When a lady's only networking group asked me to do a 20 minute presentation on the art of silk screen printing I jumped at the chance. Then I went home and realised that I had just agreed to do a 20 minute presentation on the art of silk screen printing. Hmmmmmm.
The challenge was to make it appealing to the 30+ women whose businesses ranged from finance and accountancy through to interior design and holistic therapy. I wasn't just going to stand there for 20 minutes bleating on about screen printing; I wanted to make the presentation interactive, I wanted to make it memorable and I wanted everyone to enjoy themselves. So I decided to do what I do best and hold a mini screen printing workshop for them - this was either going to go horrendously wrong or be an unmitigated success...
Now, I know that for some people doing anything creative sends them rushing for the nearest exit so I needed to make it personal and convince even the least creative person there that screen printing fits in with their natural abilities. I needed to find out what was going on in my audience's heads so I set them a little test.
It's well documented that although we use both sides of our brains, to a lesser or greater degree, one side will always be more dominant and affect the way that we naturally behave. For example if you favour the left side of your brain then you are said to be more logical and rational and if you are led by the right side of your brain then you are supposed to be more creative and impulsive.
With this information at their hands I assured the lovely lefties that screen printing has some great processes that they needed to follow and gave the arty righties permission(!) to be as creative as they wanted to be. Thankfully I didn't have to seal the exits.
I'm glad to say that the workshop went off without a hitch (phew!) and everyone left with a mini piece of art that they'd designed and screen printed. I had so many great comments afterwards and was really pleased to hear people that usually shy away from doing anything creative saying that they were surprised how much they enjoyed it.
Which side of your brain do you use the most? Here is an online test that you can take, let me know which side is your most dominant.
FYI, I'm about 50/50 with the right side being slightly more dominant than the left.