More photos from the NEC

It was ages ago now wasn’t it.... well t’other week at any rate, but I’ve still got stuff I want to share from the NEC...there was a lot to see. Sadly we didn’t manage to see half the stalls on the sewing side of the hall, which I was really gutted about. The small amount we did see was so inspiring, incredible work. So, for those of you who also didn’t get chance to see the creations, here’s a few pics:

This piece was created by Anne Brooke. She’s called it Harold, and her inspiration was the wonderful watership down. It’s a collage of up-cycled papers, with machine embroidery and hand stitching 

Look at the work that has gone into this! Incredible. The artist is Georgina Bellamy, and she has called her piece The Bandar-Log. Her inspiration was the Jungle Book. This is goldwork in 3D.

I loved the colour and texture of this piece. It was created by Margaret Charlton, and she has called her work Willow Patterns. It’s a combination of printing, stencilling, collage with hand stitching using machine threads 

I love this. The artist is Amanda Wright, and she’s called her work Hope. She has used hand embroidery using 2 ply machine knitting wools and cottons onto canvas backed with bonding lining

I’d love to have something like this in my home. It’s so interesting to look at. The work has been created by Cas Holmes, and is called Edges of Australia. It has been created in scroll form, and she has used materials flounder or given to her on her travels around Australia. It’s a combination of drawings, found cloth, paint, gathered ephemera, machine and hand stitching.

And finally, can you believe this has been made mainly of French knots! Seriously. How cool is that. The artist is Janet Payne, and it’s called Celebration.

So sad we didn’t get chance to see the rest of the work on display, or take more photos. I think you can tell just from the few I’ve shared here, the calibur of work in display. Next year, there’s no way I’m missing anything !

Workshops - where are we next?

Workshops are well and truly well under way now. It’s really exciting travelling around to new places and meeting loads of new people. We hope to travel a little further afield eventually, but for now we are trying to stay relatively close to home.....which is lovely for me, I do miss not being at home.

The dates we have coming up next are:

22nd April - Hastings

6th May - Guildford

17th June - Tunbridge Wells

We do have more booked - but I thought I’d share the closest dates for now. 

If you would like further information please ring or email Mandy, who will be more than happy to help. The details are:

Leoniepujol@hotmail.co.uk

07517047611

We would love to see you. We will be doing a mixed media piece, and also playing with powertex, which has been everyone’s favourite so far. The results have been fantastic. I’ll share a few here, just in case you’ve missed some of my previous posts

More from the NEC....gelli plate prints

I promised I’d share some of my makes whilst I was at the NEC, so here we are. I took along my trusty gelli plate. Utterly addicted. I demoed each day, so didn’t finish many pieces, I mainly just showed how to get basic prints...and essentially had a lovely time playing!

I used the gelli plate from Clarity, together with a combination of paints. Use fluid acrylics, which don’t dry to quickly on the plate, for the best prints, the ones I had in my stash were eco paints, pebeo and viva decor. The stamps in my drawer for the weekend were Clarity, Studio 490 and (may go without saying) Carabelle. I also used  some masks from Clarity. 

I love working with the gelli plate as each time you can create something completely different. It’s so experimental, and allows you to explore countless possibilities. This time I also played with my distress oxides on my plate, which work a treat. I even used my distress ink sprays. Very cool indeed. Here’s a few of the prints I made....there’s loads more, but figured that would take 3 days to loads!

My big thing at the moment is trying to stop using baby wipes. They are so bad for the environment as they contain plastic. And they are completely not necessary. The print above is actually made from a background created from cleaning my brayed, and overstampled with a peacock feather stamp, which was actually me cleaning my stamp! 

Instead of baby wipes, try rice paper. This is absorbent, but also quite strong, and you can use it for fantastic layers. The above print shows a piece of rice paper which as been used to clean my stamps, my craft mat, even my gel plate. I then stamped on it and glued it to my print. I love the transparency of the rice paper, which allows you to see the print below. I also love the texture it gives. 

I will definitely be doing another gelli print demonstration when I come to the Ally Pally next month, I hope you can join us there.

In the meantime, if you want to come and spend a day crafting with me, please have a look at the workshop dates, as there are still places left.

Have a lovely weekend folks xxxx

NEC - the gang!

The NEC last weekend was a good do yet again. Even the snow didn’t put folk off. We’re determined, us crafters. It’s really good fun. Broadcasting live is quite scary, but we love it. It’s ace being able to chat to an audience. Obviously there’s a whole gang of us who are involved, so I thought I’d share a few picks of the Hochanda team first

Team....here’s Christie-Rae photo bombing the ace Lou and me

Presenters.....

We had the pleasure of introducing Maria to our screens, who is a fantastic designer with the wonderful Groovi Clairty gang

Ross mingling with the audience 

We are live!

John, generally found wandering round the audience with his big stick interviewing the crowd. Also the wonderful Ben, generally found being happy...always. Always happy Ben.

The lovely Rich, who is responsible for many of the clips we see on Hochanda 

Janice demonstrating her crafty knowledge

Our Barb, busy on the telly

Lou 😄

I’ll share some more photos of my makes from the weekend, and also some of the incredible stuff we saw when we had a quick sneak round the sewing part of the show....but for now....the gang

Chichester- you were brill!

Thank you so much to the lovely ladies who joined myself and Mandy at the weekend in Chichester. The venue was a smashing find by Mandy. Really airy and light, perfect.

Mandy set our little shop up, whilst I got covered in Powertex, ink, paint...you know the score!







We worked on our journal page, using a variety of products to give it a real mixed media look. We incorporated Stamperia rice paper, the super cool Tim Holtz Distress Crayons, paints, ink spritzers, stencils, Pentart fibre paste....and the kitchen sink!!

I love projects like this, as everyone produced something completely different.

We also covered our Happy Cow book with Powertex, and created a cool book cover. I’m happy to say folk joined in and felt the Powertex under their nails!! (It washes off....environmentally friendly, water soluable and non toxic...boom, got it ladies!).

I always let folk choose their own colour palette, so each piece is unique and interesting. I’m really chuft with the results.

We will be repeating this workshop, next stop is going to be 22nd April in Hastings. All materials are provided, along with brews and biscuits...we hope you can join us xx