Keep learning (me too)

It has been some time since I have written an update, so first I am going to give you some dates for 2025 and then there’s a quick whistle tour as to why I have been so busy.

January – Seasons Art Classes – Tiptree Community Centre
14 week classes Mondays 10 -1 pm or 2 – 5pm
OR Wednesdays 10 – 1pm.
14 weeks starting 6th or 8th January 2025.
Contact for more details: 01621 818593
Or look at the Facebook page

The Seasons Art Classes – Tiptree and Witham classes have now progressed to 2 days of teaching which is lovely. Our new course starts on 6th January and will take you through a journey from drawing, to oil pastels, to watercolour to acrylics. It is a lovely learning community with beginners and those who just want to set aside time to do art.

CG Crafts

As it has been such a busy year I haven’t done so many classes at home but I have now added the following dates for Spring and as always am happy to tailor classes and look at dates to suit.

15th March – Enamelled Jewellery for Beginners. 10 – 3pm

22nd March – Silver Clay Jewellery for Beginners. 10 – 3pm

26th April – Silver Clay Leaf Jewellery. 10 – 4pm

10th May – Silver Bypass ring using Sterling silver clay – 10 – 4pm

24th May – Enamelled Jewellery for Beginners and beyond. 10 – 3pm

7th June – Make Stud earrings – use a combination of silver clay and traditional silversmithing to make stud earrings.

21st June – Enamelled jewellery – expand your skills. 10 – 3pm

Book here (or buy craft vouchers and organise a date to suit). Or Email me to organise a tailored class

Watershed Studio

I am continuing to teach at Watershed Studios in St Osyth – Book here

8th March – Silver Clay for Beginners

19th July – Feltmaking – creating felt with a ball to make 3D bowls.

18th October – Creating Silver clay keepsake jewellery

ACL

One of the reasons I have been so busy is that the ACL courses have now progressed to Colchester as well as Basildon – unfortunately, as these are accredited courses, they do suck up quite a bit of admin time so it has left little time for me to do other things. This has been a steep learning curve for me in terms of writing a 14 week class, meeting unit criteria and collating evidence for the examining board. I’m working on ways to rectify this. 🙂

At The Bench Academy
I’m learning too. I have started a Silversmithing diploma with At The Bench, which is a really great course, I’m learning how to do things such as piercing and soldering properly, which I hope to help me inform you with your design choices in the Silver clay classes – for example adding soldering to make stud earrings,

So all this adds up to little time to do admin. Ahh well. What have you been learning this year? What do you hope to learn in 2025.

Live summer crafting event with ICHF

I’m very excited to be trying a Facebook live event this weekend with ICHF – book here.

From 12 – 2pm on Saturday 10th July, I am going to be myth busting Encaustic art. What do I mean by that? Well I just want to give you some ideas about how versatile and vibrant it is as an artform. Of how it can be used in conjunction with many different crafts and tools that you already do or have. It is also a great artform in its own right. I like using it for mixed media work and sell my watercolour/encaustic art work in the form of printed cards.

Like everything else, skill level depends on how much you practice and you’ll find your own style but it is really satisfying for the absolute beginner too – the artwork being dry in moments. I’m going to demo at least 6 different things in my two hour slot.

So grab yourself a cuppa to watch, or if you want to join in you’ll need a travel iron, non absorbant card, encaustic waxes, backing paper and tissues. I will also have my heated stylus out and some rubber stamps. All supplies can be purchased from Michael Bosson (my original teacher and the master of UK Encaustic art as we know it) at Arts encaustic ltd – mention me if you order as it would be really useful to know how many people took the plunge after the session.

Lessons coming up – I generally teach in Essex and Suffolk and also on zoom by request

I am doing two short classes in August (Sat 14th and Thursday 19th) at EjartCreative in Woodbridge, Suffolk – book here

I also run regular small classes in my workshop in Colchester, Essex – you can book dates here, or contact me to arrange a date to suit.

I hope the tech all works smoothly and my demos help you to get a flavour of the fun and creativity you can unleash when doing Encaustic art. Thanks, Toni

Creations

You can sign up to my mailing list to get up to date class info and subscriber discounts as well as hearing more about my experiments and discoveries.

I know I won’t be the only one who has spent a great deal of the last year building on existing skills or learning new ones. Creativity is something that can really keep you going at the best of times and most especially now. It has also given me time to have a think about offering themed classes or classes focusing on a specific technique, which I do to a certain extent but I think I need to be clearer about it! Haha she says as she waffles along.
I’m going to post some photos of work I have been doing with @pmcstudio as part of my silver clay certification, some of which I already offer but have learn some extra tips for you. Do let me know which techniques particularly intrigue you, or what others you might like to learn. Some of the classes may be taught online (I am offering a few via @ejartcreative at the moment). Later in the year I hope to be able to tell you more about Camp PMC 101 which I hope to be able to teach soon.

I am also learning papercutting (pictured is a great kit by @KatySuedesigns but I am working on some basic ideas for a class for those who need to be guided a little more and this will be @watershedstudio later in the year (hopefully).

I know some techniques get people really excited, whereas others they can take or leave, so it would be really great to get some feedback.

I’ll tell you a little more about dates etc in my newsletter. If you’d like to sign up do get in touch.

Keep safe and creative.

Toni