Oh, yes!!!

The set-up at Bleeding Heart is really lovely. So homely, trendy, stylish, perfectly livable. The building itself is a beautiful heritage listed space - it's been lovingly repaired and looked after. An excellent location for a gallery space.

Once the workshop started I didn't get a chance to even think about taking any photos. Which is a real pity as there were so many creative, talented people there doing some really fun, thoughtful and inspiring designs. 

One lady's design was two feathers. Before I knew it she'd expertly hand cut them out, and was ready for printing. There was a Marimekko horse - white on the natural hemp looked so Finnish. Some pears, two wonderful little birdies, some fantastic abstract shapes, 'I heart 2 op shop' (perfect tote bag, hey!). Two dear friends came along and took home a dandelion and a native Australian looking flower bud. 

The workshop was so full - we had 20 people booked in, but I think we ended up with close to 35 in total. And what a noisy, fun group of women they were. Yes all women. Most had left the kids at home with husband or grandparents. At times it felt like 15 kids were demanding our attention, calling for our help. The event organiser, Melissa, said that our workshop was even more popular than cake decorating - how about that, hey!

So wonderful to be able to work alongside my husband, Sam, in this way. For us both to be there with our own skills, experience, talents and pass our information onto willing listening creatives (or creatives in training - as some had never done much drawing or anything similar before). 

Then it was all over - people saying good bye, showing off their finished pieces. While others were still inking or waiting for ink to dry. (Cold wet day meant the ink took a long time to dry). 

I didn't get an end line-up of all the finished pieces. In fact, I did not get even one picture of anyone at the whole workshop - start to finish. If any of you are reading this and feel like showing off your  new designer tote bags or tea towels, I'd love to see them (and share them on this blog). {Please email me photos to redseedstudio AT gmail DOT com}

If you live near enough, check out the rest of the program as I think there may still be vacancies in some workshops. And come into town (Brisbane City) on Tuesday for the Craft Fair. I've heard there'll be a tea garden (by the same stylist as all these spaces shown here), and we'll be there, so will some of the Bris-Style gang, as well as beautiful ceramacist Kim from Udessi (yes, she's beautiful and her work is as well - I have a few pieces and will add more when I have better studio space to display them).