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.

New Year, New Workshops!

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.

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.

Oops! Inktense Part 3!

I've been teaching drawing and colouring with Inktense pencils this week. Every time I do, I am reminded that these are such a lovely product. I just love 'em!

They are so easy and effective to use with just a few top tips to make the effects extra special.

It reminded me that back in March I added two tutorials on this blog for using them and promised a third one. Life got so busy and I forgot to do it.

Part 3 was going to be about using these amazing, versatile pencils on fabric. Here it is...

It is a little known feature of Derwent Inktense pencils that when they are dry they become permanent. This makes them fab to use to colour fabric. 

Some artists use Fabric Medium to wet the pencils and it is great to experiment with this and see if it gives extra fastness but I have always just used water to fix mine.

The colours are also translucent which means you can layer them. This means that you can keep adding colour and blending it to make lovely watercolur effects.

Step one: I used a vintage doily and drew one of my  little crazy birds onto it. I probably used a 0.2 size Pigma Micron pen for this because it is permanent and can draw fine detail without the nib being ruined on the textured fabric, if it is used carefully.

I will have some workshops coming up soon,  in 2017 on Whimsical Illustration

Let me know if you are interested in these because lots of people have been asking about these and I think places may go quite quickly.

I then embroidered over the lines and details using 21st Century Yarns hand dyed thread. Then it was time to play with the pencils!

I drew around the embroidered contours on the doily with the pencils. I used 2 colours because I love the way they mix to give a blended watercolour effect. Here is a closer look.
Click on the photos to get a larger and closer look.

Then I added the water. Here is the most important bit......

VERY LITTLE WATER!

This gives you much more control over the dissolving the pigment and spreads it only as far as you want it to go.

As soon as the area you have been working on is dry, it is fixed and you can add more colour if you like.

The area on the right of the photo above shows the effect with the water added.

I will probably leave it like this now. Sometimes, you just need a little bit of colour to zizz up a thingy! Finished!

These would be fabulous to decorate one of the pages in a 

Fabric Book. 

Workshop coming up in February for making these and I will probably include this technique in that action packed day.

Have a go! I'd love to know if you do and what you think.

PS. Try colouring on Satin ribbons and on threads too.

The joy of Art in a Tin

I have been making and teaching Altered Tins for a few years and each time I do a workshop I'm so delighted by the work that is done by my learners.

Artwork in tins is a modern take on the little pocket Shrines of Ancient times.
These were the precious pieces that were used to store mementos and relics and were passed down through the generations to be treasured and adored.

In a nod to that tradition the tins become a hiding place for a treasure which has been worked by the artists hand. Precious slow stitches, a piece of a memory hidden within, a feeling from the artist's heart!

In April when I exhibit my work in France at Pour L'Amour du Fil I will be launching a small range of kits of tins with the inks to decorate them, vintage papers to decorate the inside of the tin and the beautiful textiles to embroider the artwork within.

The Heart kit will have a heart shaped tin and a very beautiful piece of Silk Brocade to embroider upon. It will come with the inks and applicators, beads, flowers and threads to decorate with.

The Circle Kit will come with the round tin and a piece of handmade silk and merino felt, the inks and applicators and a metal flower and leaf to decorate. It will also have threads and beads to decorate with.

It would be lovely to see you there or at another workshop soon. Pour L'Amour du Fil

Shiny and New: Coming up soon.

I've just got back from the Stitches Trade Show. Its been a lovely few days of looking at all the new products and talking to some of the designers and companies about all the exciting new ideas for the art and craft world.

Its a delight to be able to choose and bring some of these ideas back to you when I've had a chance to play with them and combine them in my own style to share with you.

I know some of you have been waiting for a while for the newsletter with the new workshops but I promise it will be with you soon with shiny new ideas and fabulous resources to work with. 

I will also have some lovely new things to sell. My new range of kits, new stencils, new kinds of paints and media for us to mix together to make all kinds of exciting art.

So watch this space and contact me if you'd like to be added to the newsletter and I will see if I can get it all together so that we can have some fun!