Monday Crazy Patchwork

Today we have been playing with the most lovely fabrics and trims. We have hand painted lace and bonded and cut up beautiful embroidered silks

We have been making Crazy Patchwork and just like the Victorian originals we have made ours using snippets of lovely precious fabrics and all kinds of little treasures: broken jewellery, beads, velvet flowers, lace. 

We will be embellishing them next month with hand stitching using silk and hand dyed threads.

I just wanted to show you Dawn's finished and framed piece from last Month's workshop.

And Stella's Work in progress from last month. This is painted tissue with applied silk papers.

She has started to hand embroider it.

Isn't that an amazing texture? And we were all drooling at the gorgeous colours.

I can't wait to see what they do next with all my stash. Sharing and inspiring each other is just the most fun you can have on a dreary old Monday!

Altered Books in May

It is nearly time for this month's Saturday workshop! Altered Books.

On the 23rd May in Boxmoor we will be making, starting and learning new techniques to make unique little works of ART from old, unloved hardback books.

It is such a happy experience to see beautiful things  emerging from the pages and seeing how everybody interprets the techniques that I'm showing them into their own personal artwork.

This time we are going to be working with Acrylic mediums. Crackle paints, moulding paste,
iridescent mediums and paints, and resin.

We are also going to play with openings and put little doors with hinges into our books.

Each person can choose to work to a theme or just to play with the techniques.

Have a look through this blog for photos of Altered Books and there are lots on my website too. www.paulawatkins.co.uk if you'd like to see examples of this lovely art for.

Here are a few more  to show some of the techniques we will be playing with.

This first one shows some of the different mediums used with iridescent paint effects, It also shows a window cut between the pages to showcase a vintage optometrist lens which has been treated with resin and wired between the pages. 

This little heat treated copper door has brass hinges and a fastening. It  opens to reveal the vintage dresses hanging in the wardrobe by a chain and little wire hangers. The fairies on the other page a peeking in.

This is a stitched panel on a book page using some of my collection of buttons and lace.

As you can see, an Altered Book can be anything you want it to be.

Let me know if you'd like to join us on this workshop or one in the future. We have such fun!