Time to De-Stress!

Another day of packing over and it's time to catch up with emails and the blog.
I am sooo excited to be hosting a workshop at the Stamp Attic in Wantage on March 24th!!
Oxfordshire is where I grew up and very close to my heart so I can't wait, I do still teach ceramic decoration regularly in Oxford at the fantastic County Love Crafts.

I will also be at the Craft Extravaganza this year which will take place at The Craft Barn and several other venues in Lingfield over the weekend of Saturday 30th June and Sunday 1st July. This year,  to extend the weekend they are offering "All Day Masterclasses" on Friday 29th which I will be involved in, and Monday 2nd July.  Click here for details and booking information.
Right I am shattered, this whole moving house business is far too stressful….. time for a glass of wine!!
take care everyone,
Andy

Next Weekends workshop………Expecting Steampunk?

Here is an example of the 12" x 12" style of canvas we are going to produce on my workshop at the Craft Barn this coming weekend, No distress and No steampunk this time,  instead lots of mixed media including colour washes, Derwent intense pencils,  pens, ink and some very cool Lindsay Mason Stamps!

 

 

Andy

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The first Steampunk Rock Book workshop was held yesterday at the Craft Barn in Lingfield and what a great day it was, carrot cake to die for along with a lovely bunch of workshop delegates!
It's always a worry when you run a workshop for the first time, no matter how much planning you put into it, tailoring a days workshop to a precise finishing time can be difficult because of drying times of products etc,  but we actually finished before time with this workshop…..it's a miracle….. thank goodness for heat tools!!!

One other miracle was that Kathy managed not to get any paint on herself, or anyone else for that matter!

Here are a few pictures from the day.

 

 

Andy

Doh!

I have just managed to grab 30 minutes to have a play with the new stamp sets again, I am trying to work on a few tutorials to put on here for their release date, as they are expected in on the 23rd March.
I thought I would have a go with the retro set combining some of the tempting textures. The stamp below was designed for a few reasons but one was to use a technique where it would resemble distressed chipped paint.



Here is my first attempt and was really happy with the result….

Click on Images for a larger view


That was until I placed the final stamp on upside down!!! lol

Oh well…back to the drawing board,

Andy

Letting off Steam with Tempting Textures

Just a quick post of a new tag before I head off for the final day at stitches. This tag uses stamps from the letting off steam, Steampunk Accessories and tempting textures sets.

The bottom has been die cut with TH on the edge cogs, and a decayed rust technique using acrylic paint has been layered behind.

 

Right,  got to pack and head off to the show now, but return back home tonight and can upload all my photos to the computer and share with you what we have been up to the past few days.

Have a great day,

 

Andy

Roll up Roll up!!

I know I promised samples this week of my new stamps and that none have appeared so apologies for that, I have been concentrating all my efforts on house hunting and yesterday put a deposit down on a lovely place, so I can now stop worrying.

Today I am preparing frantically for Stitches as I am so behind with everything.
I have however managed to complete my first tag using the Tempting Textures and Circus sets.
When you design stamp sets, you know in your own mind exactly how you want to use them but that's difficult to portray to people until you start producing samples, hopefully over the next few days more samples will appear on here from my demonstrations at stitches.



Click on pictures for a larger view

To begin, I die cut the card using TH on the edge brackets.
I then image transferred the blue and red sun rays onto the card stock using the Americana Gloss Spray Method.
Old paper distress ink was then blended onto the background, the edges of the card were sanded and frayed burlap blended around the edge.
Next the background was stamped in tea dye with the weathered wood stamp from the Tempting Textures set.
The newspaper print was stamped with walnut stain, the elephant with weathered wood and the greatest show on earth stamp plus stars were stamped with fired brick.
The clown was stamped with vintage photo and finally the word circus stamped with black archival.

I am leaving for the NEC early in the morning to attend the Ranger on the Road workshop with Tim Holtz,  after that its off to help set up the Decoart stand.


I will try my bestest to update the blog with events from stitches during my four day stay there as I'm sure I will get into some sort of trouble! LOL…

Andy

What a week, but I just had to share this…

It's not been a great start to 2012 so far,  I'm holding in there though,  experience has taught me that things always seem to work out ok in the long run.
My latest dilemma is trying to find a new place to live,  very quickly!!! anyone got a room??? lol

Right no more self pity and I will get to the point,  I ran a couple of workshops last year at the Paperteri in Aberdeen, one of which was a tag using texture pastes and rivets very similar to the one pictured below.

I received an email early this week from a lady called Linda Turner who attended the workshop, she decided to apply these techniques to the wooden box pictured below, I absolutely love it and it really made my day receiving these pictures!
Thank you Linda.

Andy

New Stamps Sets!!

It's now official and I can share pictures of my new A5 stamp sets being released at stitches starting today!!

