Workshops coming soon!

Now that the book is finished I will have time to teach some more workshops.


These will be once a month on  Saturdays and Mondays. Starting in October.

These will be in Boxmoor, in Hemel Hempstead, 3 minutes walk from the train station.
Hemel is just 30 minutes from London Euston on the train.

I do of course travel all over to do workshops for groups and Guilds.

The Saturdays are all day workshops on the third Saturdays of the month which will feature all kinds of different techniques. These will include:

Beginners and Experimental Handmade Felt,
Gelli Monoprinting
Rust dyeing with a hand stitched piece of work,
Hand stitched Vintage inspired brooches,
Altered Books with Mixed Media,
Christmas Decorations and gorgeous wool felt bunting,
Family Fun Artist Trading Cards,
Family Fun Stitched Pictures,
Family Fun Felt,

and more...

The Saturday Workshops will be from 10 till 4 and cost £65 per session. The price includes materials and refreshments but not lunch.

The Family Fun will be for 2 hours am and pm and cost £35 for one adult and one child per session. The price includes all materials.

The Monday workshops will be the second Mondays of the month and will be the Monday Blanket club.

Nobody likes leaving their cosy beds on a Monday morning. So once a month we will get cosy with stitching on beautiful soft Vintage wool blankets. We will be making fabric books,
vintage inspired brooches, and wall hangings. We will also be adding some handmade felt techniques, beading, and vintage and modern treasures too.

Have a look at some of the book pages on this blog and my website to see the kinds of art we will be making.

www.paulawatkins.co.uk

Each month there will be  a little bag of treasures waiting for you and yummy cake and refreshments will be a plenty.

The Monday Blanket Club will be 10am till 2.30 and cost £45 per session which will include  materials and refreshments but not lunch.

More details and photos to follow soon but let me know if you'd like to be on the list because places will be very limited.

Cut Shape Stitch! The book is here!

The book has arrived!

I have the first one in my little hot hands!

It has been so lovely to look through it and see all the projects come together in print.

Maggie, Sam and I hope that we will inspire people to use all kinds of cutting techniques in their art; from good old scissors, hand punches and die cutters to amazing electronic machines.

Everyone who has ordered one from me will get them as soon as I have picked them up.

Anyone else who would like to get their hot hands on a  copy can contact me on my email to order them.

paula@paulawatkins.co.uk

They are priced at £16 which isn't too bad for 70 pages, 130 images, step by step instructions and extra  online tutorials to come very soon. We hope you enjoy it! 

I have listed the book on my website too. 

www.paulawatkins.co.uk

 It can be bought with Paypal even if you don't have an account. There is a little button 'New Book' at the very top of the homepage.

Mother Nature's Woolly Book

The world around us is so beautiful. Even the tiniest details of the birds and beasts, the flowers and the colours can fill us with joy if we take the time to look.

Luckily I have had more excuses to look closely at Nature recently because we have had 3 lovely Nature Embroidery workshops at the Hertfordshire branch of the Embroiderers Guild. We were led by Trish and Viv who make the most beautiful pictures with collaged stitcheries  that include all kinds of techniques. We have been so inspired with the little embroideries, that we have made them do 3 workshops for us so far!

I have made mine into a book of course and mounted all the little samples on  lovely woolly surfaces like vintage blankets, and handmade felt. The cover was kantha stitched handmade felt made to look like moss on the forest floor and the red behind the holes reminded me of toadstools. 

Here are some of the pages.

This first one celebrates the humble little beetle. Some creepy crawlies are gorgeous! I had fun with the colours on these and learning some basic stump work.

Here is a closer look.

The background is cotton sheeting which has been scribbled with Derwent Inktense pencils which permanently dye the fabric when they are dampened and blended.

This next page is embroidered rabbits. The sample is stitched to a vintage embroidered doily and the page is made of an old wool blanket. The edging is couched hand dyed wool.

Birds next! I have to have birds on everything! The first one is canvas work with added needle felted blobs and star stitches. Shame it looks so crooked ha ha.

And this one is a drawn bird with added hand stitches on another doily. Coloured with Inktense pencils again.

It has got velvet flowers added. I love using these!

Ready for more bugs? These have grass stitched around them in hand dyed silk thread and a round border of silk and wool fibres which are held down with hand embroidery to look like lichen and moss. The bee is velvety! It took ages but he is so sweet!

Here is a closer look at the stitching!

More bugs!

Each bug has Trapunto quilting beneath it and Kantha stitching around it.

A pretty butterfly now just in case you are feeling itchy... Embroidered with variegated threads from 21st Century Yarns. My favourite!

And seed heads. I am in love with looking at seed heads! This also has snippets of vintage fabrics and lace.
It has all been stitched to a lovely soft blue wool blanket.

A little nest. With eggs! It has a real twig and teensy handmade organza flowers. This one has all sorts of bits and bobs to give it texture. See what you can spot in there.

It has been joyous making this book and doing the workshops. Trish and Viv were so generous in sharing their techniques and making the days perfectly relaxing and inspirational. And it was the perfect reminder for me to take time to look at and rejoice in the little things.

Getting excited!

I Just heard today that the book is at the printers!

Yippeeee! It is starting to feel like this is really happening and in just a few weeks I should have it in my hot hands!

Would you like to see a photo of the cover? Here it is and we all love it!

This is the whole cover. Back and front. It has images of work by all three of us. We are each quite different artists from one another but all really  looking forward to showing how to add new dimension to your artwork by using cutters of all kinds.

Getting published!

Isn't this a lovely little note to get in the mail?

It is always a screamy moment when I see this on the cover of a magazine as it comes through the letterbox.
When it is attached to a copy of a magazine as lovely as the Stampington ones it it even screamier!

I have got a lovely double page spread in Stampers Sampler this month which has some of my mixed media art made with some of Paperartsy's Lynne Perrella stamps and all kinds of different techniques and materials.

Here is a little peek at one of the pages. They have done such a great job of photographing it. See if you can spot some of the techniques and materials. Buttons and sewing, stamping,watercolour, beading, sinnamay fibre, doodling, vintage book pages, and more...

The whole magazine is full of beautiful projects which all feature the best of stamping techniques with all kinds of other media. Rainbow Silks sell all the Stampington magazines and do a great mail order service.
www.rainbowsilks.co.uk