I'm travelling into a new way of working, a new country, a new language, and a new hobby which I'm passionate about. Come with me for some of the journey...

Friday 20 September 2024

My Fodder School Month

Hello all!  Yes, I know, I know... I vanished completely!  I hope you're all doing well, and apologies for the long silence (though silence can, of course, be a good thing... see the quotes at the end!).

August was my Fodder School teaching month and it was all a bit overwhelming.  As well as creating bonus lessons to expand on the original berry houses... 

... I was fielding questions and commenting on participants' projects across four different social media platforms!

And people were making so many amazing things inspired by the classes... from taking the leap into their own sketching and painting, to incredibly inventive tiny houses of all shapes and sizes.  Here are just a few of the extraordinary projects I visited on my virtual travels:




Here are a few more close-ups of my bonus Fodder houses...




And here, of course, is where all the inspiration started - with the original Very Berry Houses.




Although registration for Fodder School 4 is now well under way, you can still buy Fodder School 3 at any time, and enjoy the full twelve months of mixed media inspiration with lifelong access (including access to the Fodder Challenge classes from July 2023).  Just head to Willa Wanders for all the details... 

So I'm sort of back up and running now, but running is really the word.  I've got a work trip to the UK coming up, including running in person workshops at Country View Crafts and there are many things going on behind the scenes with PaperArtsy stamps-wise... so I can't promise to be a regular here again just yet, but I'm going to try to do much better!

Silence is a source of great strength.
Lao Tzu

Learn to be silent.  Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.
Pythagoras

Monday 24 June 2024

Pressed Botanicals - brand new Eclectica Alison Bomber stamps at PaperArtsy

Hello all!  I'm thrilled to be introducing three brand new stamp sets over on the PaperArtsy blog this evening as well as in the PaperArtsy People FB Group.  These are a continuation and also a development of the botanical textures released in February...  I hope you're going to love the Pressed Botanical Textures!!



I've been having a glorious time playing with the new stamps.  I've tried to make sure they work for all kinds of styles - I've been working with clean and simple stamping as well as exploring some really exciting mixed media effects and techniques.


There are lots of samples to enjoy over at PaperArtsy, and also lots of insight into the thinking behind these new designs.  And of course I'll be talking about all that in the Live launch video too, as well as showing the samples.

Hop over to PaperArtsy now to see the blogpost, and join me in the PaperArtsy People Group on Facebook to hear all about it in person, and see the samples shimmering in the lights!

I hope you'll love these stamps as much as I do... I can't wait to see what you'll create with them.

Those who have never been moved to rapture by the tender curve of a blade of grass, the wonderful sternness of the thistle, the rough youth of sprouting leaf-buds; and those who have never been touched to the depths of their soul by the massive appearance of a tree root, the imperturbable strength of riven bark, the slender pliancy of the birch, the enormous tranquility of a canopy leaves - know nothing of the beauty of form.

August Endell, 1909

Saturday 1 June 2024

Collage Quartet

Oh dear, I'm so behind here!  It's the 1st of June, and I'm still catching up with sharing what we got up to in April in Fodder School... but I promise it's worth the wait.  It was an absolute creative treat.  The lovely Christine Karpiak offered up so many different techniques and ideas, and the final project was definitely right up my street!


The classes took us through a process of gathering and making fodder in many different ways, and then using that fodder to create a series of dimensional collages.  

My finished collages have a subtle, natural look to them that makes me so happy, but it's easy to overlook just how many different elements went into the fodder gathering and making.


There's clay-work, eco-dyeing, rusting techniques, stamp-carving, several methods of creating fodder papers, nature-foraging... and it was all so much fun.

I did my eco-dyeing with red cabbage... it's a staple ingredient here in the Czech Republic, so I thought I might as well go with the local produce!  


I was astonished at how playing with the acid/alkali balance of the dye created a gorgeous range of colours, so subtle and all beautiful in their own way.


I'm no stranger to rusting - there's usually a bit of metal or two decaying (deliberately) somewhere in my art studio...

