Leela of Native Bear held a stamp workshop on Sunday at her new studio space in Candler Park that she shares with the ladies of Indie Craft Experience. The day was rainy and grey but since the front of the studio is all windows, there was still a good bit of natural light for photographing the event – while also participating. My friend Amanda joined in on the class with me and since I actually know Leela personally it was like just hanging with friends being crafty!
Leela shared her story about how she got started and grew her business and then gave a run down of how to safely carve and then we began sketching out our designs. I had jotted down some ideas of what I wanted to carve but hadn’t actually sketched anything yet. Amanda, who’s the in-house artist at Whole Foods came prepared with some drawn out ideas. We both liked the bird and sun sketch the most so she put some finishing touches on it and decided to go with that as her stamp.
We had the option of doing one big one or several littles and I went with doing a few small ones to later do patterns. I drew, traced and carved out a teepee, cactus and wishbone. 
For printing there was card stock, tea towels and canvas fabric. I first went to the tea towel station and made two towels for our kitchen using the teepee stamp and cactus stamp.
Besides the folks I knew, the class as a whole was a really great group of people, which helps when you’re doing something creative! Several ladies did their company’s logos and others went with carvings like mine to make patterns. Everyone did such a good job, so much talent!
I was so happy with how everything turned out! We’ve been using the towels in the kitchen and I’m really liking the fabric and size. Thinking I’ll get some more and make gifts for friends because they are so much better than using paper towels. I printed enough cards to have a complete set of stationary which is fun because I love snailmail. Amanda did something really creative and combined two inks to make a fade in her design (lower left hand corner) that turned out really cool!
We all had so much fun learning, creating, laughing- I can’t say it enough how good of a job Leela did hosting this workshop! I love her work so much that she has made our save-the-date stamp and will soon be making our invite stamp for our wedding. I’ll share those with you after they’ve been sent out.
She hasn’t announced the next class but if you follow her on Instagram, @NATIVEBEARATL, you’ll be in the loop. Big time recommend!
