Thursday 22 December 2016

Merry Christmas

Another year has flown past again. You can read a summary of what I have been up to in my latest newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuous support. I look forward to keeping you informed about my artistic explorations and outdoor activities in 2017.



Christmas card with paper wreath ©Fenfolio2016

Friday 16 December 2016

Art & Craft workshops

It has been a busy month with various workshops I organised  for children and adults at the Woodend Barn.

Printmaking with children 
Using foam sheets, some plastic drawing tools, printmaking ink, coloured paper and scraps of fabric the kids created some wonderful prints. It was fun, but really, really messy! Some kids were worried their hands were still blue the next morning when they had to go to school, haha. Luckily it's all waterbased!

The printing station before the kids came ©Fenfolio2016

Drawing their design ©Fenfolio2016

The kids were very creative and productive ©Fenfolio2016


Inking up the foam sheet ©Fenfolio2016


Concentration! ©Fenfolio2016


Printmaking is a very, very messy job! ©Fenfolio2016


Cool designs printed on coloured paper and fabric
©Fenfolio2016


Making your own fabric and paper wreath 
In preparation for Christmas I decided to organise my first ever craft workshop. We made wreaths from scraps of fabric tied around a wired ring. The paper wreath was made by curling various strips of gift wrap paper, coloured paper and double-sided paper and pinned down onto a polystyrene ring. They loved it and thought it was very therapeutic.

Cutting strips of fabric ©Fenfolio2016

They could choose to make a fabric or a paper wreath
©Fenfolio2016

Making piles of strips of fabric ©Fenfolio2016

Pinning down curled strips of papers ©Fenfolio2016

Tying the strips around the wired ring ©Fenfolio2016

Lots of different patterns ©Fenfolio2016

Curled wrapping paper ready to be pinned
©Fenfolio2016

Beautiful combination of colours and textures
©Fenfolio2016

Even old jeans were being used! ©Fenfolio2016

A beautiful paper wreath ©Fenfolio2016

 
Another beautiful paper wreath ©Fenfolio2016
 

Proud of their creations ©Fenfolio2016

 
My friend Dorothy found a different use for her
unfinished wreath!
©Fenfolio2016
 

 Making Christmas baubles from fabric
Local art and crafts group Third Stage invited me to organise something Christmassy for them. I decided to have them create their own Christmas baubles from scraps of fabric. Almost every woman has some (or lots) scraps at home. It was great to see what they brought along. Just before the workshop I visited a few local charity shops and was very lucky to find some sparkly fabric that I added to our collection.

Once they measured the parts on the polystyrene ball, they cut out their pattern and the peices of fabric. With a scalpel sections were cut into and with  a palette knife the pieces of fabric were pushed into the cuts. The baubles were then finished off with some ribbon and sequins. Easy, fun and beautiful results!
 
First the sections were drawn on the ball ©Fenfolio2016

Then fabric was cut out with the use of a simple pattern
©Fenfolio2016

Everyone hard at work ©Fenfolio2016


Stunning handmade Christmas baubles in just 2 hours!
©Fenfolio2016