The gel plate is a fantastic base for making one off prints. Originally made from gelatine, they offer a firm but squishy surface that releases acrylic paints beautifully to make very striking prints. There are many different ways of making designs for printing and this process is very fast and a great way to build up a stash of collage papers.This workshop will be a mixture of simple gel plate printing techniques with the aim of building up a collection of papers suitable to be cut up for collage. During the day there will be a series of collage projects using these gel printed papers, other decorative papers, and washi tape.  The projects will include black line collage, chine colle, cut paper collage, and the “5 by 5” collage challenge.

Materials to bring: 

Apron
Gel plate. Recommended brands are Gel Press or Gelli Arts and Janina’s preferred size of plate is 8” by 12”. See also note below*
Acrylic paint - 6 to 8 tubes of acrylic paint in your choice of colours. The Pebeo and Hobbycraft brands work well and are a reasonable price. 
Roller (or brayer). Janina tends to use the 4 inch size, but any size will do
Paper – white printer weight paper to print on. Other papers will be supplied by Janina
Pencil and scissors
Glue – PVA or acrylic mat gel medium
Glue brush and jam jar for water
Any images you want to work from. Simple graphic shapes such as flowers or birds work well.
Baby wipes, kitchen paper for cleaning. Newspapers.

*Important note on gel plates: If you have your own gel plate please bring it. If you don’t have a gel plate then you can borrow one on the day. Please contact Janina in advance to reserve one Janina.maher123@btinternet.com  If you want to buy one ahead of the workshop the two main brands that work well with acrylic paint are Gel Press and Gelli Arts. Note - Speedball brand gel plates do not work well with acrylic paint.There will also be some gel plates available to purchase on the day, subject to availability. 

Materials charge paid on the day: £5.00

Join Mandy Allport from Born Again Bohemia for a workshop to make Modern Weavings using a stunning array of different yarns and fabrics including: wool roving, silk, chunky and hand-dyed wool.

Working on a traditional wooden loom and using beautiful Ukrainian hand carved wooden tools, you will learn different stitches including Fringe, Basket, Somac, Rye and Lark’s Head knots & Looped Tabby Stitch.  You will learn the techniques to create a modern contemporary weave whilst celebrating the wonder of this traditional heritage craft.

Using sustainable reclaimed materials including yarns, metallic threads and finally beads for accessorising; you will enjoy the sensory process of weaving yarn and the vast possibilities of textile expression.  Your piece will be mounted on beautiful natural driftwood, complete and ready for hanging on your wall.

Mandy will help you explore a summer colour palette and how to create a modern style weave accompanied by texture building for a truly Bohemia look!

Then spend the last hour of this workshop exploring the art of Sashiko – a traditional Japanese style of embroidery depicting grains of rice ‘little stabs’. This technique was used to help layer and strengthen fabric so that it lasted for longer especially in villages where fabric was precious and had to last as long as
possible. When the needle is pulled through it creates a series of small stitches. It has also sometimes been called 'rice stitch' because in its traditional yarn colour of off-white, it resembles a grain of rice.

During the winter months, when outside work was limited, Japanese women practised Sashiko. Later it was even used to judge a woman's suitability for marriage. It became an integral part of a manual labourer's wife's skill, so was passed down through the generations.

Both topics are suitable for beginners.

There will be a £10 materials charge payable to the tutor on the day to cover materials provided for this Weaving and Sashiko workshop.

Using materials and equipment commonly found in the kitchen, learn how to produce an etching using recycled packaging. Tetrapak is used to package many liquid foodstuffs such as oat milk and fruit juice. With a little preparation and creativity it is possible to use it as the plate for a drypoint etching. During this workshop we will prepare and print images, exploring ways of applying texture and tone to our printing plates.

You will need: latex gloves - although the etching ink is water soluble it may stain hands - an apron, scissors, craft knife and some old newspaper to protect the table you are working on. If you have any clean Tetrapak, do bring them along. Also some images or your sketchbook to act as inspiration.

Additional costs - There will be an additional cost of £2.00 to cover the use of specialist paper and ink.

In this new workshop we will start with some simple exercises looking at perspective, and how to get the correct angles to make a drawing of a building look realistic.
We will then map out a drawing of a building looking at it from an angle and will start the painting using pen and watercolour.
Janina will lead you gently through all the steps involved and there will be lots of encouragement and time to ask questions.
There will be a quick review of watercolour painting materials and Janina will show some specific watercolour techniques including wet on wet, wet on dry and use of masking fluid to preserve the whites of the paper.

What to bring:
Please print out the attached photograph in A4 colour so that you can use it during the workshop.
Watercolour paint - blue (phthalo or cobalt or ultramarine), yellow ochre, Payne’s grey, burnt sienna, buff titanium. Pans or tubes are fine. If you don’t have these exact colours that’s fine – just use what you have.
Smooth watercolour paper – for example Cass Art A4 hot pressed (HP) smooth 300gsm or similar. You will need a sheet for the painting and another for testing colours and masking fluid. Smooth watercolour paper is often called “hot pressed”.
Watercolour brushes – small round number 2, medium round number 6. A small flat number 2 is useful for brickwork.
Fine waterproof black pen eg Staedtler Pigment liner 0.3
Pencil, sharpener, eraser
12” Ruler
A few large sheets of drawing paper eg A3 cartridge paper.
Mixing palette
Jam jars for water
Kitchen roll

If you have the following please bring them otherwise Janina will have some spares you can borrow.
Masking fluid
Dip pen
Tracing paper
Carbon or tracedown paper

Join us for what promises to be a great day of painting guided by our Chairman, Simon Pink.

Please bring a photo you would like to work from, this can be a photo you have taken on holiday or just a nice cliff coastal scene with the sea in the background, it can be from the UK or abroad. Our coastal landscape will emerge over the day as we paint the steps together. Starting with the sky and working down through cliffs, sea and sand we will finish the foreground with flowers and foliage in a simple form.

Simon will lead us through all the steps involved and there will be lots of encouragement and time to ask questions about different techniques in acrylics.

What to bring

Acrylic paint – bring any colours you have but also include, blue, white, green, black, yellow and brown. Galeria or System 3 are perfect.

Acrylic brushes – bring a good selection of sizes but include one large brush, ideally 1”, this can be a decorators brush, also a bring a rigger brush if you have one (if not Simon will demonstrate how to use one).

Simon will be painting on a 60cm x 60cm canvas, so please bring either a canvas or board of a good size, ideally 50cm x 50cm.

Please paint the whole canvas in a very light blue before attending the workshop
Easel - either table top or floor standing
Mixing palette, tear off palette or paper plates
Jam jars for water
Tooth brush
Kitchen roll
Table cover / floor cover
Sense of humour & lunch