Here are the sets, I will post some finished samples using the stamps in the next few days.

The first is called Circus, I have been wanting to introduce a scary clown to a set for ages, I have always had a fear of clowns but that said, I'm also fascinated by them!
I'm also a bit of a sucker for elephants, you can guarantee if something has an elephant on it, I will buy it!!

This second set ties in nicely with the first and is called Sideshow.
Included in this set is the All Seeing Eye, a helter skelter which I used to love going on as a child, a vintage carousel horse and a magical montage.

 

Time for Steampunk!
This set is called Letting off Steam. As I get asked so many times to explain what steampunk is, I have included a dictionary style explanation of it on a stamp.

 

Next up is the Steampunk Accessories complete with assorted cogs, rivets, screw heads, rust runs and power meters.

This set is called Retroset and includes a few retro style signs, including some for the men!

 

Finally we have Tempting Textures, including in this set are five distressed background stamps which I can see myself using lots in altered projects and off course, the good old coffee stain!



Some of you may be wondering why there is no nature set as I normally include one?  Well these are being worked on at the moment and hopefully will get released in a couple of months.

Bye for now,

Andy

Brrrrrrrrr!

Hello,
I arrived back in the UK last night, what's all this snow about!?  It's been a bit of a shock to the system I have to say.

Now that I'm back there is so much to do and prepare for, I will be demonstrating at Osbourne Stationers in Sheldon, Birmingham this Sunday (12th) so if you are local why not pop by, it would be lovely to meet you. 
I'm also very excited this morning to have received all the sets of my new stamps,  I can now prepare for Stitches next week. Sooooooo looking forward to it this year!! I will be demonstrating on the Decoart stand B04 which is located close to the main entrance, if you are attending please please do come and say hello.

I have been so inspired by Bahrain and the middle east in my recent visits that I am holding a one off altered box workshop called The Eye of Fatima, this is to be held at the Craft Barn on the 14th of April 2012.
Now, I have to say that if you want rust and cogs this is probably not the workshop for you, but if you are seeking a little eastern promise in your life :) then be sure to book up on this one!

I will leave you with some glass fusing workshop pictures from Studio Ceramics in Bahrain,  as soon as I get the finished fused pictures through I will post them.
If you have not experienced glass fusing and slumping, I strongly suggest you look into it,  its a wonderful way to spend a creative couple of hours.







Andy

I've been duped!

Before I tell you about me being taken for a ride, (literally) here are a few pictures of this weeks workshops and Studio Ceramics in Bahrain where they were held.

Ceramic watercolour workshop.

A ceramic studio has plenty of broken pieces of glazed pottery, so yesterday I ran a workshop combining Silver Clay along with ceramic shards.
Here is one of the pendants that has been finished, the two really work well together.
I will post pictures of the other pieces once they are out of the tumbler.




Earlier in the week was the Art Clay copper workshop,  the copper clay is great because you get so much of it for your money and can really experiment without fear of very expensive mistakes.
This workshop was an introduction to copper, so nothing too complicated.
Detail was added to the copper by carving and pressing rubber stamps into it before shaping, forming and finally firing.





Whilst out here I am helping set up a fused glass studio which is going to run alongside the ceramics, so before I left the studio last night I programmed the kiln for glass and popped a couple of test pieces in, a coaster along with a small pendant so fingers crossed when I return on Saturday they would have fused successfully.

 

Not sure if Bahrain is ready for steampunk yet but next week is steampunk week!!!

Ok here goes…..no laughing!

Soon after I arrived, I felt the need for a nice bottle of wine.
Now you can't just buy it from you local supermarket here, there are only four places in which you can purchase take out alcohol  in the whole country, so I decided to ask the guy on the desk to order me a taxi.
After a couple of phone calls one eventually arrived, I got in and asked him to take me to the place where they sold liquor, he knew what I meant straight away and we began our journey.
I then noticed the cab had no meter but guessed that's how it is here in Bahrain. Thirty minutes later we arrived at the destination, it was like a blacked out warehouse full of every alcoholic drink you could imagine, I rushed in and brought my wine and we headed back to the apartment.
Arriving back at the apartment he told me to stay in the car as there was a real taxi driver who had pulled up behind us and there could be trouble!.. "A real taxi driver!, so what are you?" I asked,  " I am friend " Now he meant a friend of the guy on the desk, so we have to wait in the car until the "real taxi driver" pulls away and I pay him.
It was really expensive but I guessed we had been driving for an hour in total and I did have my precious bottle of wine, so I handed over the dollars along with a tip.

Yesterday I decided to return to the liquor store as I have a day of today and want to cook later and enjoy it with a bottle of wine.  Anne who owns the studio took me this time and guess what?……….It was located only five minutes from my apartment lol  The "Friend" had taken me all around the island to warrant more money, I was truly duped!

Andy