I am currently taking part in the annual Inktober challenge, where participants are encouraged to create a sketch using ink every day during October. There are ‘official’ prompts given out by the organisers if you are stuck for ideas, but, as usual, I have decided to go my own way and concentrate on what I would…
Ten incredible metal embossed hearts were made on my workshop at the Land of Oak and Iron Heritage Centre on Saturday. Once we’d gone over the tools and materials and had made a practice piece, everyone designed their own hearts and then got embossing. Plenty of colour was added at the end and you can…
Over the last few weeks I’ve taught two private workshops on Celtic knotwork drawing. One class was for a lady who had already completed a beginner’s class with me and who wanted to learn some more skills, and the other for two ladies who were complete beginners. Both classes created beautiful results, with lots of…
From complete beginners to fabulous lino printers in just one day. I had a great day teaching a mum and daughter how to carve and print lino in my studio today. They came for a private workshop to celebrate a birthday. We started right from the very beginning, going over tools and materials, then…
I spent another lovely afternoon with a local art group, taking them on their next step in their lino printing journey. Earlier in the year I showed them how to do simple lino printing and some gradient printing, and today we moved on to chine collé lino printing, using collage to create colour. Lots of…
I had a great day back at Breathing Space in Witton Gilbert yesterday, showing everyone how to make lino printed tote bags. Everyone carved out their own lino block and then we got printing with fabric inks. Using sponges to apply the inks to the lino blocks rather than a brayer, meant that variegated, autumnal…
If you’ve already done some simple one colour lino printing, and would now like to experiment with adding more colour, why not try the chine collé technique? It’s really simple to do and can easily be done without a press. In this less-than-3-minute video, I show you how. Let me know how you get on!
I had a fabulous day out in Durham a couple of weeks ago, plein air / urban sketching on a workshop run by artist Toby Haseler, aka Toby Sketch Loose, and a lovely group of fellow sketchers. I always love to learn from other artists, and when I found out Toby was coming up to Durham…
A series of autumnal lino prints of a sycamore leaf found in my garden. They are printed using the chine collé technique, where collage paper is used to create the background colour. I also created the collage papers using a mono printing technique. It’s a really lovely technique for adding colour to lino printing, and…
After 6 months, I’m pleased to say that my ‘Celtic Facets’ artwork is now completed and I’m very pleased with the result. This artwork originally began life in February of this year, when I took an online course with geometric artist, Clarissa Grandi, which I really enjoyed and learned a lot from. I wanted to…
I had a wonderful time with the Gateshead Art Diamonds, showing them some simple metal embossing techniques, and how to make these decorative coasters. After making a test piece to get used to the tools and materials, everyone worked on their coaster pieces, with plenty of students experimenting and adding their own designs and details…
A lovely selection of Celtic knotwork created on my studio workshop last weekend. This was an introductory class, so everyone was new to drawing Celtic knots. We had plenty of experimentation going on, with plain knots, break lines and triquetras too. Thanks to everyone who came along, it was a lovely afternoon. If you would…
