Funky foam workshop with Nicola Dunn

At Nicola Dunn’s Fun Foam Printing Workshop, we had FUN at the heart of it. We arrived, armed with sheets of funky foam, cardboard and cutting mats and the day ahead proved pressure-free, fun, creative and inspirational. Holistic play-therapy for grown-ups perhaps!

foam

It was fab funky-foam fun from start to finish. We were a happy harmonious group. Nicola’s display of funky-foam- printing whet the appetite, stirred the imagination, as her beautiful letters, geometric patterns, images of fish and leaves – printed in assorted subdued colours – tantalised and inspired us.

Nicola demonstrated the process of creating an image and making the foam stamps, complete with handles, then set us free to explore our own shapes, patterns, colours and ideas. Soon we were stamping stars, trees, holly, fish and even unicorns to our hearts’ content.

We explored different papers and surfaces – tissue papers, paper with texture, even a paper cup got printed! Pigment and ink stamp pads were compared for results, mixing colours to ‘muddy’ them, and gold and silver pads added surprisingly effective shimmer and sparkle. This was so addictive and pleasing it was hard to stop for lunch!

In the afternoon Nicola demonstrated designing and cutting letters – where one needs to be conscious of reversing the image in order to print the correct way round. By the end of the afternoon we had a surprisingly wide range of lettering, patterns, images and ideas displayed.

This was a day of sheer joy, stress-free fun, and I for one left feeling happy, enriched and inspired, a lot lighter than I had arrived, and plenty of stamped sheets in my folder swimming with ideas. Thank You Nicola! It was Brilliant!

Workshop notes by Jenny M Howell