Sunday, February 08, 2015

Essex Silk Painters

Spent a lovely day in Toot Hill yesterday teaching a workshop to a very talented group - Essex Silk Painters.
Some really wonderful work was produced as always:


 Isn't this surface fabulous?
These photos are a study in concentration:



This, in the centre, is my eldest student to date. Rosemary aged 92!
What an amazing lady. So talented. She bought a book along to show me where she has put photographs of all the different arts and crafts she has participated in over the years: china painting, tapestry, silk painting, book making, watercolour painting....the list is endless. Her artwork is superb and so detailed.
She was once head seamstress at Selfridges. She made both her daughters wedding dresses and the cakes too. Rosemary now scans her watercolour paintings into the computer, prints out copies which she mounts on cards and sells them for charity. I feel privileged to have had Rosemary on my workshop.

I took along my heat press and we all had a good play with that, everyone was very impressed.
But the simple thing that really blew them all away was one of these:
A Japanese paper punch.
I think everyone will have one of these next time I see them. :)
All in all a really good day, nice hall, great company and had a laugh, what more could you ask?

5 comments:

Wendy said...

It looked like a fantastic time was had. The screw punch is amazing, I don't know how it makes the job so easy, it just does :)

Julie said...

Go Rosemary! What an amazing lady! That room looks a wonderful space to work in. Lucky people :-) Do I need one of those hole punches? :-)

Heather said...

What an amazing bunch of students - you must all have had a wonderful day. That paper punch looks very handy.

Maggi said...

I hope that I'm still experimenting when I reach Rosemary's age. What an inspiration. My Japanese punch was definitely a good investment.

Jannetta said...

I was at Linda's workshop. We loved having her and we had a great day.
Rosemary is amazing.