Classes and Shows
Life has been a bit hectic over the last few weeks and I apologise for not making the time to post sooner. However, I can bring to your attention some classes I am running in the next few months. The details are on the Classes Page (see the tab at the top of the blog).
The first is on April 7th at the Husqvara Studio in Nottingham when I will be running two introductory classes, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. First Impressions (in the morning) is a great way to get to know Friendly Plastic and how it works. In two hours we will explore a load of different ways of making buttons for your textile, jewellery and a papercrafting projects. Whether they are teeny tiny little embellishments for a scrapbook page or a card, or giant oversized buttons for making a statement on a bag or garment, we will have fun trying out some different techniques.
Sorry the picture is a little fuzzy, I think I shook the camera a tad. The button is about 2″ across and is made up from a lot of scraps. It finishes of my scrappy hand knitted bag perfectly.
This is such a simple card, I used some scraps of old lace and some card and hand-made paper offcuts and stitched the buttons on before mounting them on the card.
Scraps and a needle tool created this button which adorns a photo album.
Buttons don’t have to be round, they could be any shape, they could have a shank, or they could be more like a bead, it is up to you
In the afternoon we will be looking at making moulds using Easy Mould (2 part moulding silicone putty), and then filling them with Friendly Plastic to make motifs for jewellery, cards an textiles. We will experiment with Friendly Plastic sticks and Pellets which we can colour using alcohol inks
You have seen this image before, but this is the sort of thing I mean when I am talking moulds.
On the 24th April we will spend a whole day Ooozing an Aaahhing! A day of exploration and experimentation, creating amazing textures and trying out loads of ideas. Warm Friendly Plastic can be pushed or Ooozed through all manner of things with holes in, and the effects are astounding. If you like to experiment and have some fun then this is a great day for you. Although the technique developed out of one of my mistakes (rolling thick lace into FP and getting it stuck), the serendipitous nature of the resulting effects is perfect for every application. I always find it exciting to try out a new Oooze medium, whether it is fabric, paper, metal, yarn or whatever I can lay my hands on with holes in, the end result is never quite what you expect, but always interesting and textured.
This is a whole day class at Husqvarna Studios in Nottingham, and you will need to book directly with the venue.
I have more classes for May and June, but I won’t rattle on about them now, you can see the details on the Classes Tab at the top of the page.
Now I mentioned “Shows” in the title of this post, and that is because I will be at Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch at the NEC on Thur 25th March and Sunday 28th March on the Nolitex stand (ZM02) as we are bringing part of our touring exhibition A Question Of Identity to the NEC.
I have two pieces of work on show, and there are lots of lovely and stimulating things to see from the rest of the group. Come and say hello if you are at the show. We have some brilliant value CD catalgues with 90 images of work from the exhibition for £4 on the stand, plus post cards and cards for sale. There will always be a member of the group on the stand if you want to ask any questions, or indeed purchase one of the value packed CDs. I know they are excellent value as I have spent days sorting out the images to use, labelling them all and re-ordering them to make a coherent slide show, compiling the CD, designing and printing the disc an then copying them all. So if there are any mistake you can blame me!
This is likely to be the last time this body of work is exhibited as we will be launching our next exhibition into the world for two weeks from the 12th July 2010 at the Sam Scorer Gallery in Lincoln under the title “TideLine”. I will tell you more about that closer to the time, but I am very excited by what I have seen so far of the work for TideLine, it is incredibly varied in techniques, and really stimulating. I can’t tell you any more now, I have to go and paint some plinths in readiness for Fashion Embroidery and Stitch.
I love your scrap buttons – they are so colourful and such fun and the others are very elegant. Unbelieveable that they are made from FP. It’s great stuff.
LikeLike