Community Art School Manchester

Tuesday 6th November

2011-12-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

Our lovely projects this week....

A beautiful ink and pen drawing by Markus

A delicate ink painting on sugar paper which gives the blurry effect.

Siobhan's lino prints. The second one was printed with bleach onto green ink. It was quite fascinating to watch, when the ink was printed onto the paper the image appeared like photograph developing.

Screen prints by Angela

Some paper stars that Cathy showed my how to make, and in situ on my livig room door!

The texture of this batik on paper is fantastic. Markus used the clingfilm and ink technique but on more porous sugar paper. The texture is very organic, resembling rock or cracked earth.

Last class next week before Christmas!

Tuesday 29th November

2011-12-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the slack blogging, I have been rather busy over the last couple of weeks. Preparing for Christmas and craft fairs of my own. I am also now selling my work on Folksy http://www.folksy.com/shops/ZoeJamesJewellery

Shameless plug!

Anyway, some pictures of what we have been doing over the last few weeks.....

Christmas cards galore!!

Siobhan made a lovely big mess making her scrapbook

Anna's mum made me a beautiful Christmas decoration from ribbon.

Sissa made some paper stars, and showed me how to. Mine is now on top of my tree!

Tea, buns and bunting! I'm going to create a 'textiles techniques' bunting with these pieces that Anna brought for me.

Mounting for Christmas presents

Lovely new batiks on paper by Markus

I'm back in the blogging swing of things now I promise!

Tuesday 8th November

2011-11-10T01:26:00.000-08:00

I got so carried away with splashing ink and printing on Tuesday that I completely forgot to take any photographs! I will post double next week.
Inspired by Sissa I made a start on my christmas cards this week. I took a lino block home to cut into, and Oksana took some press print home. When we arrived on Tuesday we had both done almost identical designs and found that we had both used the same image for inspiration, even though I found mine on page 10 of a google search and Oksana's was on the back of a craft magazine! Spooky!
Siobhan continued with her scrapbook, Markus played around with some multi media experiments and Sissa had her first try at shaving foam prints having missed the class earlier in the year. We also talked about having a 'Community Art School Christmas Do'.

Is it too early to be getting extremely excited about Christmas?! I don't think so!

Tuesday 1st November - Tie Dye, back to the 60's!

2011-11-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday was the first week back after half term and we had all almost forgotten that we had the unveiling of the clingfilm work as a nice surprise. When we peeled back the clingfilm from the paper what was left was a beautiful, richly coloured and textured surface. It's almost hard to believe that the paper is 2D. We haven't quite decided what to do with them all yet, some will be used as backgrounds for printing or drawing, whilst others are just artworks in their own right.

After this I fancied having a go at good old fashioned tie dying! I havent done it for ages and as it's quick I thought we would give it a try. I also really like having something to come back to the following week and not knowing what it will look like until we unwrap it.

There was a bit of time left at the end and everyone got on with individual projects. Siobhan is making a scrapbook for a friend and started to use some of the techniques we have practiced to decorate the pages. Sissa made a start on her Christmas cards! I'm very jealous of the beautiful snowflake print she has created. And Oksana dabbled with monoprinting, copying some images she liked from her daughters school work.

All in all, a successful week!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Tuesday 18th October

2011-10-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Bit late with this blog entry due to internet problems and a bit of half term holidaying!
Tuesday 18th October was the last session of Community Art School before half term so I decided to show one quick technique and then let everyone make some progress with individual projects. The technique we tried used clingfilm, inks and watercolours to create interesting organic patterns on paper. This technique has to be left to dry naturally so we have something exciting to come back to after half term. We are planning to use these patterns as backgrounds for printing, collaging etc.
I am feeling very rested after half term and ready to get back to it this Tuesday, hope everyone else is too!

Multi media collages - Tuesday 11th October

2011-10-12T02:33:00.000-07:00

The aim for last nights class was to try layering up different techniques that we have learnt so far. I wanted to try and add more interest to finished pieces by cutting, layering, printing, ripping, painting.....
The new technique we learnt was printing using textured wallpaper ( you know the lovely stuff your granny has all over the house!) By rolling printing ink onto the wallpaper and pressing it onto the paper you can create really interesting patterns and textures. We played around with different layers of this and even used bleach to print the patterns onto the ink building on last weeks session.

I think we got some lovely results and we didn't half make a mess!

Bleach Drawings - Tuesday 4th October

2011-10-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

I have decided every week now to show an experimental art technique at the start of the lesson. Each demonstration will be quick and simple but with (hopefully!) surprising results. Everyone who attends is then free to either try out this technique themselves or continue with their own work as I don't want to feel like I'm making people do something they don't really like.
So last night's technique was drawing with bleach and ink. I demonstrated the different effects that can be obtained when working with this media and everyone decided to try it out. There were some really interesting outcomes, I could play with this forever!
I particularly like how Oksana has used the bleach in her row of houses to make it look like the lights are on in the windows, and I love how different everyones work is.

Shaving Foam Art!

2011-10-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

Last nights session was a bit experimental! We decided to play around with a new technique that I have learnt using shaving foam and ink to create abstract prints.

- To start you spray a thin layer of shaving foam onto a plastic sheet and smooth it down (we used a plastic ruler)
- Drop spots of ink onto the shaving foam and swirl together using the end if a paint brush handle.
- Place a piece.of paper onto the shaving foam and press lightly.
- Peel back the paper and use a ruler to scrape back the foam.
Voila!
Its a really fun and easy technique.

Screen Printing Session

2011-09-26T03:53:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 20th September I ran a screen printing session for Community Art School. I provided stencils which I had cut out earlier in the day so everyone could have a play around without having to spend a long time cutting their own stencils out. Everyone really enjoyed the session, here are some of the outcomes....

New term, new start

2011-09-26T03:40:00.000-07:00

Community Art School started again on the second Tuesday in September. We had all had a well deserved break and came back ready to get creative again!

I didn't plan any structured session for the first week and just allowed everyone the opportunity to play around. We had received the order of loads of new art materials just before the summer so were all excited to get started.

Next week - Screen Printing