First off – this is a picture heavy post. Today, I am turning 40 and decided to embrace it!! I am celebrating it with a trip to New York to attend Lotta Jansdotter Surface Printing Workshop. We (I took the family along) started the trip out with delays from Tropical Storm Andrea, but thankfully we got to the hotel, even though it was midnight (4 hours late).
This morning, I couldn’t wait to get in that yellow cab and be driven to Brooklyn to Lotta’s workshop. One of those cab’s below will be mine!!
The workshop was held in an amazing space that included the shop, workspace and office. And yes, in the photo below those are shelves of fabric bolts. I made a purchase while I was there, of course – a strawberry journal, a table runner and the 1 yard of the dandelion fabric from her Echo line.
The course, itself, was run by Lotta. I shared the experience with 11 other great people who helped me celebrate. The course took you through working with potatoes, rubber blocks and stencils on both paper and fabric.
I loved Lotta’s teaching style. She made sure that the main goal of the course was just to experiment and go with the creative flow, which was very liberating and stress-free. The four hours flew by….I so wished the course was a weekend course (2 days) – I enjoyed it that much. I would highly recommend anyone coming to New York, to check out her shop at the very least, and if possible sign-up for a class. You will love it.
Potato printing
Block Printing
Inspiration – Pohutukawa flower, the New Zealand Christmas Tree:
Inspiration – Pacific Island tapa clothes. Designs which are typically painted on woven flax sheets:
Fabric Printing
Final Products of Work
Stationary – Pohutukawa and Tapa Cloth Card Sets.
Tote to carry all the goodies home with 🙂
Factotum of Arts 
What a wonderful post! Thank you so much for sharing your experience at Lotta’s workshop. Your photos and your prints are gorgeous. My favorite is your Pohutukawa flower. (And now I am filled with longing for something with Lotta’s strawberries on it!)
And shoot, I forgot: happy birthday!! Way to treat yourself. 🙂
Thank you so much for the wishes and lovely comment. I definitely liked the pohutukawa in pink, orange and red best too. BTW… I am planning on using the strawberry journal as a give away when I get back home next week 😉
Happy Birthday! Looks like the class was a lot of fun 😀
Thank you for the birthday wishes….and the class was a lot of fun. Best of all, I now feel so relaxed – it was a great way to de-stress :-).
Sounds like a pretty awesome birthday to me! I like the pink birdie bag, it came out awesome!
It was awesome :-). Off to the city quilter – a big quilt store today….I like have a birthday, there can be no complaints about where I choose to visit 😉
Happy Birthday! The class looks fantastic and I hope you made it to The City Quilter too and loved it as much as I do. Thanks for leaving your comment on my blog, it makes blogging so worthwhile when you know it’s touched someone’s life – even if it’s just to let you know there’s a great fabric shop nearby!!! 🙂
We are definitely going today…starting at the High line, then city quilter and ending at Rockefeller center 🙂
A slightly belated happy birthday – and THANK YOU for sharing the photos. You know how envious I am – being able to see the photos helps me to live vicariously! What a wonderful experience – and I love your own work. The Pohutakawa and the tapa inspired prints are my favourites – but I love it all. I have no idea when I will next make it to New York, but a visit to the studio will definitely be on my list.
I am so happy you liked the photos, I was thinking of you when I took them and then posted them hoping I caught enough details 🙂 if you make it to the US you are also more than welcome to visit North Carolina and have a base 🙂
You are so lovely! Thank you for thinking of me – and for the lovely offer of a visit! One day I may take you up on that!! I do have a “US trip” savings account set up – I would love to take my children to visit our family in NJ and Pennsylvania, and of course to do the obligatory Disneyland trip. One day……
In the meantime I am soaking in all the details from your photos – and will pass the link on to a friend who is a big fan of her work.
love it looks like a great way to celebrate happy birthdayxxxx
Thank you for the birthday wishes, it was one of the best birthdays I ever had 🙂
Happy Birthday, what an amazing way to celebrate! I keep seeing people posting about this and I can’t go..so sad 😦 Love the block prints, very pretty!
Thank you, I really enjoyed it. I hope the photos help to at least make you feel included 🙂
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