... and I really enjoyed incorporating the rusting side-effects into some of the paper fodder making.

Those papers weren't the only ones we made... we also played with other methods of creating delicious collage papers.  As usual, I was working with my happy colours.


And my colour palette was also strongly influenced by my clay pieces, which were actually one of the first things I tackled.  I added a bonus session to the Fodder School classroom on these, as I used a different method from Chris for painting mine.


(If you join Fodder School, you get access to all the monthly bonuses too, of course.)

Just the fodder by itself made me extraordinarily happy, so I knew the collaging was going to be a breeze!  Working in a series is one of my favourite things to do.  And using old book covers as a substrate is another of my favourite things...

I put on some music and just allowed myself to become immersed in composition.  So meditative as a process. 

That word composition is so apt... arranging the elements on the book board substrates is all about harmony and rhythm, balance and counterpoint, just as it would be in music composition.

My quartet didn't feel quite balanced until I had added a significant word to each panel. Tim Holtz Quote Chips to the rescue...

They're positioned for harmony, counterpoint and rhythm, of course, but also for meaning.


Since the collages are mounted on book boards, and book pages play such a significant role...

... somehow I needed words in my final layers too.

Really and truly a beautiful month of creative exploration and joy.  So many of my favourite things, and a few new ones too.

I found myself in that sought-after state of creative flow so often this month, and I think it shows in the final quartet.  They make me deeply happy.

If all this is getting your creative juices flowing then this is a great time to sign up for Fodder School 3.  We're just starting the June classes - which include a mailart swap around the world!  It's only for Fodder School 3 participants, of course, so find all the details for registering here, and you get access to all the classes already available, as well as to those yet to come... including mine in August!

Happy June to you all... I hope you're enjoying a creative or restful or excitingly busy time (whatever you prefer) and I'll see you again soon.  After all, I need to share May with you before June catches up with me too far!  Happy crafting, all.


A word after a word after a word is power.
Margaret Atwood

Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.
Jeanette Winterson


Wednesday 8 May 2024

Books, Books, Books

Hello all!  I'm just dropping in quickly to let you know about a new series called Books, Books, Books starting soon on my YouTube channel

Given I started out working in theatre, deeply embedded in the Words side of things, it shouldn't be a surprise that books, words and storytelling played a significant part in things when I turned to exploring Pictures and visual art.  The Books, Books, Books series on YouTube is going to celebrate that. 

There will be flip throughs and storytelling from art journals, handmade books and altered books made across all the years of my creative journey. 

The first full episode will be next Wednesday, but there's a short introduction over there now with a taste of what’s coming your way over on YouTube over the next weeks and months.  Take a look at the introduction to Books, Books, Books here... 

I know I haven't got around to filling you in on last month's Fodder School adventures yet - and boy, did I have a lovely time with the April project!  I'm looking forward to sharing it here... I just need to find time to write the blogpost!  Hope you're all doing well, and I'll be back soon with my Collage Quartet. 

Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.
Jeanette Winterson

A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Cicero


Saturday 20 April 2024

New YouTube videos at Words and Pictures

Hello all, I hope you're not enduring too many April showers this weekend... though if you are, that's the perfect weather to stay in and do some crafting!  There's some more inspiration available for that over on my YouTube channel, Words and Pictures, so I just thought I'd drop in to share the video links for the latest episodes of A Few Minutes of Fun.

In this episode, I'm playing with my newest PaperArtsy stamp sets on a gel plate, using some of my favourite Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic colours.

A Few Minutes of Fun using PaperArtsy stamps on a gel plate

And in this one, the Tim Holtz Perspective Moth Thinlits Die by Sizzix becomes a perfect mask to use with Distress Sprays... with Ink, Oxide and Mica sprays in action.

A Few Minutes of Fun with Distress Sprays and Moth Mask

I hope you'll have time to take a look, and that you'll be inspired to enjoy a few minutes of fun of your own.  Happy crafting all!

Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Between our birth and death we may touch understanding, 
As a moth brushes a window with its wing.

Christopher Fry