For so many of us, the lockdown brought with it sweeping changes that really forced us to develop new strategies to cope with different working and living demands and eventualities. As I am also a part time art teacher at a secondary school, as well as a printmaker; it meant adapting my teaching to a purely online presence whilst also home schooling!

To start with it was generally okay and manageable…..I would teach my school lessons whilst resting my laptop precariously on the bedroom windowsill, (I talk way too loud you see, so I was relegated to the upper echelons of our small house!).

Since I started my printmaking practice in September 2018, I was keen to teach adult workshops from my home studio. This flourished into a steady weekly class, attended by a wonderfully witty group of individuals who enjoyed the chatty banter, cake & coffee, of what was affectionately known as our ‘elevenses’. These classes collapsed, along with sessions I also ran via obby.co.uk. It was clearly time for resourcefulness and a bit of tenacity thrown into the mix. As I was teaching my school classes using the google platform, I was getting used to teaching in that rather removed way.

I thought I would give Zoom a go, as everyone seemed to be talking about it! So, I planned a series of 4 printmaking sessions, each one devoted to a slightly different printmaking technique, yet all of which could make use of some household resources or recycling more unorthodox materials! The lockdown did highlight a frightening amount of general waste and I was keen to find ways to reinvent everyday materials.

Each week I prepared a visual handout with step by step information and images to take the students through the processes, this was emailed a few days ahead of the Zoom lesson. It also became a nice way to share the work of fellow artists and makers by creating links from the process to their work.

As I was highlighting things on Instagram and FB, I was delighted when a lady got in touch from France asking to join the class! How unexpectedly wonderful that we could share this beyond the island!! We kept our fingers crossed that it would all work!

So, the weekly printmaking sessions resumed online, this time from the kitchen sideboard so that I could prep my webcam (taped to a storage pot and resting on the window ledge!).

Somehow it all worked, albeit with a good deal of fuss and tears, and that was just me!

The students enjoyed their weekly classes and they did manage to mute themselves quite well whilst I did the practical messy bits! I liked the fact that even though we were not physically in the same space, the friendliness and supportive nature of our group was still very much there. As for Brigitte across the channel, she managed quite well, tres bien!

Do please get in touch if you would like to know more, or you would like one of the handouts which I am very happy to email.

On my Instagram handle @kims_workshops you can see a link to my IGTV posts which show a few videos of the print processes I covered, as well as me introducing myself!

NEXT WEEK I WILL BLOG A PRINTMAKING PROCESS YOU CAN TRY!