Day School with Angela Neilson - Silk Paper Vase

We had a fabulous day today with Angela, learning how to make a silk paper vase. Angela had shown us last week in her talk what we would be doing on this day school, so some of us had already thought about our colour scheme. Angela brought many samples of her gorgeous work, so we knew what we were aiming for, which is always a help in knowing what we should bring, so we didn't have to bring the kitchen sink today!

Angela's work

Angela had brought made up kits for us, including a choice of two glass shapes, a comprehensive selection of silk tops and beads, and the dissolvable fabric. Once we had chosen our colour scheme, we followed instructions and made a 'sandwich' with the dissolvable fabric. Firstly a layer of white silk fibres teased out to fit the fabric, then another layer of the coloured silk fibre, not too thick, and then we added snippets of threads and gauze, or trimmings, to trap in the sandwich.  Then we laid the second piece of fabric on top. We machine stitched on this to trap the fibres, using some of the decorative stitches on our machines. The we added beads and embellishments to our heart's content.

Making the silk fibre 'sandwich'

Once the sewing was finished, Angela showed us how to invert the glass over a kitchen roll holder, in a bowl, lay the sandwich over it and put warm water to dissolve the fabric.

Dissolving the fabric

It was quite tricky to judge how much fabric to dissolve - too much and it wouldn't stick, too little and it was slimy and gloopy, bleahhhhh!  Once we got it right, we dried our vases with a hairdryer, manipulating the wise bits at the top. and here are some of the finished vases.

Angela was a super tutor, she had brought everything we needed, her demonstrations were excellent and she was so helpful and enthusiastic. It was such a lovely day we will definitely be asking her to come back to teach us something else, so watch this space!

"All Washed Up" - talk by Angela Neilson

When Angela walked in loaded down with suitcases, boxes, bags and bundles, we knew we were in for a visual treat, and what a spread of beautiful items she brought for us to exclaim over. Angela lives in Aberdeen, and regularly walks her dog on the beach, photographing and collecting flotsam and jetsam, something that appeals to so many of us. First we had a slide show, featuring many photos of Angela's work and inspiration, accompanied by her enthusiastic and often funny commentary.

A lot of her work is 3D and mixed media, and the theme today was "Ondine's Boudoir', a concept for her City and Guilds. Ondine is a Celtic water spirit, so lots of underwater themed items. Ondine herself was a gorgeous handmade cloth doll. There was a glorious full length mirror that had been turned into an underwater garden, and a shimmery watery quilt for Ondine's bed. Cushions and treasure boxes for her jewels, a purse for sunken treasure, glass domes with seahorse swimming amongst seaweeds, and a fabulous lampshade like a jellyfish.  Many of the items had been made from recycled scraps and beachcombings, and gorgeous sketch and design books detailed how she came up with her ideas and experimented to work out the way to realise them.  The mixed media techniques were many and varied, and really made us want to try them out.

Angela has inspired us all to turn out our scraps bags, and those boxes with those treasures we have collected from the beach (I know I have boxes full of flotsam!). Angela will be taking a day school next week, making a silk paper vase, and we are all anticipating this with relish. A lovely inspirational afternoon.

(I did take a lot more photos, but for some reason not all of them have appeared in my camera roll - apologies for a technology blip)

Angela's sketchbooks

The jellyfish lampshade

Ondine's mirror

Seahorse glass domes

Treasure casket

Ondine's purse

vase we shall be making next week

Ondine reclining on her shimmery quilt