Blooming Designs - Art in the Barn

As part of our Art in the Barn Creative Arts Week, we will be offering an introduction to block printing on fabric. If you have ever considered designing and creating something to use in your home or thought about making personalised gifts for your family and friends, this is the workshop for you. Join us in our thatched Long Barn in the heart of the Meon Valley. This is a light and spacious venue which allows you to be socially distanced from the other participants, with use of your own...

Batik is an ancient textile technique originating in Indonesia. Pattern is applied onto cloth using molten wax with fine brushes or tools called tjantings, before coloured dyes are applied to the fabric. In more recent years this highly decorative and colourful process has been used to create designs and images on paper. Explore this vibrant process, creating a range of experimental samples and unique outcomes. You may choose to work with the themes of florals or abstract pattern, or take inspiration from different cultural images; alternatively you may wish to...

Join us for our Art in the Barn Creative Arts Week and explore gel plate printing. This is a lively and instant method to create monoprints, with the advantage that it doesn’t require the use of a printing press. Each print is unique and this highly adaptable process invites experimentation. Gel printing plates look and feel like gelatin, but are durable, reusable and store at room temperature; they come in a range of sizes and shapes are easy to clean with mild soap and water or baby wipes and are...

Spring, summer and autumn can be an inspirational time for those with a love of gardens, with their beautiful colours, shapes and forms heralding a change in the seasons. Join us in the heart of the Meon Valley, to explore floral images through a mixed media approach. ​ The workshop will be delivered by Alison Butler of Blooming Designs in her home studio. This is an inspirational space in a beautiful setting. With over 25 years experience as a textile designer and book illustrator, Alison will guide you through a...

Fine and flexible wire is a lovely material to work with, enabling you to create characterful objects, with a drawn-like quality to them. ​ Come along on Friday 19th March and learn how to create a range of small and decorative pieces of sculpture, which will take pride of place in your home and be admired by many. We will aim to create 3 beautiful outcomes, exploring joining techniques, wrapping, shaping and sculpting wire. Who wouldn't want to make little birds on swings or in cages? ​ This workshop will...

Kitchenalia - exploring vintage and retro design through drawing & sculpture. If you are a keen cook, you are sure to have a fine collection of kitchenalia in your home, with pots and drawers rammed full of whisks, fish slices and ladles. We value them for their practical use to help use create our favourite dishes, but we should also look at the satisfying range of shapes and forms in their design. Who can resist a set of 1960’s utensils with their lovely painted handles? Join us for a relaxing...

​ Lino cutting and printing is a very enjoyable process that can be explored at our kitchen tables and requires the minimum of specialist equipment. Many of us may remember creating our first lino cut during our Art lessons at secondary school. If you are looking to learn a new creative skill, but need a process that can be “picked up and put down” and fitted around a busy life, this may well be the technique you have been looking for. A visit to the Birmingham City Art Gallery in...