Last week, Victoria and I had the amazing opportunity to teach Zine and Screenprinting workshops at the first annual Rock ‘N Roll Camp For Girls Los Angeles.

Over 50 girls ages 8-17 formed bands, wrote their own songs, learned how to and played all their own instruments and had a finale performance at the Troubador this past Saturday. Camp directors Mona and Becky were amazing leaders, along with a group of talented and accomplished female volunteers. One volunteer instructor was Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile, a Riot Grrrl whose music, zines and presence in Olympia was super influential to me and my growth as an artist.

The girls were split into two groups depending on their ages. In our zine workshop they created a collaborative zine that was passed out to each girl at the end of camp. In our screenprinting workshop, each band designed their own logo and we created contact paper stencils that we then attached to screens and printed in their favorite colors. Lucky for you, the entire week was documented and you can watch the wrap up video by clicking on the link below!

Rock and Roll Camp For Girls Los Angeles

(photo credit: Becky Sapp)

A lot of the crafters I’ve met first learned the importance of handmade skills when they were kids. Cheryl grew up in the Nebraska Sandhills, where she was taught by her family to crochet and sew at the ripe old age of four. She comes from a long line of crafters who seem to create magical environments within the sand dunes and prairie landscape. In the 1950s, Cheryl’s uncle took apart television sets and made dioramas out of them to put all around the house.

That imagination has certainly been passed along. After teaching workshops at Machine Project in Echo Park (including the talking amigurumi yeti in the photo), she was invited to take part in their show at LACMA. Cheryl crocheted 101 little birds at the LACMA entrance, and one gigantic crochet bird, nearly 5 feet tall, to sit beside his hanging friends. The event included an ongoing crochet workshop where Cheryl taught nearly a hundred people how they too could use their hands to create a magical creature for their world.

Cheryl came to The Urban Craft Center to add a few new skills to her repertoire. She’s picked up quilting, spinning and screen printing over the past couple of months. I am quite fond of her Yeti cards from our Yudu class. Adorable little beast, no? This design is a continuation of an image Cheryl created and had made into fabric. She’s started an Etsy shop, you can see it here, with more great items coming soon. For more information about Cheryl Cambras and her work, visit her website.

You may have noticed that The Urban Craft Center makes an appearance in the newest infomercial for Yudu screen printing. If you are wondering how you can use the Yudu in our space or what materials we have for sale, read on!

If you already know how to use the Yudu, without help from one of our instructors, you can purchase studio time at our regular hourly, daily or membership rates . This gives you access to the Yudu machine, materials are sold separately. If you would like instruction, we offer scheduled classes for $85, or individual private lessons for $35/hour. Please call us for private lesson group rates.

Materials available for in-studio use:
Screen Rental: 1 screen (110 mesh) $15/day, maximum 3 day rental
Emulsion Sheet: $10/single sheet
Ink: $8/bottle
Transparency: $2/sheet
Screen Tape: $2/screen

We sell many of the Yudu materials in our retail store such as; emulsion sheets, screens and ink. We will have Yudu machines for sale soon.

Give us a call if you have any questions, or if you’d like to sign up for a class!

We are very excited to hold our first YUDU Screen Printing class this Thursday, September 17th from 4-6pm. While we will always have a very special place in our hearts for the now discontinued Gocco printing machines, the YUDU is a crafter’s new answer to accessible screen printing techniques.

This past weekend, Leyna Roget visited the studio to use the YUDU to make t-shirts for a charity event. Leyna is the Executive Producer for the production company iNDIGO PROJECT and the charity event was a special joint effort with the CHALK4PEACE community council.

Check out the photos from her project here in the studio!