​Kelly has just popped the kettle on. It’s not for a nice brew however, it’s for setting the colour dusting on the Poinsettia petals that the students have just made. The steam from the kettle spout deepens and dulls the hand-painted colours to make the finished flowers look as realistic as possible. “Don’t leave them in the steam too long though – they will melt and slide off the stem”, Kelly explains, and then she shows the students how to do it, and how not to do it!  “You don’t have to set the colours by the way, it just adds a nice touch. Green really needs it, and if you add a flush of red to the base of the green leaves, it will also give a really authentic finish. A brush through the steam will deepen the colour”.  

​There is a mass of red Poinsettia petals hovering around the classroom. Each student has made upwards of fifteen petals each – different sizes and shapes, plus a cluster of buds that make up the centre of the flower, plus a few leaves.  They are all standing to attention in a block of florists foam and already look so real.  They are made by using a special flower paste which dries very hard and can be rolled very thin. The realistic petal veins are added by using special moulds that press both sides of the markings into the flower paste. Then you can soften the edges using a softening mat to give the contours to the flower parts. The ‘stem’ is a real florists wire, so the final effect looks like it has come straight out of a flower shop. 

​Liam has a relaxed and creative teaching style and likes to spend one to one time with his students. There is music playing in the background and it adds the right ambience for an Autumn workshop. “Music is so important to the creative process” Liam confides. It doesn’t stop the conversation though – students and tutor maintain a constructive dialogue throughout the day, comparing papers, linens, inks and techniques.
 
All of the students on today’s workshop have discovered and developed new ways of working in monoprint – with and without a press.  With each design, Liam has given them tips and  advice to enhance and develop the artistic outcomes further. They are all lost in their designs when I come into the room; some at the press and some at their workstations. Some holding up plates to the light to inspect the colour and some arranging pieces of foliage or collage onto new printing plates. As Liam asks the class to join him in another demo, they come together to watch the next technique as a group and leave their current solitary creations alone for a while.
 
“Mono-print is almost like a build up to something bigger – a testing ground for future designs on fabrics and heavy archival papers, although some artists use mono-print as an art form in its own right” Liam explains. “The workshop today is all about creating an experimental body of work.  Then it’s up to each student how they take it forward”.