Pickleberry Studio

Pickleberry Classes

I taught two classes at Pickleberry on Saturday, an advent calendar in the morning and a planner in the afternoon. The advent calendar was inspired by my sister's wreath, I helped her cut and stick when I went up to visit recently. The popcorn boxes are great for sweeties or small toys, even make up for older girls.

The lovely Debbie Jewell has finished her projects, adding embellishments and sparkle and kindly let me use her photographs. I love seeing everybody's different projects from a basic idea, thank you Debbie. 

 

 
 

art journaling

I've been busy finishing my class for a teaching weekend at the end of the month and then playing in my studio with paints and collage to make some more art journal pages. I have decided to add some 3D embellishments too, I get a bit bored with flat pages and love to have moving parts on my pages. I added some earrings from Clare's Accessories sale to these ones.

 

 

Alphabet Journal

I have joined an online group of artists all working together to complete an alphabet art journal. I have decided to use a book I bought to alter in February, ABC3D. It has a pop up letter for each page and has been patiently waiting for me to get started.

This is my N page, for Pablo NERUDA. It's one of my favourite poems, sonnet 17.

Sonnet 17
by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way
because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I nor you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep
it is your eyes that close.

another page

I taught a class at Pickleberry today then had some time to play afterwards (rather than come home to watch the football) so tinkered around with my art journal. I'm quite pleased with this page so far, I may come back to it and add something else at a later date.

The photos are image transfers, I was quite pleased with the way they turned out. The page didn't go the way I had planned but I was quite tired after the midnight crop, 2am bedtime and up to teach this morning.

I spent the day in my studio on Monday and completely lost track of time. I prepared my art journal pages ready for the class I am teaching in June at Pickleberry. With gesso, acrylic paints and some collage I was very messy when I had finished but over the moon with the resulting backgrounds. I had some ideas as I went along and they turned out better than I thought they would. I have 30 double sided pages prepped and ready to play.

This was an experiment with gesso and paints over an altered photograph, not too sure about the hair though! Still, it has less grey than in real life. Kate and I ordered the class supplies yesterday, scrummy Jo Sonja's paints. I've been using them for five years now and haven't found anything to rival their quality.

My classes for Scrapagogo are finished, PDFs sent and samples all done, although I missed my deadline by 40 minutes. I'm quite relieved that I have a couple of weeks before any more work is due. I took advantage this afternoon and went to the studio to play for a few hours.

I finished a sample page for my art journal class and was quite pleased with it apart from discovering that the pen I was using was not very good when it came to writing over the spray stuff I used (sorry I can't remember the name of it and I'm at home so can't go and look). I'm pleased I learned now rather than wreck any pages during the classes.

Workshops are underway at Pickleberry, there are a couple of places left on my Art Journal 4 week course, there's an ATC class and a home decor class, any can be booked here

At present I am finishing my classes for Scrapagogo in June and then planning more to teach at Pickleberry, including altered books and interactive cards and scrapbook pages.

After eleven years of scrapbooking at home in our dining room I now have a dedicated studio. A place where I can go and create with supplies easily found and space to have work in progress lying out while waiting for completion.

I started with a plastic picnic table and a pizza box full of supplies in the corner of our dining room, it gradually filled up with cheap storage, from old filing cabinets and plastic boxes to an MDF sheet on trestle legs, becoming more and more cluttered as time moved on.

I had planned to empty the dining room and remodel, a huge task as I had nowhere to store my supplies and work during the alterations. The answer was a dedicated studio away from the house and the search began. 

At the same time, my friend Kate was looking for premises to open a papercrafts workshop so that she could run classes and a mail order business. When she rang and asked me if I would teach some of them I suggested finding somewhere that would serve us both. Within an hour we were driving round the Kent countryside looking for somewhere mutually convenient and found a recently converted fruit laboratory only four miles from my house and close to the craft wasteland of Thanet.

Four weeks later Kate has opened Pickleberry Papercrafts and I have moved into my studio. Check out my album to see how I decorated and filled my space.

I'll be teaching classes from the week beginning 11th May, in the evenings and afternoons, details will be posted here soon.

more of my journal

I spent the day in my studio on Monday and completely lost track of time. I prepared my art journal pages ready for the class I am teaching in June at Pickleberry. With gesso, acrylic paints and some collage I was very messy when I had finished but over the moon with the resulting backgrounds. I had some ideas as I went along and they turned out better than I thought they would. I have 30 double sided pages prepped and ready to play.

This was an experiment with gesso and paints over an altered photograph, not too sure about the hair though! Still, it has less grey than in real life. Kate and I ordered the class supplies yesterday, scrummy Jo Sonja's paints. I've been using them for five years now and haven't found anything to rival their quality.

art journal

My classes for Scrapagogo are finished, PDFs sent and samples all done, although I missed my deadline by 40 minutes. I'm quite relieved that I have a couple of weeks before any more work is due. I took advantage this afternoon and went to the studio to play for a few hours.

I finished a sample page for my art journal class and was quite pleased with it apart from discovering that the pen I was using was not very good when it came to writing over the spray stuff I used (sorry I can't remember the name of it and I'm at home so can't go and look). I'm pleased I learned now rather than wreck any pages during the classes.

some workshops & classes

Workshops are underway at Pickleberry, there are a couple of places left on my Art Journal 4 week course, there's an ATC class and a home decor class, any can be booked here

At present I am finishing my classes for Scrapagogo in June and then planning more to teach at Pickleberry, including altered books and interactive cards and scrapbook pages.

a new beginning

After eleven years of scrapbooking at home in our dining room I now have a dedicated studio. A place where I can go and create with supplies easily found and space to have work in progress lying out while waiting for completion.

I started with a plastic picnic table and a pizza box full of supplies in the corner of our dining room, it gradually filled up with cheap storage, from old filing cabinets and plastic boxes to an MDF sheet on trestle legs, becoming more and more cluttered as time moved on.

I had planned to empty the dining room and remodel, a huge task as I had nowhere to store my supplies and work during the alterations. The answer was a dedicated studio away from the house and the search began. 

At the same time, my friend Kate was looking for premises to open a papercrafts workshop so that she could run classes and a mail order business. When she rang and asked me if I would teach some of them I suggested finding somewhere that would serve us both. Within an hour we were driving round the Kent countryside looking for somewhere mutually convenient and found a recently converted fruit laboratory only four miles from my house and close to the craft wasteland of Thanet.

Four weeks later Kate has opened Pickleberry Papercrafts and I have moved into my studio. Check out my album to see how I decorated and filled my space.

I'll be teaching classes from the week beginning 11th May, in the evenings and afternoons, details will be posted here soon.