Autumn Winter 2018 Workshops

I have had the most amazing Summer with lots of art adventures, teaching and exhibiting at home in the UK  and away in other lovely places. 

I have been feeling so bad about neglecting my blog while I have been away but I am back to start a new term and a new Autumn season of workshops.

I have got lots of exciting news about things that are happening in the next year. I'd love it if you'd join me on some of the adventures and travels that are coming up soon.

For now here is my new poster for workshops in Chesham in Bucks at Workaid. They are booking now. If you would like to join me in learning all kinds of wonderful art techniques let me know.

I have updated the Workshop poster.

This hopefully easier to read now that I've taken off some of the workshops that have been completed. Some are full, and some just have one or two spaces. Let me know as soon as you can if you'd like to book. We'd love you to join us.

A new RUST! Workshop added.

I have just added a new date to my workshop schedule at Workaid in Chesham. 10am till 3.30. 10th March 2018. £65.

RUST! is such an exciting day of creating pattern and colour onto vintage fabrics and lace and then piecing it all together to make beautiful vintage stitcheries.

We will be making our own dye bundles to take home, learning and experimenting with the techniques along the way. 

We will then be using my precious pre dyed fabrics to make little stitched books which will showcase the beauty of rust.

I will have a fantastic array of rusty things for you to use and keep for future rusting adventures.

Come and Play and Learn! 

New Year, New Workshops!

Nuno Felt and Embroidery

I had a lovely few days off work last week. 

I love teaching families in the school holidays but just for a change I took a few days to chill out and catch up with stuff.

But I also had time to do some Nuno Felting and embroidery using some of the fabulous silk that I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show last week.

Nuno Felt, for those who haven't come across it, is fine handmade felt that has silk or fine cotton embedded into it during the felting process.

The fine fabric allows the fibres to migrate through as the felt is agitated and allows the two fabrics to become one.

The fabric I had was a piece of fine recycled net, machine embroidered with pale purple flowers. It bonded easily with the fine grey felt.

It made a lovely starting point for the silk embroidery. Easy stitches that showed off the glow of the hand dyed threads.

I've added some hand beading to the centres of the flowers. These tiny glass neon beads give the embroidery such a burst of colour and I thought they'd make the perfect finishing touch.

What do you think?

A workshop update

This is a quick little update on the upcoming workshops at Workaid Chesham and St Joseph's Boxmoor. 

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to publicise these. I have been working on all kinds of  new things and will have some exciting news to reveal soon.

Firstly the Workaid Workshops for 2017 and 2018. There are photos of these workshops further down on this blog.

13th and 14^th October 2017

Altered Books

10am -3.30

A 2 day workshop on making Altered Books.

£150

25^th November 2017

Fabric Books

10am -3.30

A 1 day workshop on painted and embroidered

 fabric books

£65

27^thJanuary 2018

The Art of Whimsical Illustration

10am -3.30

A 1 day workshop on drawing, colouring and

 layering illustrations

£65

24^th February 2018

A Mixed Media Canvas

10am -3.30

A 1 day workshop using a variety of specialist

 materials and mixed

 media techniques to make a textured and layered canvas picture.

£65

24^th March 2018

Folk Art Embroidered Hearts

10am-3.30

A 1 day workshop of Folk Art inspired hand

 embroidery on vintage  wool blankets using

 vintage found objects

£65

28^th April 2018

Scrap Stitching and Embroidery

10am -3.30

A 1 day workshop using precious scraps of silk

 and vintage fabrics  with hand embroidery and

 found objects.

£65

30^th June 2018

A Folk Art Painted Chair

10am-3.30

A one day workshop using hand painting and

 stencilling to 

decorate a small wooden chair. You will need to

 supply a chair or I  may be able to source a small 

 Ercol school chair  for you at an extra cost.

£65

Workaid, 71 Townsend Road, Chesham, Bucks,

 HP5 2AA

The Boxmoor Art Journalling Workshops are at St

Joseph's Hall,

 Horsecroft Road, Hemel Hempstead HP1 1NR

A very short 5 minute walk from Hemel 

Hempstead Station on the line from Euston.

Each 3 hour workshop will build on the skills 

learned previously to 

make up a very varied and comprehensive mixed

media course.

The sessions will be relaxed and fun and the

 techniques will be simple to achieve.

You will be amazed at the beautiful pages you will

 make. You will need to bring an A5 or small 

6"x6"square journal to  use.

