Workshop in Gympie

I have just returned from  a really delightful a weekend, teaching book making to the art group in Gympie. It is about an hour and half hour drive from us to them and Barry drove me up yesterday and came to collect me today - and I am very appreciative of that drive.

I do always love walking into an art room/workshop room and seeing the fabulous colours, and the mess on the floor and the tables.  You know you are in a good place when there are paint spatters here and there.

My table...sigh.

And then this lovely collage of one group's previous work.

On Saturday I taught Black Beauty - a sampler book using one sheet of paper with a variation on the Japanese stab binding.  The idea is that folk get to test and try their various media and see how they work on black paper.

We often don't think that black has that much to offer; or that perhaps it is a bit sombre or funeral, but in reality it is great to work with - full of mystery when you work dark onto it; and giving other colours a real chance to shine or pop when you put them onto black.

So everybody made a heap of samples, we stitched the book and then we all went home; exhausted after a full day and with no photos of the finished items being taken - sorry!

On Sunday we moved house to another lovely art workshop space and learned about single sheet binding.  It is always a tricky business yet these folk had great staying power and problem solving and made their way thru the complexity of the stitching and each and every one finished two books!

The first book was a pre-cut sample book, made of mat board.  It is good to work small and learn the sequence and rhythms of the stitching on something not too precious.

Their second books were their own - with covers either cover in paper; or left beautifully grey with a window cut out.

I did manage to grab a a few shots of finished books - Freda's sampler; Cate's book and Marjorie's book.

I loved Marjorie's approach to it - she wanted to do a covered cover, and a cut-out cover so she combined them. Brilliant.

All up a very full two days, lots of learning and lots of fun.

Thank you again Thursday Afternoon Art Group for the invitation and for a fabulous visit!