Gelli Arts Mono printing 2 coming soon!

Booking now!

The Gelli Arts printing workshops are always so popular! This method of mono printing is so easy and such fun. You just never can tell how the prints are going to look and there are some wonderful surprises.

They are also perfect for cutting up and collaging. Further decoration can be added with stitch and drawing. And if you love to play with colour and paint this will be right up your street.

For those who came to the first set of workshops this one can be a progression. You can bring some of your favourite previous prints but we will spend a little time making some more so if you haven't been before you can choose to just make prints all day.

We will be exploring pattern, cutting up our prints, learning some drawing to add further pattern and scanning and printing our favourite onto fabric to make repeatable fabric patterns that can be stitched onto.

Let me know if you'd like to join us. There are still some spaces. We are going to have a lovely time.

Artist Sketchbooks on a Saturday

On Saturday 4th July, in Boxmoor we will be exploring Sketchbooks and Journals.

Whenever I show my sketchbooks at shows or talks so many people say that they would love to get into the habit of regularly working in a book. Certainly, they are so great for trying out new ideas, colour schemes or for making a new technique your own. But they can be scary! 

The idea of starting in a new book on a new blank page is so scary to most people that some never ever make a start in the lovely new book they've bought.

So my job on Saturday is to make you fall in love with your journal and make you want to work it in without FEAR!

We will be working with Circles as a theme. Making our own stencils and working with them to create masks and layers. We are going to look at adding colour and detail and think about how to add text in unusual ways.

The day will start at 1.30pm and finish at 6pm. The cost is £50.

Let me know if you'd like to join us. There are a few spaces left.

When is is a tin no longer a tin?

Do you know about Altered Tins? 

I love a tin! Some of them are so cute or useful. I love putting buttons and beads in them  and I love to look in them and sort through the treasures within.

Well... there is now another use for tins of all sizes. You can take an ordinary tin and alter it to make it into something completely different.  The only limit is your own imagination.

They make the perfect little showcase for artwork. Because tins are so irresistible for peeking into, you can hide a little arty scene or frame a perfect little piece of vintage ephemera within an ordinary tin as a surprise for the viewer. Or you can make the entire box into something completely different.

I have been plying with tins this week to get ready for an Embroiderers Guild Summer School in July. We are spending 2 days making interactive Altered Books and Altered Tins.

Would you like a little look at my tins?

The first one is based on Bees: Those precious little creatures who pollinate our crops and keep our crops growing.

This is a little cigar box, about 3"x 3" in size. I have decoupaged the lid to disguise the raised writing on the front and painted it with metallic paints.

Then I used a new Sizzix Honeycomb die to cut out metal and metallic card for the background of the base and inner lid. This was layered onto paper and net.

I put a little wooden frame on top of the metal honeycomb to frame the little brass bee and glass flowers. I added a tiny brass tag with the word Believe. We must look after our Bees and protect them from harmful pesticides. Our crops and food supplies will be in grave danger if the bees die out.

Below is a close up of the frame with the flowers, the bee and the metal honeycomb.

The second tin is teeny tiny!

About 1.25 inches long.

It is small enough to be worn as a pendant. The outside of the lid is painted to resemble enameling. A little impressionist garden made of dots.

It has been wired and beaded into a pendant and has the same little brass Believe wired into the top.
The inside is handmade Merino and silk felt with hand stitching and glass flowers.  A little fairy lives in this tin. We all believe in Fairies don't we?

I'd love to know what you think.

I will show you more tins  in the next few days.

Bye for now xx