Handmade personalised greeting cards and original art online

With the recent weather I was totally ready to attend my second art workshop this weekend, a very relevant course called Winter Watercolours. Run by Ian Scott Massie at the lovely Artisan workshops in Masham, North Yorkshire – I had a full day of learning new techniques to tackle depicting white landscapes on white paper!

Lots of space and equipment to borrow with enough room for 12 people to take part

The workshop is nestled in beautiful surroundings and has only recently moved to these new facilities that include two studios and kitchen / dining area. The day was broken up into bite size chunks, allowing us to feast on the homemade snacks and lunch. They even catered for my allergies which made it all the more relaxing.

I guess I was a little surprised that I was the youngest there, but it was a week day and I’m still struggling to find an art group in the area to join where you can be inspired, get on with projects and learn new skills. In the mean time, these workshops are ideal, if a little pricey. The staff and those taking part in this workshop were very welcoming.

The workshop was well paced and started with lots of inspiration and how to create a winter palette to paint from. Winter scenes don’t have to be cold but need to give the feeling of the season. Landscapes are more sparse – think trees without leaves, white field, etc, so a limited palette can portray this. The use of contrast also helps to make the snow pop out.

Just three colours are used in the entire painting with contrast making the snow contrast

We started with using three colours which are slow drying so make them ideal for watercolours; burnt sienna, ultra marine and alizarin crimson. Armed with wet paper, these colours created a strong sky wash. After drying, the three colours could be combined to make a neutral tint that would be used to paint in the detail of the foreground. The tree was more difficult than I thought, and I have no idea what kind of tree I’ve painted! Ultra marine on it’s own formed the shadows. The use of these limited colours together but in different ways made the painting come together.

Simplicity is often the key with winter watercolours, so our second creation was made from only one colour – paynes grey, with multiple layers of washes giving the scene perspective and depth. The painting had to be planned ahead, and it was tricky to get an even wash on. I’ll now be asking for some proper wash brushes from santa (bad workman blames his tools and all that) and was recommended to visit the Heaton Cooper shop in Grasmere (shocking website though!). The results from this simple technique is great, and I can imagine using it to paint some mountain scenes I have planned.

Good at clouds, shocking at painting windows!

This is how it's supposed to look, by the tutor

I was happy with the results but loved the same painting even more that the tutor did.

Adding strong colours to the white gouache mountain creates great effects

Finishing off with a bit off fun, we got stuck into creating contrast agin with some strong colours; camboge (an orange yellow), french vermillion (like a cadmium red) and windsor blue. Laying it on it’s side to dry normally creates a light effect from one side, but I had too much paint on the right hand side of my wash so it all kind of ran instead!

After drying (we spent a lot of time running back and forward to the banks of hairdryers!) a thick wet strip of watered down white gouache created the mountain. Because gouache is more chalky and opaque, when you add watercolour paint to it – patterns and effects appear. There’s no planning to this, you just have to create and see!

Matching the lack of blog posts has been a lack of creativity  recently, but now that the mountain bike and wakeboard have been put away until the spring and I’ve a few more weeks before I can get snowboarding, it’s time to get stuck back in.

I’ve been searching for weekend day workshops locally because I like the idea of setting a day aside to go somewhere and take part in art or craft where I can’t be distracted. Now that I’ve done that, I can easily say that it’s the best way to be inspired, meet like minded people and set yourself off on a fresh creative track.

Beautiful winter landscapes on the train journey to WYPW

A search on Google was disappointing. I found lots of course but not always in the local area. But one did grab my eye as I’ve already done a printmaking course and was searching for a way of continuing printing at home. So, last Saturday I took myself off on the train to the West Yorkshire Print Workshop to do a lino printing course. It was a beautiful snowy day and I was glad that I didn’t have to drive and could get the train there easily.

The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, with a small group that made learning easy. After being taught the basics we got stuck into creating our plates with the informal atmosphere meaning that you could get loads of advice, product tips and sources while working away. I now really want a set of the Swiss made cutting tools – they were a treat to use but at £90, a bit on the extravagant side.

Great to be messy in someone else's studio and get to use all the expensive equipment

It was a treat to be working in a studio where they had an exhibition hanging, so you could be inspired by prints on the wall made by the technique that you were learning (even though my little mountain scene has a bit to go before I get to their standards!).

