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 little Fabric Concertina book

On Saturday I will be teaching a workshop for the Hertfordsire branch of the Embroiderers Guild JETS group.

These Junior Embroiderers and Textile Artists meet a few times a year and are a wonderful group of young people who have learned over their time at the EG to try all kinds of textile techniques and experiments with stitch. 

The youngsters of today are the future of our skills and craft and it is a joy to teach them.

We will be experimenting with painting techniques on fabric and embellishing with stitch, print, text and collage.

Sounds like a fun day doesn't it? Can't wait to get painty!

From my Heart 

I am always doodling, drawing and making hearts so it probably is no surprise that I have an Altered Book with the title From My Heart which has LOTS of hearts in it. I wanted to experiment with lots of different textures for the backgrounds of the pages and the hearts are all made with different materials. 

Some are found fabrics, some are Kantha stitched, some are paintings or drawings. I've used some of my precious scraps and embellishments too because there is no point in having a stash that I never use! Ha! Good resolution!

Some of the background textures in the book need something added to them and the great thing about sketchbooks and altered books is that you can keep going back to them and adding to them. Many of mine will probably never be  properly finished.

So today I decided to do a little flower sketch on a painted cotton gauze background. 

The gauze was cut up and pasted onto the gessoed book page and then dry brushed over with white and duck egg blue matt household paint. Yes! the stuff we paint our walls with!

It  gives it a really tough finish and great texture.

Today I sketched the flowers around it with a black drawing pen.

This was a bit scary... firstly I knew I needed a robust but fine nib to draw on such a rough textured background. My usual favourite Pigma Micron pens wouldn't have stood up to the job. So I used an Edding 1880 pen with a 0.7 nib. These are amazingly tough for a drawing pen and the ink lasts really well. It is still as good as new after me treating it so badly and will live to draw again! The second scary thing was that I kind of liked the background as it was and I knew that there would no turning back. 

It is worth embracing the scary stuff sometimes. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and will sketch some more stuff on the facing page sometime soon.

I'd love to know what you think.

Oops! I forgot to say how I made the heart! I will do it tomorrow and show you some of the other hearts in the book if you like? x

Birdy Sketching

I've gone and got the blooming lurgy and its just not shifting! I am not up to doing much so I sat in bed and sketched some little birdies to go in my Altered Book. 

They are done with Derwent Inktense pencils which are my absolute favourites. I've used mainly browns and greens this time but they do also come in the most stunning colours; vibrant and intense, as the name suggests.

But that is only one of the best bits. When you wet them with water they turn into the most 

brilliant ink like paint which blends really well and becomes permanent when dry. 

This means that you can also colour onto cloth with them. So they are great for starting off little embroidery pieces rather than starting on a blank piece of cloth.

The bird below is a little Robin for the 12th day of Christmas, The Epiphany, which is tomorrow.

I haven't had time to sketch for ages so I suppose something good came out of my gloomy day. I'm ready to feel better now tho'.