Mary's shoes with Serena Patridge

Yesterday I had a brilliant day taking part in a workshop run by local artist Serena Partridge.  The workshop was called 'Mary's shoes' referring to an exhibition about the Weatherill family of artists currently showing at the Pannett Art Gallery, Whitby.

Serena demonstrated to the class,showing us her methods for constructing beautiful little paper shoes and we then went on to make our own versions, choosing from the patterns and papers that she had provided.  At the end of the day most of us had made two or three little shoes, each of which has its own imagined story.  

These are the shoes made by the whole group.  As you can see they are very individual and beautifully decorated (and that most people in the group actually made a pair of shoes).

Here are my three shoes.  I began with a fairly small example and made them progressively smaller.  This was a fabulous day and I would like to do this again sometime.  I wish I had made labels and a story for each of them, they do really lend themselves to story telling!

There will be more workshops at the Pannett through August.  On the 18th, 23rd, 25th, 30th August and 1st September are a series of drama workshops for children.  They are running from 1.30pm to 3.30pm and will be exploring and imagining life in Whitby for the people shown in the Weatherill paintings.

On Friday 26th August from 10am until 4.30pm there will be a drop-in workshop looking at Womens' work in Whitby during the 1800-1900s.  You can learn about traditional Ganseys and participate in rag rugging.

Booking for any of the workshops is essential - telephone 01947 602051

Fun day at the museum

Yesterday I ran a workshop at Whitby Museum. They are always fun to do. I took the small group of participants around the museum looking at objects that had spiral patterns on them. I then showed them how to make a small brooch based on the Anglo Saxon ones in the museum collection and they each made on as an introduction to using pliers, cutters and copper wire. Then they all went off and had another look at some of the objects and made sketches and after lunch returned to make up their designs using a variety of thickesses of copper wire and beads.

I will be running similar workshops on the next two Thursdays. I will post some of the pictures of their work as a slideshow

Inspired by the Anglo Saxons

Yesterday I did a workshop at the museum making wire jewellery based upon Anglo Saxon inspirations.  I am putting a few images on in a slide show at the side.  This was a lovely day and I really enjoyed seeing how creative people can be given a very simple medium like copper wire and a few beads.