Our first workshop
The part of workshops that I enjoy most is planting the seeds of possibility. With printing, its so much fun watching people and watching the idea grow as their confidence with printing increases. Every workshop we run has a certain degree of parameters that are set in stone. We create the artwork, provide the ink colors, and yet every person comes out with a unique custom piece that they created all on their own. I’m telling you, you will never stand taller, or with your chest out further, than when you are wearing a t-shirt you have printed yourself. Well, you might if you just got your boobs done that’s probably the only equivalent.
The endless possibilities of screen printing are really what got us started. Not many people know how to screen print yet it is so ingrained into our everyday life and materials. Sometimes I call out apparel items that people are wearing that are sitting in our workshops and tell them that the shirt, sweatshirt, etc. was printed using the same technique that they will learn in the coming hour. It sounds silly, but it reaches people. Printing produces a tangible product. It’s a perfect process for a make and take setting like our workshops. Let’s be serious, we are Millennials, instant gratification runs through our veins.
Not many printers are willing to share their craft with the public. I like that Tony and I differ in this way. Time and time again, fellow printers will offer us unsolicited advice about how to score the best print jobs to make a quick buck, ya da, ya da, ya da. Don’t get me wrong, we are a business and we want to make a living at what we do. However, we also really like what we create, not just what we do. That’s our greatest distinction, our niche. We create a printing experience in our shop.
When I was in architecture school, I used to get annoyed when my hoity-toity professors would emphasize the importance of working in an open studio. Now, when we run our workshops and watch how one person’s bold risk that results in something awesome, inspires someone else to try something out of the box, I know they were right. Everyone ends up with something different at the end of all of classes. It’s so awesome to see the creativity in everyone thrive and to see the pride they feel in their creations.