Peony Paper Flower Making Workshop

 While I don't do so much with paper these days, it is where I started and I still love it as a material to work with.

I can't remember if I've mentioned the Makers Barn on here before or not, but it is a fanstastic place and I keep an eye on their workshops, because they tend to be a little unusual but very good. 

There is also a local lady who makes paper flowers that sells them at the Makers Barn, but every time I've been they have been sold out.  So when I saw she would be doing a class at the Makers Barn on making paper peonies I had to sign up.  Her flowers are amazing!

 

So this weekend I spend the morning in the Barn with Rachel Southon and 5 other ladies and learnt how to make a peony.

Rachel dyes her own crepe paper for her flowers and the range we had to chose from was wonderful.  While I was very tempted by a deep purple/red, I ended up with a much paler pink.

 

She then talked us through the process step by step.  After a stressful busy week, it was so nice to sit in the quite calm barn, filled with beautiful handmade things, while cutting and glueing paper. 

We had a range of abilities in the group, but there was no stress.  Help was given as needed and Rachel was a great teacher sharing tips and tricks as we went. 

 

And after 3 and a half hours we all had a peony.  While they were all different, they were also beautiful.  I am so chuffed with mine.  Such a lovely way to spend a morning.

The only thing to spoil it was realising I'd left all my template behind in my excitement over my flower. 

Copper Foiled Leaf Box

 When I first came across copper foiling I was excited by the idea of being able to create boxes in glass.

However, that was before I realised quite how hard it is to get things to sit at the right angles as you solder them, and how hard it is to make changes.  It's quite a challenging process.

 

Last year I cut all my glass to size for a simple glass box.  I used a 'coaster' blank and fused one of my glass leaves to it, and used that sizing for the rest of the box.

Then I foiled it and solder it and it ended up with a terrible mess - the lid wouldn't open and when I forced it, it ripped all the foil off!

 

I pulled all the rest of the foil off, then left it in a sad little pile in the studio.

Following on from Lauras class last week, I wanted to get back into the studio, but to do that it needed a good tidy.  And I had to decide what to do with my 'box'.

I decided to have another go.  I cleaned all the glass and stuck on new foil.  I'd read a bit about how to make boxes over Christmas, so had another go at putting it together.

Success!

 

It's not great, but it shows the concept does work, and it's a cute box.  With a bit of practice I think I could improve my technique and be more confident with the end result.

Intro to Borosilicate Glass with Laura Quinn

 

Just before Christmas last year I spent a morning with Laura Quinn and my mate to have a go at making blown baubles.  It was a lovely morning, and as we were leaving Laura started telling us how she was going to offer an intro to borosilicate glass class in the spring.  So of course I signed up.

I have done a little with boroilicate before, but I'd been having a few issues at home (like the petals falling off my flowers) so I was keen to get a little more tuition on this.

 

Laura has transformed her garage into a lampworking studio with room for 4 students.  It's a really nice space and the group size was just right, enough people to talk to but not so many that you didn't get personal attention.

 

The class was over two days.  We started by learning how to make chains.  I made some rectangles and some circles.  I was surprised how easy it was to join them up!

Next up we started making components for flowers - petals and leaves.  We had several techniques to play with here, and I think this is something I want to practice more at home.  My petals were quite fat!

 

On day two we learnt how to put our flowers together.  This was in a slightly different way than I've learnt before, so I think I can now play and take the best from both.

After flowers we learnt how to blow little vases out of glass tube.  I think this was my favourite thing!  I only had time for 2 and I could see the improvement just in that time.

 

Laura also showed us how to make glass rings.  Different from how I make my soft glass rings!

 

And lastly some glass knitting.  Much harder than it looks, but I think I started to get the hang of it towards the end.  

 

So by the end of the weekend I had quite an impressive haul.  And I'd learnt so much!  It was a great environment for learning - very friendly.  I'll be keeping an eye out to see what other classes she offers in the future.

I haven't really been in my studio this year as it's been quite cold and I've not been feeling very inspired.  This was the shove I needed, and now I'm excited to get out there again.  Yay!