Hand Block Printed Scarf Workshop

Taking art and making classes has been one of the best things I’ve done as an adult. It’s helped me develop an art practice, meet new people, and chop up the monotony of adulthood. I recently stumbled upon a local community art space & school and on a whim signed up for a block printing class the day before. It wasn’t all I was hoping for, but it was something to do over the three day weekend.

It’s less than a mile from my house, so I chose to walk despite coming down with a cold. A bird pooped on me and I saw a man pooping, but otherwise it was a nice walk.

The community arts space has all sorts of classes and workshops available ranging from welding to drawing. Once the school year ends, I’m going to do some drop in figure drawing sessions and maybe screen printing for fabric.

I channeled Block Shop Textiles to get ideas flowing.

The class description said that you could “design your own scarf” and “unlock your creativity,” but in reality we had to choose from pre-made wood blocks and just two colors of dye. Most of the blocks were intricate floral designs, which are nice, but not my aesthetic. Thankfully I found one “border” block that was sort similar to what I had sketched out before class.

There were only three other workshop participants making things pretty cozy. The instructor gave us a very brief history on the 400 year old craft and her husband brought samosas and lassi. We listened to really old Bollywood movies while we worked.

The other participants chose to create a border and then a dot repeat pattern for their scarves. I chose to fill in the whole scarf and took twice as long.

I will probably end up dying this. The white is a little too white and doesn’t really coordinate with my wardrobe. Maybe indigo?