It took me a while to get my head round the fact that the image in my note book had to be transferred onto my plate flipped around and in negative. The final print nearly ended up with black clouds, but some easy techniques of using tracing paper to flip the image and remembering to only cut the bits out of the plate that I untimately wanted to be white helped.

Finished items include 16 cards, 2 notebooks and 2 prints on japanese paper

The course was productive and we were encouraged to print as much as we could in the time we had. There was no scrimping on how much paper or material we could use. Kate the tutor was very patient and encouraging, and we used different colours and combinations so that each print is a little different. I’m stoked to have come away with so many prints at the end of the day. Well that’s the xmas cards done, I hope people are happy with the design and don’t notice that everyone has exactly the same design!

On the ironic side, I’m hoping to make it through snow to my next course –  Winter Watercolours, at ArtisOn with Ian Scott Massie. Will keep you posted!

outline of alpine flowers are perforated

My creativity has been used up on wedding plans recently but there was still space left for something that I was quite determined to do  – make my own wedding invites. How could I design handmade cards and not make my own, as well as the fact that there wasn’t an existing design out there that was suited to me and Steve.

petals and windows are cut out with craft knife

So numerous designs and then about twelve alternatives to that design later and it was finalised. Ease of manufacture went out of the window but I still wanted the design to have maximum impact and have the benefit of a handmade card – personal and cost effective.

wording insert is fixed in and mountain design cut out

The hard part started when i started to make the cards.

Finished invite with coloured paper backing and ribbon

I worked out that the cards took 23 minutes each to make, multiple that by 40 invites and that’s a few hours hunched over a cutting board and a bit of a sore neck!

Well, there are only two days left of my exhibition. While sitting making my own mum a Mother’s Day card, I thought it would be nice to offer the card and a print as a package for Mother’s Day. So here’s the deal, buy the framed original ‘Poppies’ etching for £50 and get a free hand cut Mother’s day card in the same design. If you’re interested mail me on fiona@madebyfi.co.uk or pop down to the Round Foundry Media Centre to have a look.

I always love getting phone calls from reception of where I work at the Round Foundry Media Centre, but this call was special because a gentleman who was only passing through for a day’s conference decided he really wanted my mountain cut out piece.

I since found out that three people were gutted that one had sold, because they loved the intricacy of it. I am currently working on more mountain ranges for my next exhibition at Out of the Woods and would love to do some commision pieces for mountain areas that are special to people. I thought this piece would sell to someone who had a connection to the Les Arcs area.

The inspiration for this piece came from some skeleton leaves that my mum found in her garden – I love the structure of them. The piece started as a pen and ink drawing which was then scribed into an aluminium plate. This created a drypoint plate, which means the burrs of the scratched metal holds ink which can then be printed. The plate was inked with dense black first and then wiped right back. A light turquoise blue was wiped onto the centre and sepia was dabbed onto the leaves.

This etching was started around rememberance day when poppies were everywhere and for a good reason. The etching plate was made by painting a stopping out varnish (I use Klear floor polish) on a small sheet of zinc, then etching into it. The plate is then dipped allowing the design to bite into the metal. The remaining ‘Klear’ had to be removed with an amonia solution which really stings the eyes – so I feel I suffered a little for my art with this one!

In September 2008, I enrolled in a printmaking course at the local college. Now, for me this is a totally new way of expressing ideas that is way out of my normal methods of drawing and designing. It is so free, unpredictable and best of all – messy! I’ve come away with some pieces that I’m really happy with and plans for more in the future.

This is one of my first prints, which is a collograph print based on the mountain ranges around Les Arcs in France. The plate is made up of marine plywood, the design is sculpted into layers of tile cement and then sanded and sealed with pva and shellac. The plate is then inked up and pressed.

My love of the mountains goes back to growing up in Scotland and spending the winters snowboarding in Scottish ski resorts (we seemed to have proper winter seasons back then!). This led on to working in the snowboard industry and then living in France. So you may see a few mountains in the art featured here – It’s a love that you can’t get out of your system!

Hello!

Well, here we are on my first blog on my own website. The first day of a new year seems like a good time to start a new adventure online, so welcome to my website and blog.

I’m at a new place in my head and surrounded by a new creative environment. Combined with the support and encouragement of a few special people, I’ll be showcasing original art pieces and personalised greetings cards that I am developing. I want to share the stories behind the creations, so your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

2009 promises to be a good one and there is so much I am planning to do it almost feels overwhelming, but I’m turning that into excitement instead. I’ve never put my art work out there for all to see so big breath and here I go…