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! 

Amazing Rust!

Just a quickie look at today's rust. I am so pleased with these. They are so clearly printed that it looks like the rusty washers are still on the surface.

On thick cartridge paper. 

On thick cartridge paper. It looks so like the metal.

On cartridge paper with organza and modern cotton lace.

Cartridge paper again.

On a vintage hankie with a lace edging.

On fine linen scrim and vintage lace. So fabulously crunchy!

On cotton in the background.

More Rust! Textures!

Doesn't rust look lovely on textured fabric. These are on damaged vintage Broderie Anglais and a variety of other gorgeous embroidered fabrics and although it seems so sad, in  some ways, to distress them, they have been rescued from a charity shop and will become glorious again in a new artwork. 

I am so thrilled at the variegated greys in the dyeing, and hardly any orangey rust colours. I think the tannin in the tea was responsible for this happening because I dyed them with just tea and no vinegar at all. I love too that the circles from the washers have printed so well. 

Fab Rust!

Today I was supposed to be doing a bit of Spring cleaning but instead I have been playing with rust. 

4 days ago I started some rust printing in the garden and today it is ready. So fast! and always such a lovely surprise.

This is the fabric when I had rinsed and dried it. I used pieces of cotton. Most were recycled. One was a piece of lovely tightly woven shirting and it feels almost silky. 

Another was part of a torn blouse with lace inserts.

This one is a piece of some lovely linen scrim that I got in France.

What always amazes me is that the prints are almost photographic. You can see so clearly the shapes of the rusty square and circle washers.

Want to know how I did it? It is so simple and quick!

I placed half a piece of fabric in the bottom of a tray, covered it with lots of rusty washers and folded it over. Then I added more layers of fabric and more rusty stuff. I poured tea over it and put the whole thing in a plastic bag and left it in the garden for 4 days.

Below is the piece that I folded over at the bottom of the pile. It has printed with a mirror image of the rusty bits. Magic!

Alice Fox final day

On the last day of the course Alice left us to develop our own ideas from the techniques we had learned. I loved this because it gave us the chance to make the work our own and each person came up with such interesting ideas.

I loved the waxing of papers and fabrics. I'd wanted time to play with encaustic techniques for ages but could never find the time to cover a surface and find an iron to use with wax and to just play with a new technique so this was such a great chance to do just that.

I'd loved the way that the beeswax made the papers translucent and that we could make the layers bind together as one. This technique also enhances the textures and colours of the papers and fabrics and makes them glow!

I used some of my favourite papers and fabrics from the past few days to make a tiny book 3" tall. I love this range of fantastic marks that have been made on these surfaces. 

I waxed the pieces by laying them onto parchment paper on the ironing board, sprinkling them with beeswax pellets, placing another piece of parchment paper over the top and smoothing over the layers with the hot iron. 

Easy! Why didn't I try this before? Definitely doing it again!

In the photo above, the top piece is eco dyed cartridge paper on the left and rusted embroidered fabric on the right.

In the photo below you can see printed tissue paper which has been bonded with wax to some rust dyed habotai silk.

I used buttonhole hole stitch to edge some of the pages. 

You can see some of the reverse sides and other pages in the photo above. Look at the print that was made by a rusty old nail! and the rusty lace.

I added vintage bone and MOP buttons and a bone fish counter with needle woven details. I also stitched across some of the pages. The stitch really complimented the waxed pages and matched the binding stitches which bind the little book together. I'm going to make more of these little books!

Thank you Alice for such a fab course! I loved every minute.

Alice Fox Summer School part 2

I'm having such a lovely time at Alice's workshops. She has introduced us to the most wonderful techniques for Eco printing and mark making with natural materials. 

Alice makes the most beautiful little concertina books and bound books with delicate marks which Mother Nature supplies and Alice coaxes onto their pages. She has shown us how to make these little books. These are some of Alice's books.

We have used rust and plant materials to colour fabric and paper. We made little parcels of paper and fabric and wrapped them around metal and leaves and onion skins.
We then submerged them for a couple of days in one of Alice's cocktails to let the rust bring out the colours and marks. She kept us so busy doing other things but we really just couldn't wait to see how they were going to turn out!

It rained hard for two whole days! We happily stayed indoors and played with new techniques with plants and rust.
We printed with leaves onto fabric and paper. We did weaving and stitching with grass and lavender, we stitched around found objects. 

On this sample, the seed heads and feather were 'stitched' into the scrim using the object to make the stitch. I added a just few real stitches to hold them there. I have made a sketchbook to store all my samples. I love the shadows that are made on the paper.

This is a close up of the feather and the wood curl.

The seed heads were woven through the scrim and then over woven with stitch. Look at the shadows!

This is one of the leaf prints on silk organza. I decided to layer it onto rusted fabric and then stitched around the leaves with some seed stitches.

This is another leaf print with lavender. I have started stitching it to some rusted fabric and have collaged it with some other fabrics and some of my found objects.

These are some more of my objects that have been partly hidden beneath net and sheer fabrics and enhanced with stitch. The limpet shell has been stitched on and the threads have been needle woven.

Day 3! We finally opened the book parcels today! It was so lovely to sit in the sunshine after days of rain and open our little surprise parcels.
Look at how time has transformed them!

