Racing into a new teaching year!

Today I was in a meeting to schedule my teaching for the coming academic year. There are some very exciting new courses coming up!

We will be designing courses in Fabulous Felt part 1 and advanced felt which will include a seamless bag, a Cobweb felt stole  and a Nuno Felt scarf!

There will be Christmas Crafts which will include felt decorations and the White on White wall hanging that every one has been desperate to make. We will also include some fab pop up snowflake cards.

We have been planning some more Jewellery and Vintage Crafts courses too. These were really popular last year and we have lots of new techniques up our sleeves.

Artist Trading Cards are so very popular with everyone that we will be doing courses in these little beauties all over the county! I know lots of people have been waiting for the next round of these classes so they can learn new techniques to add to their collections.

This year I hope to be teaching many more Mixed Media techniques with Altered Books and Book Art of all kinds.

I will have some great things for sale too and some tutorials coming up to go with them so watch this space for all of those.

If you are interested in any of the coming courses, contact me as soon as you can. Last year so many people missed out because the classes filled quicker than we could publicise them.

Hertfordshire Open Studios

It is September!  It must be time for Herts Open Studios!

This is a wonderful event where artists from around the whole county open their studios to the public to promote their art and  teaching and demonstrate their techniques for visitors.

It is a great opportunity to talk to the artists about their work and to buy the work of emerging and established artists who may live just around the corner from us.

This is my 6th year of exhibiting with OS. Each year I try to have a different theme or I base my work around a technique that I have been exploring. It is a great opportunity to stretch myself to develop new techniques and to talk to people and see what they think of my work.

This year my artworks were based around my studies of Lace. 

I love vintage lace and marvel at the way it is constructed with open areas that give texture 

and play with the light. I love the way you can look through it to partly see what is beneath.

I have been making my own lace! A 21st Century version of an antique textile. Embroidered, layered, beaded and made from very contemporary materials!

I also have  some of my handmade books and altered books on display in cases. I can take them out and show them to people in quiet moments. There are a couple of book out of the cases for people to look through. There is a lot of interest in book art and last year when I showed the books, the exhibition  led to many classes because every one wanted one of their own!

Herts Open Studios is on until Saturday 15th September. From 11am till 4pm at the Paper Trail in Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead. Hurry if you want a peek!

A Tiny Bridal Shop

My lovely friend Maureen had a special birthday this week.
There was a surprise party for her yesterday and part of her Birthday surprise was the present from her husband. A dolls house shop!

Maureen is a very creative lady she sews all kinds of things and makes beautiful quilts and she has some very crafty friends. Not just crafty because we managed to keep a good secret ha ha, but because we are all quite thrilled with the idea of helping her decorate her lovely tiny Bridal Shop.

She got some darling little presents for it, like a little scroll work wire  mannequin some little display cabinets and some cute furniture but we also thought we'd make some handmade things for it too. 

so I made some bunting...

Each piece is less than one centimetre high, made from painted watercolour paper, and is hand stitched  together with crochet cotton.

Then I made some little bouquets, about 1.5 cms in size, with some glass beads and very fine green beading wire. I made a little sign for the shop with a bridal sign on the front and a friend quote on a the back.

Hope she likes them! I had fun making them.