This past weekend I taught moku hanga for the first time at
Zea Mays Printmaking in nearby Florence, MA. There were 9 participants and we had a lot to do in just two short days, so it was a jam-packed weekend. I asked the students to come with several copies of an image prepared to size so that we could get right down to business.
Zea Mays is a great environment for a class. The studio is in an old factory building with large windows and sunlight streaming in. We had a big table for demonstrations:
And each student got their own table to work on:

Front to back: Martye, Kim, Adele
Most of the participants came with a lot of art experience, and many had done other forms of printmaking. There was a lot to learn all around.
Kim Rosen, another Northampton illustrator
Leslie Moore, an artist who does animal and pet portraits in ink and black and white woodcut, came down from Maine.

It was great to see the group start to bond and I was particularly touched when I noticed
Fran Kidder, a local painter, helping Dayna Talbot, a painter from eastern MA, with her kento.
I spent most of the weekend just wandering from table to table, troubleshooting problems when needed and just enjoying watching these 9 women discover the intricacies of moku hanga.

Puzzling with Kristen over her first block.

Dayna carving an intricate keyblock.

Adrienne discovers finger printing! Sarah, seated behind Adrienne, carved just two simple blocks but experimented with them so that no two prints were quite the same.

Leslie wielding a baren.
Unfortunately I couldn't concentrate on photographing, so I didn't get a picture of each person's print. If any of you who participated read this post and want to send me a photo of your print to add, please do -- I'd love to have it. Missing are Martye's print (an ocean scene with a very interesting overlay pattern), Fran's (very loose and expressionist, like her paintings), Dayna's (mountain scene), and Kim's (woman with flowing hair). Here are a few shots I was able to get:

Kristen

Adele

Adrienne used a simple keyblock image with color fills.

Sarah

Leslie

A carved keyblock by Kim.
Thanks to you nine wonderful women who came to the workshop and thank you to Zea Mays studio for hosting us so well.