Firstsite classes with Curly Girly Crafts

ToniLeave a comment on Firstsite classes with Curly Girly Crafts

I am really pleased to announce that I will be teaching classes at Firstsite soon. These will initially cover the basics of Enamelling, Feltmaking, Encaustic Art and Silver Clay but will be built on if there are lots of people interested! You can currently book by phoning FIRSTSITE, Colchester – 01206 577067 – hopefully they will soon add a booking link to their website.

Tuesday 12 April 10 – 4pm Enamelling £50
Tuesday 10 May 10 to 3pm Silver Clay Jewellery £65
Tuesday 21 June 10 to 3pm Encaustic Art £50

Plenty more classes available, so have a look at the links on this website.

Busy days and flamework fun.

ToniLeave a comment on Busy days and flamework fun.

I’ve had a busy few weeks of classes (including my first at FSC Flatford Mill), planning and getting organised at home…oh and now the Easter holidays! Today I’ve finally had a chance to have play in my workshop. I have been experimenting with various Flamework tools (lampwork) such as a cabochon mandrel, ribbon mandrel and still my favourite blowpipes! These are some pictures of what I’ve been up to. As these are glass they are now annealing in the kiln to strenghthen them…although I am not sure the flower will survive, I am sure there are a few weak points but it was fun making it.

IMG_20160326_113358852  IMG_20160326_112636974 IMG_20160326_112826734

21st Birthday fun

ToniLeave a comment on 21st Birthday fun

IMG_20160304_144547971I managed to squeeze a party of 4 into my workshop on Friday for a Silver Clay Beginner’s class, it certainly helped to make the workshop more cosy and what a talented bunch! I hope you had a lovely birthday Sally and you all wear your makes with pride. For those that haven’t come across it, silver clay (PMC or Art Clay) is clay with silver particles in it, you can mould it in many ways and once fired the binder burns off to leave pure silver. It is almost alchemy and wonderful stuff as you can see from some of the things the ladies made today.

Encaustic art with the Brownies

ToniLeave a comment on Encaustic art with the Brownies

Tonight I will be teaching 1st Prettygate Brownies the wonder of Encaustic art – that is painting with an iron! I know the girls will love it and I cannot wait to see what they paint, I just hope they aren’t as messy as the last lot of Brownies I taught. We’ll be making Mother’s day cards from our artwork, so look away now if you don’t want a spoiler for Sunday! 😉

Enamelling fun at the Old Bank

ToniLeave a comment on Enamelling fun at the Old Bank

Today I ran a very busy class in Harwich teaching 7.5 ladies (the half was the proprietor Bev who had to pop in and out of class whilst she made us a scrumptious lunch) the art of Enamelling. As you can see from the photo many techniques were covered including swirling, wet packing, applying glass media, adding silver foil, pixie dust and more! A fabulous session, thanks for joining my class ladies.

Enamelling and half term fun

Toni1 Comment on Enamelling and half term fun

IMG_20160219_154440019 This week has mostly seen me having creative adventures with my daugters: drawing on Walton beach, making creatures from toilet rolls, and generally having fun. However there was still time to squeeze in another class with Deborah, before she goes back to work. Today we looked at Enamelling, http://www.mindanews.com/buy-celebrex/ which it the fusion of glass; in powder form, to metal; in this case copper, using extreme heat. Deborah created 3 lovely pieces in this day class using a mixture of techniques including swirling and applying glass media. Wear them with pride Deborah, you did a great job.

Encaustic art emergency

Toni1 Comment on Encaustic art emergency

I was so pleased to be able to assist Deborah in her emergency today. What can you do when you have some time off and really want to do some crafts?  Call me, I’ll happily try and fit you in!
Deborah had bought an Encaustic art kit from me a while ago but just never seemed to get much time to have a go, today we covered various aspects of Encaustic art and I have no doubt she will combine it with her other artistic skills to create some wonderful work. The picture here shows one of the encaustic pieces she painted today, plus you are also guaranteed a cuppa and an opportunity for a crafty chatter!

Gold Star rated!

ToniLeave a comment on Gold Star rated!

httpss://www.craftcourses.com/dashboard/certificates/gold

“I’ve just had the following review from Lesley, who attended a one-to-one Needlefelting class yesterday.
Just had a wonderful morning with Toni learning needle-felting. Came home with a lovely owl that I made all my own work! Toni is very friendly, very knowledgeable and has an excellent way of teacher her crafts, the time flew by. I now feel confident to try some at home. Thank you Toni, would recommend you to everyone, and will certainly promote you where I can”.   Lesley Collins – 21 hours ago
I now have 42 x 5* ratings from students so I am aiming for the Platinum award, which is only 8 x 5* reviews away! 😉

Making Owls

ToniLeave a comment on Making Owls

IMG_20160208_125153223Today Lesley visited my workshop to learn how to needlefelt. She’d been given a gorgeous owl kit for Christmas but wanted to learn the basics before using it. We had a lot of fun shaping and choosing colours for our owls and then creating just the right faces! We then experimented with the feet by felting around pipe cleaners, I think the results are great. Needlefelting isn’t hard, just watch out for those fingers!IMG_20160208_093848417