I can provide one for £4 if you let me know in

advance.

Session times may vary so please check the times

of each workshop.

£35 per session.

21^st October 2017

12pm -3pm

Starting right at the beginning of this course on

Art Journalling, 

we will learn how to apply paint and decorate the

surface of our pages using stencils. 

We will be painting the pages for using at the next

session to make 'Waterfall Pages'

18^th November 2017

2pm- 5pm

At this session we will be using the pages we

decorated at the last session to make 

'Waterfall Pages' We will learn to

use punches to enhance our pages and embellish

 them with drawing techniques.

9^th December 2017

12pm-3pm

At this session we will explore the use of die

cutting, layering and painting to make a textured

 collage.

New Workshops at Workaid

I am starting to book dates for the new workshops for 2017 and 2018. There will be a whole new Art Journalling Club which will build into a comprehensive mixed media course. 

I will also be teaching Art Journalling for adults, for families and in schools.

On January 27th I will also be holding a workshop on Whimsical Illustration.

We will be making hand drawn illustrations and manipulating them to make exciting multi page art.

Also coming this academic year:

Lots more mixed media, hand stitch, book making, handmade felt and folk art and embroidery on vintage textiles.

Keep watching because I'd love you to join us.

A Folk Art Swallow at the Festival of Quilts

In a couple of days the wonderful Festival of Quilts will open at the NEC in Birmingham.

It truly is a festival of creativity, not only for quilters but for visitors from around the world who love textiles of all kinds.

Next Sunday I will be teaching one of the 3 hour workshops using the most beautiful materials. A joy to stitch with.

We will be making an applique Folk Art inspired Swallow picture using Donegal Wool Tweed by Fabric Affair and Embroidering it with WonderFil Ellana wool threads.

I am so looking forward to the show and even more looking forward to teaching this lovely workshop.

I hope to see you there

Folk Art Sailor Pincushions

July's workshop is coming up very soon and I thought you might like to see what we will be making.

This is an antique Sailor's sweetheart pincushion from the V&A museum collection.

Sailors made them on the long journeys at sea for their sweethearts back home. Often they were made with beautiful embroidery, motifs which reminded them of the subjects closest to their hearts, patriotic or religious themes.

They featured pins which were pushed into the cushions in decorative patterns. They are heirlooms and social history and things of wonderous beauty!

We will be using these as our inspiration to make an heirloom of our own. We will use embroidery, needle felting, beading and found objects to make an exquisite picture. 

If you fancy joining us for the day on the 8th July 2017, in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, there are a couple of spaces still available. The cost is £65 and includes all materials. Leave a comment and contact me through my website: www.paulawatkins.co.uk

May Workshop: Vintage Inspired Mini Quilts

The next workshop, coming up soon will be Vintage Inspired Mini Quilts on May 13th 2017. The venue is Workaid, Townsend Road, Chesham, Bucks.

We will be using lovely soft vintage fabrics, lace and cotton, layered together with hand embroidery and found objects to make tiny pieces of textile art that you can wear as a brooch, frame as a picture or use in a fabric or Altered book.

You can also choose to make a hand painted mini quilt for a brighter,  more contemporary artwork which would make a lovely little illustration to wear.

There are a couple of spaces left. The price is £65 for the day. 10-3.30 and includes all materials. Leave me a comment if you'd like to join us for a day of stitching and relaxation.

A Steampunk Angel

Quite often, when I'm demonstrating or teaching at a workshop, my sample pieces stay partly made or just in the first stage of the process. This is good because they show the steps towards a finished piece or act as idea prompts. But it is so lovely to finish a project, and when I have a little time to myself that is so nice to do.

A couple of weeks ago I started a Fabric Book cover with a Steampunk Angel. We were going on holiday almost as soon as the workshop ended so I took it with me to stitch whilst I was away.

The fabric had been painted during the workshop but it still needed stitching. My favourite part!

I'm so happy I took it! I packed a little bag with a small needle and pre-cut pieces of thread so I could stitch on the plane. I also included some vintage metal washers for her hair.

I was prepared for someone to tell me 'No needles on a plane!' and I could have thrown the needle away but nobody seemed to mind just a tiny little embroidery needle. And I was so happy stitching away!

So after a lovely week of sewing here is how my Angel cover girl looks now. She has metal in her hair, embroidered wings and sewn details for the features on her face.

Now I need to make some page for her book. 

