Happy Christmas

UPDATE: Good News! We have heard that we have been awarded a grant from Maldon District Council and we will now be able to start work on the School House in the New Year.
Debra, Margaret, Nicky and Sharne wish you all a very Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year and look forward to seeing you at our workshops next year.

WORKSHOPS FOR 2009

Here is a list of some of our upcoming workshops. If you are interested in booking a place on any of them please contact us on schoolhousearts@yahoo.co.uk

• Saturday January 31st 2009 -Memory Book -Tutor Sharne- cost £20 *
  

In this workshop Sharne will be showing you how to make a memory book with lots of pockets for photos, mementos and journaling.

• Saturday February 28th 2009 - Art Quilt - Tutor Debbie cost £20 *
  

Debbie will show you how to make a small art quilt , embellished with a picture of a bird or a pet.

• March 28th 2009 -Memory Postcards - Tutor Nickie £20 *
  

Discover how to make two very different "memory" postcards using the same techniques, predominantly using hand stitching and the embellisher to achieve these results, but as always a few surprises will be included. This workshop is for all levels.

• April 25th 2009 - Silk Paper Jewellery - Tutor Margaret- £20 *
  

Learn how to make silk paper which can be embroidered and beaded and used to make jewellery.

• June 27th 2009 Dabble Day-Tutors Debbie, Margaret, Nickie, and Sharne -Cost £20
  

Following on from the success of our first Dabble Day we plan to run another one. Come along and use more new materials and try out new techniques in small groups.
* There will be an extra cost for specialist materials which will be supplies by the tutors.

Dyeing Day

Last week we held a dyeing day at School House. It was a fun day led by Debbie and Margaret with Sharne and Nickie helping out serving refreshments, clearing up and assisting. Debbie introduced everyone to the joys of procion dyeing using plastic bags. Everyone had the chance to mix primary colours to produce graduated dyed fabrics and threads.
Margaret then showed everyone how to use disperse dyes and they painted a range of coloured papers which were left to dry until the afternoon. This was followed by tearing wallpaper into strips and colouring the strips with brusho ready to make into pages in a book.
In the afternoon Nickie served everyone with home made rocks cakes and book covers were made by ironing the disperse dyed sheets on to craft vilene. Most people chose to take their fabrics home to wash so we are eagerly awaiting photos of the finished fabrics!


Here is some of the great feedback we had!
"We had a lovely time on Saturday. Thank you for all your expert instruction and for looking after us all day with coffee, tea, biscuits and rock cakes. You really spoiled us. You were also very generous with the materials and the packs/samples were very well put together. Thank you for all your hard work and pre-course preparation."

Mixed Media Postcards

Another very busy and successful workshop at School House Arts .Nickie Kimber led the workshop ably assisted by Sharne Gregory. Margaret and Debbie were mainly on refreshment duty and helped out if needed.Nickie led the students through the processes required to make 2 mixed media postcards.Despite the students being of very mixed ability they all succeded with getting well on the way to completing their postcards.Nickie has asked the students if ,when the postcards are finished, they post at least one of them back to her.She will of course return them to their owners afterwards

Classes to come

This Saturday sees a new class at School House Arts.
A mixed media postcard workshop tutored by Nickie Kimber.Looking forward to seeing what the ladies produce from this one !

Basic patchwork classes are continuing on alternate Wednesday afternoons tutored by Margaret and Debbie.Spaces still available
This week Margaret is covering half square triangles.
To come in future weeks is Cathedral Window
Foundation piecing
Applique
But not necessarily in that order!!

November 15th is a date to mark on your calender as this sees us holding a Dyeing Day
Using both Procion Dyes and Transfer Dyes learn how to create your own fabric to craft with.
Get booked up soon for this one.

Dabble Day

Dabble Day

Another successful day at School House Arts

Nickie's dabble table with Sharne's in the background

Margaret's dabble tableLiz and Noella hard at it

Completed pages at the end of the day.Lots of new techniques tried out.

