Found and Ground's Spring 2023 Newsletter
Spring 2023 Found and Ground newsletter
Daffodils are coming up opposite my writing desk and the magpies have beaks full of twigs, ready to build their nests in the chestnut trees outside my window. Even in urban Bournemouth, nature expresses itself in myriad ways. I hope this newsletter finds you well and not too far from something similarly, wonderfully, unmade.
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Below are all my upcoming workshops, 121 study opportunities, book launch details, and more. Enjoy!
Wild Inks and Paints (2 day course)
USA sessions: 20-21 May 2023, Shiele Museum, 1500 EAST GARRISON BOULEVARD • GASTONIA, NC 28054, USA, 704-866-6900. Booking and more details here.
Wild Paints and Inks with Foundandground
Paints: Come and learn how to make beautiful paints from what we can forage in nature and find in our neighbourhoods. Using materials of earth, trees, plants and water, we’ll make colourful natural paints that our ancestors would have used on parchment or paper, particularly in Europe from 600CE until the Twentieth Century, as well as in India and the Middle East. You’ll go home with simple paints and refined watercolours, but more importantly, the knowledge of how to make art materials from what’s around you, wherever you are. You will learn how to ethically forage your materials without harming your environment.
We will cover watercolours and gouache from gum Arabic and cherry tree gum, tempera and glair from egg, and vegan alternatives to egg paints. The day will be hands-on and practical, but we’ll also learn about the traditional uses of all the paints we make and there will be ample time for questions. Bring a sketchbook and favourite brush or two, to make swatches of your paints throughout the session. All other materials will be provided.
Inks: In this class we’ll learn to make oak gall and iron gall ink, the traditional ink of the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence and almost all European illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells. We will learn a foraged, simple, technique as well as a studio method, both will make beautiful black inks. You will learn how to ethically forage your materials. Then we will make other botanical inks and learn how to create, test, and modify a variety of plant-based materials for colourful inks. We will make quill pens and brushes from goose or turkey feathers, as used in Saxon times in the scriptorium. I’ll be explaining some of the history and chemistry of our inks and how to use and store them.
You’ll go home with inks, pens, brushes, and the knowledge of how to brew up simple colourful inks and long-lasting tannin-based inks at home. Bring a sketchbook and favourite brush or two, to make swatches of your inks throughout the session. All other materials will be provided.
What to bring for either workshop: wear old clothes as some of the materials we’ll use can stain. Feel free to bring any large feathers (such as goose, swan, gull or crow) that you find in the meantime, as well as any oak galls or seashells you find.
Parchment, Paints and Pens is a brand new course created with my friend and colleague Dr Theresa Emmerich Kamper (of Alone Season 8 fame) in Saxons River, Vermont, USA. All the details and bookings are here. May 13-14 2023.
121 study
Get in touch if you would like to study 121 with me at my home in Bournemouth. We can deep dive into pigments, inks, paints, pens, brushes, drawing, foraging colour, and so much more. In person, it is possible to learn most of the crafts or techniques you may have seen on my Instagram account that may have intrigued you. There is ample free parking nearby and a train station only 12 mins walk away where I am happy to meet you. I can supply all materials and equipment as well as a tasty lunch!