I loved sitting on the beach in the sunshine, lost in my thoughts, with my art to stitch. I feel all new now.

I will be repeating the Fabric Books workshop sometime soon if you'd like to come and make a book or pages with me. 

The next workshop, in May, is Vintage Mini Quilts. This workshop will include using the most lovely vintage and painted fabrics and found objects to make tiny quilted pictures which can be framed or used with other artwork such as handmade and Altered books. More details in the post below.

Contact me to book or leave a comment below.

Workshops with photos!

February 11^th: Mixed Media Fabric Art books. £65

Using hand painted Calico and mixed media we will make a handmade fabric book cover and learn how to fill it with textile pages and some beautiful decorations and embellishments.

You will have the choice of making a simple concertina book or a bigger, more involved version with the opportunity to continue learning additional techniques throughout the year to add to your skills and the beauty of your book.

I forgot to take photos at this workshop because we were all so busy we forgot the time but Tina has just sent me the photos of her cover, front and inside. It is complete and just waiting for fabric pages. Have a look at the details on these covers.

The photo above is the front cover. I love that she chose a metal drawer handle as her closure for the book. There is so much detail to discover such as the hand drawn embellishment, stencilled and stitched areas and the hand made metallic butterflies.

Above is the inside of the book cover.She has divided and painted the squares and decorated them with lace, drawing and embroidery.
These are her signature colours and she has used them so well.

March 11^th: Scrap Stitching £65

We will use hand embroidery with treasured scraps of textiles, silk and vintage embellishments to make a little picture with exquisite details. 

This will be a lovely chilled out day with slow stitching, lovely materials and learning new ways to create surfaces and decorate fabric. Good for the soul!

Later in the year, in June, there will be a another chance to learn these and a different set of techniques with rust dyed fabrics.

The photos above are just a couple of my little samples for inspiring my Scrap Stitchers. It must have worked!

The photos below are some of their finished pieces and their works in progress.

These are mostly beginners! I'm blown away by what they've done. 

I will add more photos soon, but for now Look! Aren't they FAB!

 

Ilana's: Texture, colour and a riot of beautiful details to keep us all looking.

Jackie's: A wonderful mixture of texture and colour made with snippets of precious scraps and lovely decorative stitches.

Jill's: A beautiful little landscape work in progress with details of silk fibre and delicate stitching with hand dyed threads.

Kim's: A stunning textured heart. Work in progress. Beautiful layering that shimmers with lovely depth of colour.

Prue's: A billowy sky and landscape work in progress. Soft and dreamy layering of hand dyed silks and cottons. With fabulous tiny stitching and layering.

Tina's: A highly textured work in progress with cut organza flowers and scraps of fragile hand dyed silks on a hand dyed background.

And more stitching on this one.

Below is Alli's finished piece. Lots of wonderful stitching and details to find.

Alli's work in progress: Lovely textures again with very experimental stitches and yarns and couched found objects.

Tracey's: An exquisite shimmering dragonfly and pond stitchery.

The delicate dragonfly detail on a hand dyed background with scraps of silk fibre, dyed scrim and hand dyed threads.

Oh my goodness! You have all made me so happy. I am in love!

April 8^th: Blanket Books £65

We will use beautiful vintage wool blankets, wool fibre and hand embroidery to make Folk Art inspired treasure books. An heirloom to inspire all who see and touch this very special textile book.

May 13^th: Vintage Inspired Mini Quilts £65

We will use some fantastic vintage resources like antique lace, pearl and linen buttons, precious found objects and vintage photos to learn how to make tiny  hand embroidered fabric 'Quilts'. You will be able to take these home finished, to be framed or use them in a future textile project. You could also use them as pages in your Fabric Books if you are working on one of these with me.

June 10^th: Scrap Stitch 2. £65

We will use precious scraps of vintage fabrics, lace, rust and metal with hand embroidery to make an exquisite textile panel.

July 8^th: Folk Art Needle felted and hand embroidered picture. £65

We will needle felt and embroider a Folk Art inspired picture onto vintage wool blanket using merino wool fibre and hand dyed, silk and wool threads.

October 13^th and 14^th: 2 Day workshop. Altered Books. £150

This is a 2 day workshop which will introduce the subject of Altered Books from scratch and advance into adding doors with real hinges, niches and decorative 3D elements and mixed media techniques. You will leave with lots of ideas to continue your adventures with Altered Books.