Tomorrow is the last day. I will show you the little books finished, waxed and stitched and some of the other pages in my sketch book in the next blog post. Bye for now! x

Alice Fox Lost and Found

Today was the first day of the Summer School at Art Van Go.

This year Alice Fox will be leading 4 wonderful days of Eco Printing, Dyeing and Stitch and I am one of the lucky ones who managed to get a place on this great workshop.

I love dyeing with rust and natural materials and Alice's work in this field has a delicacy and depth of feeling that is breathtaking. When one of my bestest friends told me she had put my name on the list for 'Lost and Found' with Alice I was so thrilled.

We had to take along a collection of found objects to add to our work. I took some beautiful sea washed shells which have the most subtle variations of greys, blues, pinks and creamy white. They are so matte with little hints of pearly shell showing through. Others are really pitted and textured. So very beautiful.

We also had to take rusty things with us. These were for  making  prints and marks onto paper and fabric. There is a kind of magic that happens when time and chemistry combine to make Art! 

I took these huge rusty nails!

They are about 6 inches long and came from a proper old fashioned hardware shop. They were found in the back of the store room where they had been for 3 generations of the family owners. They were so amused that I wanted rusty nails and were quite happy to see them go I think. I was so happy to have them.

I will show you tomorrow what we did today. It was so lovely, so exciting and a little bit magic.

Rusty old stuff!

Brown is not one of my favourite colours. When I'm choosing paints or threads I usually rejoice in light and bright shades that make me itch to make art.

But the serendipity of nature and natural dyeing is amazing. Rust yields such rich and mellow shades of russet and ochre, orange, ginger and cinnamon that it is irresistible to dye with and to stitch on.

I recently dyed some cotton Guipure  lace, cotton threads, silk and muslin with rust. I just wrapped the materials around a piece of rusty metal. I dipped them first in a mixture of malt vinegar and water to get the rusting started.

Then I left them in the garden to do their magic. They got rained on of course and that helped and speeded  up the transformation.

Over Easter I had a bit of time to stitch with some of it. I loved seeing the colours of the materials naturally blend with each other and it was good to have time to do some slow stitching which always slows me down and makes me feel relaxed. 

I added some sewing with some of my favourite hand dyed stranded cotton from 21st Century Yarns. I also added some sequins made from coconut shell.  It isn't finished yet.

I'd love to know what you think. Do you think you'd give it a try too?

Monthly Workshops

The monthly workshops are finally up on my website but without the Paypal button (yet)!

The Monday Folk Art Blanket workshops are on the 2nd Mondays of the month with the first one on the 13th October. We will be making a stitched sampler using  hand embroidery stitches and gorgeous hand dyed silk and wool threads. 

We are going to be stitching on beautifully soft vintage wool blankets which I have found in the most delicious range of colours.  They are my favourite surface for stitching on and the relaxed rhythm of hand sewing is the perfect gentle way to start the week.

We are also going to add some lovely found objects to our samplers. Beading, mother of pearl buttons, jewellery findings.  We may also make some handmade felt with merino wool and silk fibres to add some texture to our work.

The day starts at 10am and we will finish in time for the school run at 2.30. Refreshments and materials are provided but bring a packed lunch.

The cost is£45 for the day.

Please contact me through my website to book. www.paulawatkins.co.uk

The monthly Saturday workshops start on October 18th. The cost for the day, 10-4,  is £65.

The first one is Altered Books. There are examples and explanations about  Altered Books on this blog and also on my website if you would like to get some ideas of techniques or themes. 

This workshop is suitable for absolute beginners and those who have made books before. We will be starting our book from scratch and learning all kinds of mixed media techniques to make them special.

The November workshop is Gelli Plate Monoprinting. This is a totally addictive way of making unique printed and patterned papers and fabrics.

 If you have wanted to try out Gelli printing before buying one this is the perfect way to start and when you  are addicted you can buy your plate for a reduced price at the end.

If you have a Gelli plate and want to bring it, that is fine too.

In January the Saturday workshop will be beginners Handmade felt. A flower brooch and a felt panel.

February will be more advanced  Handmade Felt techniques; A picture in wet felting and also learning how to do Needle felting.

Following on throughout the year there will be workshops on resin jewellery, rust dyeing, fabric and thread dyeing, journals and sketchbooks and more...

Contact me through my website to book. Let's get arty!

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.

Rain and Rust

Last Summer and Autumn I had a great time rusting fabric in the garden. I  tried out lots of different fabrics but my favourites were fine silk habotai, and vintage lace and doileys. 

It was always a surprise to see how much the fabric had dyed and the amazing patterns that were produced. Sometimes the rust ate right through the fine silk and made fabulous crusty holes.

In September I used some of the fabrics with handmade silk paper as a base for some of my original illustrations for Open Studios. 

After Open Studios was finished my butterfly of a mind moved onto other things and I completely forgot the last little rusty package... till today!

I went out in the pouring rain to rescue it and here is what I found.

So fabulous! 

The silk especially has amazing patterns. It is Eco dyeing, just using nature to make beauty all by herself. Its just a kind of magic! 

Happy day! :o)