Participants will need basic hand-sewing skills for this workshop.
To link in with our December window installation, we are delighted to welcome the textile artist Mister Finch to host a one day workshop with our partners Cass Art at their School Lane store.
“My name is Finch – it’s actually my surname… everyone calls me it and I like it. I’ve called my business Mister Finch so its clear from the start that I’m a man and one that sews. We are a bit thin on the ground but we are out there! I live in Leeds in Yorkshire not too far from the beautiful Yorkshire Dales in the UK. I have no formal training in anything to do with textiles or sewing and apart from a short art course I did many years ago I’ve learnt all I know myself. I’ve tried many areas creatively over the years and now I find myself sewing which I adore.
Making things has always been incredibly important to me and is often an amazing release to get it out of my system. It’s a joy to hunt for things for my work…the lost, found and forgotten all have places in what I make. Most of my pieces use recycled materials, not only as an ethical statement, but I believe they add more authenticity and charm. A story sewn in, woven in. Velvet curtains from an old hotel, a threadbare wedding dress and a vintage apron become birds and beasts, looking for new owners and adventures to have.
Storytelling creatures for people who are also a little lost, found and forgotten…” – Mister Finch
Jacob will provide each participant with a pre-thrown, leather dry clay vessel which can be modified in various ways. It can be carved into by hand, built onto with sections of clay, ripped, decorated, deconstructed or distorted.
Participants are invited to bring along any imagery which might inspire what they will create or pottery shards and broken ceramics which can be incorporated into the clay. Jacob will also provide a selection of pottery shards, sand and remnants from beaches which he has collected to choose from.
Jacob’s work is influenced by Oriental pottery and he will demonstrate how he works to create forms in this style but participants are invited to try making different types of forms.
By the end of the workshop you will have made your own unique piece of work which Jacob will fire for you and be ready to collect within 3 weeks of the workshop. This is an ideal introduction to hand building and decorating.
This workshop will focus on creating a figurative sculpture in clay. You will be learning two techniques during the day;
– Slabbing, to enable you to construct a rectangular plinth and
– Luting, to enable you to a construct a figure using soft tubes of clay.
By the end of the workshop you will have made a simple standing figure on a base that will be fired for you and ready to collect within two weeks of the workshop. This is a perfect introduction to a highly expressive and tactile material.
Pauline Hughes is an established figurative ceramic artist based in her Liverpool studio for nearly thirty years. She has worked in the ceramic industry producing large scale murals for architectural sites and is also an experienced freelance arts facilitator working in a variety of educational settings. She has been a recipient of Arts Council Funding and exhibited her work in both selected UK Galleries as well as abroad in Australia, USA and the Netherlands.
A monoprint is a form of printmaking that produces a one of a kind image.
Inspired by Rebecca Gouldson’s ‘Tools for Looking’ installation – a glass slab, plexiglas or clear perspex will be used to explore the method. You will be shown how a monoprint can be created through a mixture of drawing, painting and collage.
Participants will be guided through various stages of the process and although each print is unique – combining and reworking prints can produce a textured multi-coloured final piece. You will leave with multiple prints for you to keep.
All materials are provided and no previous experience or drawing skills are needed as the technique can be a spontaneous and exciting way of creating abstract images.
Karen Edwards is an Artist Printmaker from Liverpool. She shares her love of printmaking through workshops and classes across the North of England.
This workshop marks a new collaboration with Cass Art’s Liverpool store who are supporting our series of four artist’s window installations over the coming year, plus an artist’s workshop based on techniques linked to each artist install.
Working with local paper artist Julie Dodd, participants will be recycling unwanted paperback books to make tree trunk sculptures covered in different types of fungi constructed from the leftover book pages and Cass Art papers through a series of cutting and paper manipulation techniques and the use of other Cass Art products.
Participants are invited to bring an old paperback book to recycle if they wish but books will be provided and available to use.
“I am an installation artist and I mainly work with paper but I also recycle other discarded materials to form installations, bringing a new life and meaning to them. My artwork is based on repetition and is inspired by pattern and shape found in nature. I work in multiples, which I use to mimic life, growth and regeneration.” – Julie Dodd
Get Creative Festival is back for 2018! It is a BBC led week of creative activities to get everyone involved in arts and crafts. The theme this year is ‘wellbeing’ as The National Health Service will be 70 next year and we will join in with the celebrations by shining a light on the connections between creativity, health and wellbeing.
To celebrate, local artist Caroline Gregson will host a willow weaving workshop here at Bluecoat Display Centre aimed at children, and parents are very much invited to have a go too! Have a go at making different shapes from rods of willow (harvested by Caroline herself). The event is free.
Caroline has previously worked on our outreach programme, teaching children at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital how to weave with willow.
The Get Creative Festival runs from Saturday 17 March until Sunday 25 March and there are many other events happening in the country.
You can also get involved via social media @GetCreativeUK