Moiko Silkscreens - Using Black Acrylic Paint and Chalks

The lovely Malgorzata (Gosia) contacted me quite a while ago and asked if I wanted to try some of her silkscreens and finally I've had a bit of time free to sit and play...and wow do I love them.  The tribal pattern and faces are some of my favourites and they are exactly what I had in mind for what I was planning.

I've had an idea in my head for quite some time to create "dirty" silkscreen components that work together and I'm so happy with how some of these have turned out.  I'm still in the process of creating components and haven't turned everything into finished pieces yet but thought I would share what I have done so far.

Gosia has such a large variety of silkscreens that would work so well for different themed pieces - these designs are just perfect for the theme I wanted.  The screens come packaged beautifully with a colour instruction sheet as well and I must say these screens are very easy to use.  There is a shiny side and a dull side and I must admit, I found it a little bit tricky to tell which side was which - hmmm maybe that could be my "old" eyes.  I've used the screens both ways and have found they've worked well either way and I haven't had any problems with the screens being damaged. It's obviously recommended to use them the right way though.  These screens will take acrylic paint and powders of any sort and they wash off easily. I've found they don't curl up when dry and I've used one particular screen about 30 times (phew lots of practicing that's for sure) and it's still in great condition.  If you look after your screens, they should last a long time.

I must say a huge thanks to Gosia for her incredibly generous gift and I certainly hope I've done her screens justice.

Grab Moiko silkscreens here Moiko Silkscreens

Huge Thanks to Central Regional TAFE in Geraldton

I wanted to again stress, how incredible it was to utilise the ceramic and glass studio at Central Regional TAFE in Geraldton over the weekend for the Christi Friesen Workshops.  This space is huge and it easily accommodated the 20+ students we had for each workshop with room to spare.  There was certainly lots of eye candy for our students to oggle over as well which we all sure did.  Thanks again to Lexie Lazenby for allowing us to use this space.  Many thanks again to Kimmy Tetlow for clearing and organising the space for us - simply amazing and also thanks to Peta Riley for coming along and joining us for a small portion of the weekend.  You guys are awesome!!!

Peta Riley

Lexie Lazenby

Christi Friesen Workshops in Geraldton (My Home Town)

After a whirlwind visit in Melbourne with Christi, we flew back to my home town in Geraldton, Western Australia where we had organised two days of workshops.  Always love organising workshops in Geraldton because then I get to spend time with some awesome people who I dearly love.  The workshop space was so very kindly donated to us by Central Regional TAFE and I have to thank here Lexie Lazenby for organising this for us and Kimmy Tetlow for cleaning and organising the space for us to use.  This was such an incredible place full of artistic inspiration and creativity.  The lovely ladies from 2Wards Polymer Clay also joined us and many of the locals took advantage of having polymer clay related goodies spread out on the tables for us to purchase - heaven!!!

Let's just share some of the pics shall we.

Fun with Christi Friesen at The Whimsical Bead in Melbourne

So after my 3 days of teaching at The Whimsical Bead in Melbourne, Christi arrived for her teaching stint.  I was to be her "roomie" for the next 7 nights (sheesh how on earth would I survive that!!).  As you are probably all aware Christi has an amazing teaching method that allows even those who have never touched clay before to walk away with something they are incredibly proud of.  I sat in on a couple of classes and completely understand why everyone loves her.  Her projects are very cool.  She uses a variety of awesome products in each project and the way she teaches you how to use them is such a treat to watch.  Dani as always did an amazing job of hosting these workshops, being on top of the baking and created a feeling of warmth and friendship in the studio. I had the best ever time!!

Let me share some pics for you.

The Whimsical Bead - Day 2

Another sensational day at The Whimsical Bead with some incredibly talented students.  Our workshop today was Dye-Namix and wow......some of the creations today blew my mind!!!!  I was a little better at taking pics today so have a few more to share.  We worked with a range of different mediums today and concentrated on making different components.  It was all about the surface today and, oh my gosh...we had some very cool surfaces.  I love doing workshops at The Whimsical Bead and today was no exception.

Let's check out the pics.