Shadowing, 2 hours, Passage Community, Melodee Strong
This was my first week of shadowing at Passage Community! Melodee had planned a printmaking workshop with the students. We set out styrofoam plates, mats to roll ink on, brayers, barens, sticks to carve with, as well as spray bottles. This was the second day that Melodee had done this lesson with the students so much of the trouble shooting had been done. She had discovered that the ink would dry up on the mat so she brought spray bottles for the students to revive the ink with. The ink was water-soluble, very important when working with students who could get some ink on their clothes.
Melodee did a short demo where she carved a drawing of a tree into the styrofoam plate, then put two colors (red and blue) on the mat, rolled them, and showed the students how mixing the colors could create a gradient in the middle. The day prior, they had worked with a prompt- spring and summer- however, today was more open ended. Melodee rolled the ink onto the plate and put a piece of paper on top, then pressed into it with the baren. She peeled it off, showed the group, the informed the students to grab two colors of their choosing and make 4 prints, one of which would be chosen to be put in a show.
The students were aided by tutors, but I noticed that many of the students were mostly self driven. Students that were nervous about what to draw were encouraged to simply make a patterns and play more with the colors and thinking about different ink and paper combinations. The multiplicity of the work made the stakes lower, and students found themselves really playing with the ink and paper choices. There was also a sense of magic that came with peeling off the paper and finding the mirrored image. In addition, they used Speedball materials, which I have seen professionals use. Having high grade materials and ink made things feel so much more important and exciting.
There were only issues in regards to students using too much ink and the clean up process. I think it would have been helpful if it were increasingly emphasized to use a very small amount of ink and then to build from that, but this wasn’t such a problem that it inhibited anyone from creating a wonderful print. Clean up was also difficult as the ink was hard to clean off, however we were still able to clean up in around 30 minutes. The students were very proud of what they had created, and I loved how simple yet effective this lesson was! I am definitely going to be thinking about using a similar set up in future lessons.
Photo credits to Melodee!
