The Artisan Collective Digital Design Workshop
In July, RefuSHE began partnering with artist Patricia Mbesa to teach members of our Artisan Collective how to create, edit, and print digital art through a special four-month Digital Design Workshop. The Artisan Collective’s collaborative arts-based curriculum encourages members to become skilled, confident, and economically independent entrepreneurs by participating in unique training opportunities like the Digital Design Workshop.
Patricia holds a BA in Fine Arts, Painting, and Printmaking from the Glasgow School of Art. In 2015, she was awarded a bursary and graduate residency at the Leith School of Art for one year where she broadened her artistic skills and talent in textile and fabric design. This residency culminated in two group exhibitions in Glasgow and Edinburgh where she showcased her prints and fabric designs among other professional artists. She has three years of teaching experience, having taught a diverse range of age groups from young children to mature students with varying levels of knowledge and skill.
When Patricia came to RefuSHE with this exceptional education and experience in the arts, ready and passionate with the desire to volunteer, we knew we had to find a way to partner. In tandem with the computer classes and digital skills curriculum offered at RefuSHE’s new IT Lab, these weekly digital design classes provide the 21 members of our Artisan Collective with opportunities to express themselves creatively and build a set of new technical skills.
At the beginning of the workshop, the girls learned how to sketch and paint their design ideas on paper – a welcome creative outlet they eagerly embraced.
Next, they learned how to transfer their images from paper to a digital screen using software applications like Photoshop. As Patricia explains, transferring your work from paper to print can improve the images and generate new designs you would not otherwise be able to accomplish by hand. The girls learned to paint, edit, and repeat their patterns on Photoshop, creating unique designs that were digitally printed on sample fabric swatches.
By the end of the four-month workshop, our girls will have created their own portfolio of digital designs, including six original repeat patterns. In addition to digitally printing their unique designs as samples, we plan to try screen-printing their digital designs on Artisan Collective hand-dyed fabric.
The ultimate goal of the Digital Design Workshop is to give members a creative opportunity to try their hands at a new skill. As a growing social enterprise, we are always looking to diversify our techniques and, ultimately, the products we offer. Patricia’s training will help build the foundation for new kinds of Artisan Collective products, such as new scarves, apparel, and home décor. We hope that with this newfound digital know-how, our girls will also feel confident testing out new ideas within their own independent businesses.
We are so thankful for Patricia’s dedication to the arts and her passion for teaching others how to create extraordinary works of art using innovative techniques. We can’t wait to see what our girls do next with their new digital design skills!