mini makes....

little crafts from art in action...

Another fantastic year at Art In Action with all the family.

 Evie and Gabriel took a total of four classes over the weekend:

 pottery throwing -suitably messy for Gabriel;

 seated clay figures-perfect for getting all that lovely clay through the garlic press!;

 polymer clay using Fimo, which can be baked in the oven at home

 and comes in the most amazing colours;

 and making scary clay masks-

always nice to have on the wall at home-we now have 7!?!

I had a go at batik, which I absolutely loved,

 but got  a little carried away with the wax cracking at the end,

 so the black dye has nicely disguised my original design-

I think a bit of stitching collage might be the only way to save that one-

don't hold your breath!

 Landscape watercolour painting was

 a definite departure from my comfort zone 

and what I produced certainly looked more like

 a highly stylized textile design, rather than a landscape! 

What was fascinating though,

 was being given only 3 primary colours to work with-

red, yellow and blue-the variety of colour chips we all came up with was astounding! 

Colourful lino cut printing  turned out to be a happy accident-

I actually thought I'd booked in for lino cutting,

 but was really pleasantly surprised at the designs

 you can create with a feather and leaf-

a passer-by even asked to buy one of my prints!

And, as with last year, I went back to the Pebeo stand

 for an hour's masterclass in acrylics with

 the lovely Jenny Muncaster.

 I had another go at painting a mackerel

 and had a whale of a time (sorry!)

 If I can find some of the step-by-step shots

 I took last year, I  will run a separate post,

 as Jenny showed us a fascinating technique for texture,

 involving a water sprayer and hairdryer.

 Talking of which-a huge thank you to

 the Pebeo folk for allowing me to dry off Gabriel's

 shorts with their hair dryers-

nothing like a strong hot chocolate with whipped cream

 all over you at the beginning of the day!

We can't wait for Art In Action 2014-try and go if you can!

Acrylic masterclass with Jenny Muncaster and Pebeo

colourful lino cut printing with Dale Devereux-Barker & West Dean College

colourful lino cut printing with Dale Devereux-Barker & West Dean College

Batik with Angela Lenman

watercolour landscapes with jacqui Devereux and Missenden Abbey

the kids loved making these scary masks in the clay mask modelling class!

seated clay figures with Janette Fry

pottery throwing with Andy Mason

polymer clay with Caroline Casswell