Dabble Day.This Saturday

Four different techniques on a theme of leaves.You should be well on the way to making your own zig zag book by the end of the day

Debra's page

Sharnes page

Margaret's page

Nickie's page
Not going to say much else. Come along and try out some new materials and some old materials used in a new way.Spaces still available

We've Been Blogged

Yes the wonderful ArtyAllsorts has been very kind to us on her blog after she came to our last workshop. Please give it a read. Artys blog

Upcoming classes

Next workshop at School House Arts is what we are calling our Dabble Day on Saturday 13th September.
This will be an opportunity to try some materials and techniques that you may not have experienced before.
There will be 4 different activities and rather than going home with a pile of samples that you may never do anything with we are planning for you to put them all together in a book.
If you are interested in this day you can contact us by email at
schoolhousearts@yahoo.co.uk




Example of one of the pages you would be making on this day

Students Work

Lynne kindly bought a finished piece from a previous workshop to show us.



This was a piece of work done at one of Nickie's Textured Surfaces workshops which Lynne has made into a book cover.Beautiful work isn't it.
We are always delighted to see completed pieces so please send us photos and we will post them on our blog

Big Bag Workshop

Lastest workshop from School House Arts.
Margaret has designed this bag and tutored this workshop.
Gathered again at North Fambridge on a not so sunny day this time we were a group of very mixed abilities. Helen (I'm sure she won't mind me saying) is a real beginner and had barely had her machine out of the box.
Margaret had written excellent instructions so those of us that were more experienced could go at our own speed but there was plenty of support for those that needed it as we also had Nickie there acting as gopher and tea lady.
Deb in action


First attempt at sewing


Nickie, our helper and tea lady for the day, getting on, in between us being very demanding
Lynne head down and going for it


Margaret in charge of her coffeeShirley had chosen a beautiful turquoise fabric for her bag


Nearly there, a race to see who would finish first.



And finally proud owners of their very own big bags.Well done everyone

Cetic Tree Part 2

Margaret had taken part in the previous Celtic Tree workshop and came back for another go using her own Daisy design. Very successfully I am sure you will agree

Celtic Tree Part 2

More photos of Celtic Tree workshop

Celtic Tree Part 2

A repeat of Nickies popular Celtic Tree workshop. A few people could not make the first class so this was a repeat to give them a chance to have a go at this challenging piece. Margaret took part in the first class and this time had a go at her own design with very successful results

Still having trouble uploading pictures of our Textured Landscape workshop so have given up for now.Just wanted to post some comments from a participant

Seriously though, we had a super time and came home with a wealth of ideas and a lot more knowledge about the behaviour of various materials under the effect of a sewing machine and a heat gun. I am still trying to transpose mine from a dog's dinner to a feast for the eyes. I shall only get so far with that as I don't have your flair for subtlety (more of a 'love the bright colours and slap em on' person myself) but will send you a picture of the final piece.

I am interested in many of the other workshops and will try and get along to one or two. We are definitely interested in the dyeing one - I am particularly interested in natural dyes (madder, indigo etc) as I did a project on them for my BA. I am growing some woad.

I thought the workshop had a lot of momentum - never a dull moment. You kept up the pace. At the end of the day we felt we had made the most of the time available and had got a lot out of it. I appreciated the worksheets that you kindly provided as there was so much information to take in on the day. It was a good venue - lots of space and most importantly - LIGHT. All the cups of coffee, tea, biscuits and practical assistance were very welcome. Please thank the lady who makes the dolls for that.

Spreading the pictures out a bit because they are hard to load.

Textured Landscapes

A select few for this workshop.Made it quite a quiet day but my goodness we got through some work.
Nickie Kimber was our tutor and she introduced us to numerous mixed media techniques that could eventually be used to build up a landscape,bag or indeed a book cover.
So we painted, stitched , dyed, layered and distressed with heat!!

Big Bag

Bags are Big this season and here is your chance to make one for yourself.
Saturday 2nd August
Tutor Margaret Garrood
Contact us via email at schoolhouseartsyahoo.co.uk

And Yet More

Saturday 19th July

Stitch to paint with Nickie Kimber
Another opportunity to experience this class which includes techniques not everyone will have even heard of.We can promise you a very busy and rewarding day as you try these new techniques and start work on your own Celtic tree.
contact us via email at schoolhousearts@yahoo.co.uk