Student Showcase: Bargello embroidered Christmas ornament
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Student Showcase: Bargello embroidered Christmas ornament

I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely lady this morning on my bargello embroidered Christmas ornament workshop. I took her through the basics of bargello, starting by stitching a little practise piece, which she was then able to take home to finish, and which can be turned into a coaster. We then moved on…

Student Showcase: Six week lino printing course for beginners: week 2
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Student Showcase: Six week lino printing course for beginners: week 2

Week two of a six week lino printing course for a wellbeing centre in Witton Gilbert saw everyone working on an oak leaves and acorns design. I introduced a new carving blade, the V-blade, to get some fine detail into the carvings. We also had a play with mixing colours and creating gradients whilst printing….

Student Showcase: Celtic Knotwork for Beginners workshop
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Student Showcase: Celtic Knotwork for Beginners workshop

I had the pleasure of the company of two lovely ladies on my Introduction to Celtic Knotwork workshop this morning. We started from building the basics of a Celtic knot and then went on to learning how to use break lines to make more intricate designs. We then also had a quick look at creating…

Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – week 1
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Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – week 1

This afternoon I began teaching a lino printing course for beginners for a community wellbeing project in Witton Gilbert. It will take place every Friday up until mid-December. We started off by learning all about the tools and materials that we use, and carving out an abstract pattern to get used to the tools. Then…

Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – week six
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Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – week six

It was sad to finish this lino printing course this week, as I’ve really enjoyed teaching all the participants at a wellbeing centre in Durham. This week we had fun lino printing on fabric, which uses different printing inks and also I like to use a different method of inking up the lino. We printed…

Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – weeks 4 and 5
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Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – weeks 4 and 5

I can’t believe that we’re already 5 weeks into a six week lino printing course at a community centre in Durham. The weeks have just flown by! For the past two weeks, participants have been working on their own designs. Some drew designs themselves, some used my designs, some used clip art. Participants have also…

Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – week 3
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Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – week 3

Today was week 3 of a six week lino printing course for beginners for a community wellbeing project in Durham. This week I gave everyone my sketch of a tree, and we worked on carving out our backgrounds and paying attention to the direction in which the backgrounds were carved out. As you can see…

Student Showcase: Metal embossing – beginners
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Student Showcase: Metal embossing – beginners

This week I taught a metal embossing class for beginners. I showed everyone the basic techniques for creating a small metal embossed plaque, and everyone chose a design to work with and embellished it with their own little details. There was one more plaque created, but somehow I seem to have missed that one! Metal…

Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – week 2
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Student Showcase: six week lino printing course for beginners – week 2

Today was week 2 of a six week lino printing course for beginners for a community wellbeing project that I am teaching in Durham. Last week we just used a U-blade to create our carvings. This week, we moved on to using both a U-blade and a V-blade to create finer detail. I also showed…

Student Showcase: Celtic Knotwork for Beginners
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Student Showcase: Celtic Knotwork for Beginners

I was thrilled when the lovely Angela Reed of Creative Calligraphy invited me to teach her regular calligraphy groups how to draw simple Celtic knots as part of their Inspired by Lindisfarne project. I showed the groups how a basic Celtic knot was formed, and they practiced simple 2×3 and 3×3 knots, before moving on…

Student Showcase: Six week lino printing course for beginners – week 1
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Student Showcase: Six week lino printing course for beginners – week 1

This week I started teaching a six week lino printing course for beginners for a community wellbeing project in Durham. We started off by learning all about the tools and materials that we use, and then worked on carving a simple floral lino print. We then printed this up, again, I gave plenty of hints…