A Handful of Summertime

A Handful of Summertime. Rachael Singleton is the tutor for this course. For more information about  Rachael, please visit her website www.rachaelsingleton.com

A Handful of Summertime is a two day workshop, students will be produce a stitched, mixed media concertina book using a handful of picked plants and flowers from the hedgerows or the garden.   Rachael will show a variety of tips, design information and techniques as students build their layered surface to stitch into.

Day 1 will be spent creating backgrounds and printing with hedgerow/garden plants, flowers and flora,  then start to edit and think about composition later in the day.

Day 2 will be spent considering design and moving into stitch as we explore various machine and hand stitching techniques to add focal elements and detail to the work.

A Handful of Summertime will exploit the properties of wet-strength papers (such as teabag paper) and tissues using gel plate printing.  There will be opportunity to learn how to use machining and a tear-away technique to create crisp outlines using prints or a simple drawn outline.

Please make sure your machine is able to do free-motion stitching this for this technique. There are two Bernina 1008 sewing machines available to use during the two days, but please message susan to reserve.  The workshop will be based on stitching layered papers but you are welcome to bring some thin fabric pieces to do some additional printing  should you wish to try things out.

Dates, please take careful note

2 days   Tuesday & Wednesday 23rd & 24th September 2025. Each day runs from 10-4 and tea, coffee, and biscuits are available throughout

Payment

£175, a non-refundable deposit of half the fee , £90 will secure your place, on receipt of the deposit your place will be confirmed. The balance should be paid two weeks before the start of the class

A Handful of Summertime Materials list:

• A few of your own thin papers and tissues you want to try such as book pages, old music, eco-printed papers, coloured paper. Normal gift tissue is unsuitable as it disintegrates and leaks colour.  Please also bring a few white/neutral papers approx. A5-A4 size.
• Ordinary decorator’s lining paper can be used as a drop sheet when printing. You can then tear it up and use pieces or work into areas later.  It’s very cheap and strong.
• Material for your handful: ferns, flowers, grasses, leaves etc. you are welcome to pick from the garden here or the field opposite 
• A range of ‘normal body’ acrylic paints and a water pot. Black/white essential, other colours you enjoy or see in your selection of flora.  System 3 tubes or Sennelier pouches are both good makes, try to avoid cheap ones  as they will not be  satisfying when printing.  Good student quality is best if possible.  You could also share/swap paints?
• Plastic covering –for your table and for the floor to dry prints, the studio has plastics
• Baby wipes (and gloves if you have lovely nails!)
• Newspaper, masking tape and carrier bag
• PVA glue or matt medium (medium is more expensive but lovely for layering thin tissues)
• Two plastic brayers or rollers – one is to roll paint and the other stays clean to press down with (a rolling pin will work as a second one). I will have a few to borrow. and there are some in the studio, so dont buy especially
• A large and small paintbrush, sharpie or waterproof black pen.
• A basic sewing kit and paper scissors, thimble just in case you love hand-stitching
• Machine (black/white most effective) and embroidery threads (various)
• Sewing machine able to do free motion stitching, extension cable (only needed day 2)
• Gelliplate / gel printing plate. I have 6 which can be borrowed, participants need one each.  You might be able to borrow a friend’s – they will be looked after well.  The 8×10 size is better than smaller ones.  I have seen smooth silicone plastic kitchen mats work reasonably well as an alternative, although definitely not quite as good as a plate.
• I will bring some thin iron-on interfacing to back your books which can be purchased but do bring some of your own if you have it (approx 16×90 cms but pieces can be joined).
• I will bring some text stamps you can borrow. If you want to bring complimentary stencils, stamps or masks to use, please do although we will aim to have our prints be the hedgerow heroes!  You can also bring other mark-making materials such as Inktense blocks or pencils, acrylic paint markers (white is really effective).  Teabag paper will be available free for the workshop, some conservation tissue and Carnival tissue (extra can be purchased).   I will provide the paper base for the concertina books.

don’t forget your lunch as there is no shop in the village

Additional information: do visit the website  www.granarystudio.com  for other classes that might take your fancy

Bookings