Love Art?

Then you are going to love all the wonderful new art techniques that are just waiting for you to play with. We have been developing some new ideas, products and courses for the Spring and Summer.
Are you are a textile lover or you dream of wallowing in felt and fibre? Does yarn drive you crazy or playing with paper crafts makes your fingers tingle? We have got some great courses coming up after Easter!

More Fabulous Felt: Beginners and  Intermediate. There is also going to be a Family Fun Felt day in the Easter holidays. This has been requested for years and I have never found time to do it but we have one on the 4th April in Watford. Contact me and sign up quickly if you are interested.

 Paula's Paper Crafts: We will be playing with all kinds of exciting paper crafts including making our own backgrounds using all kinds of paints and techniques. We will be using the wonderful Crafters Workshop Stencils too. We can then  use what we have made to make our own cards, boxes, collages and pictures.

CLP will also be running Patchwork and Crochet courses at our Heavenly Arts and Crafts Cafe in Watford.

I am putting together some wonderful Mixed Media Mixage resin jewellery courses too. We will be using the  newest, lovely, products which have just been released in the USA. I am just waiting for supplies to arrive and then I will show you some photos.

There may be some tasters during the summer so let me know if you are interested in being on our waiting list for these.

So I am going to be busy all through the Easter holidays  making samples and gathering  materials for a season of exciting new art making.

Coming up for the next 2 Saturdays. 2nd  and 9th March 2013 

Watford.

10am-4pm

All materials and refreshments included.

I think there may be a couple of spaces left!

Vintage Crafts at Nine Lives

I have been teaching 'Vintage Crafts'  at a venue called Nine Lives in Rickmansworth. Isn't that a great name for a charitable organisation that takes old furniture and household objects and then trains people to transform them with re upholstering and painting to make great  saleable items? Giving them a new life!

The place is a treasure trove of ever changing, fab vintage items and I can't resist having a poke around when ever I am there!

Anyway... the course , for Community Learning Partnership, has been all about taking recycled and new materials and vintage techniques and learning to update them to  use textiles to make lovely gifts.


This week we having been learning applique techniques to make a mini quilt or fabric picture. I decided to make a bowl of cupcakes!  We then decorate them with stitch and buttons and beads. Good enough to eat! 

Almost! Ha ha.

Granny Squares: not just for Grannies!

Last Saturday my friend Elizabeth from the Community Learning Partnership treated me to a fab workshop in Intermediate Crochet with Nicki Trench who is the author of more scrummy books on crochet than we could count! We used Rooster and Debbie Bliss yarns which are just so beautiful they made what ever we crocheted look lovely.


I had wanted to learn to crochet for ages and a couple of years ago my fab stitch and bitch  buddy Camilla (of  Lovely&Lovely) who is brilliant at crochet taught us all how to begin. 


I wanted to learn how to make flowers and Granny Squares and with a bit of practice and guidance learned how to go round and round in all kinds of different ways to make flowers BUT the whole squarey thing of having corners totally eluded me and I decided I wasn't ever going to be able  to do it. 


Anyway, I was really happy doing flowers and always had a crochet hook and some yarn with me in my bag so I kind of forgot about being Granny Square challenged!

I made a LOT of flowers in all kinds of different threads and wools and cotton and silk....!


Well Nicki changed all that! With great patience and by showing me how to read a crochet pattern, I succeeded! Here is my first EVER square!! I am so happy.

She then taught me a different flower and a spiral rose! I can feel more flowers coming on but this time there will be some squares amongst them and I may even start a little cushion cover.