Helen Locke discovered the delights of printing on textiles during her residency at Ochre Print Studio back in 2018 and this now forms a large part of her practice as a successful artist/printmaker.

On this weekend textile course, Helen will take you through the concepts of contemporary pattern making to produce a design that can be exposed on a silkscreen and then printed onto a length of fabric. 

On the first day you will be introduced to the joys of repetition and ways of capturing texture and mark-making to create what’s called a ‘positive’ that can be ‘exposed’ on a silkscreen.  You will then be shown how to prepare the screen and transfer your ‘positive’ onto the screen in the darkroom, using the studio’s light exposure unit.

The following day you will learn how to print the image on your screen onto fabric with Helen encouraging you to explore different colourways and repeat methods along the way. At the end of the weekend, you will take home a length of fabric printed with your very own design! 

The image promoting this course shows Helen’s recent work in colourways of turquoise and ultramarine, inspired by the organic shapes of Barbara Hepworth’s stringed sculptures.

Dates: Weekend 28 February/1 March
Times: 10am to 4pm
Cost: £220 / Members £210

Helen Locke is a Farnham based printmaker and art teacher with a passion for drawing, colour and print. With a degree in Illustration from Liverpool and an MA in Narrative Illustration from Brighton, she enjoys teaching workshops focusing on expressive mark-making on paper and fabric.

Helen sells her work through the Farnham Museum shop and on Etsy.