Workshops December and March

Christmas Cards and Gifts workshop 3 December
I'm holding a workshop at my home on Wednesday 3rd December and it will cover making paper with a Christmas theme and making gift boxes and a couple of simple books. The pictures here are of cards I've made over the years, I need to come up with a theme for this year but inspiration hasn't struck as yet.
Last year's cards:-


The year before:- I didn't make a lot of this one, just some for very special people.

Another year

Another year

Christmas 1999

Some early cards

The papermaking techniques we will cover will include embossing, pulp painting and paper with inclusions.

Here are some examples of the packages we'll make.

The books:-



Share the Journey - Plant fibre book workshop 21 March 2009
I spent a bit of time yesterday working on the sample book for the workshop I’m running in March next year. I had made a mock up using some cedar blind but it was time to make one close to how the workshop book will be, it has taken me a while to find the time but yesterday everyone was out and I could make a good start.

The mock up.
Marianne’s husband Rex has made a range of timber pieces from different Australian plants.



For the mock up two I chose a cedar pine, there were two pieces of that and it was one of the less interesting timbers. When drilling the holes I also discovered it was quite a hard timber and I slipped when drilling the first couple of holes, I worked out it was a good idea to use an awl to make a starting hole for the drill. I’ll be pre-drilling all the holes for the workshop so participants won’t need to be concerned.




While I was doing the preparation I was also preparing the notes for the workshop and keeping a bit of a note about the time it takes for each step. I haven’t started sewing yet, that will have to wait for another day soon, I’m still deciding on what thread to use. For the outside I’d quite like to use sky blue to tone in with the blue sky and to contrast with the timber but I feel that it would look wrong on the inside, so I might settle for off white.


The the picture on the cover is of one of the lights on Princes bridge and it has Victoria University in the background. The workshop will be held on the 16th floor of that building and the the exhibition Shared Journeys will be in the gallery on the 17th from 3rd - 21 st March 2009, there is more information at http://www.gailstiffe.info/ once you click on workshops.