Tag Archives: workshops

Vitreus Art Lockdown update and re-opening – June 16th

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We are so very excited that we can invite all our lovely students and visitors back to Vitreus Art on Tuesday 16th June (subject to no changes from official guidance)!
We have certainly been missing you all very much, but our doors will be open again soon.

As with all businesses opening soon, Vitreus Art is following the most up to date guidelines to keep us all safe.

Both the gallery and the studio have been deep-cleaned with all surfaces, floors, tables and chairs cleaned and then wiped down with The Wharf Distillery Sanitizer (thanks Lawrence Connisbee!), which is made to the ‘WHO’ guidelines and is 80% alcohol.

Cleaning is a major priority for us and all tables and chairs and hard surfaces visitors could come in to contact with will be cleaned and sanitised between uses.

Our mutual health and safety is our priority so a few changes have been made and will remain in effect for as long as required:

·         The Gallery and Studio now have their own doors.
·         Studio entrance is for those attending classes only
·         We ask that on entry to either the studio or the gallery you make use of the hand sanitizer and wear a mask (which are provided, if you don’t have your own)

·         Class sizes going forward will be for 4 students only – this ensures the required 2 meter distance between work tables and room to move around the studio.

·         We can accommodate 2 people in the gallery at a time – this allows for safe distancing; there is also a one way system that we ask you to follow.

If you’d prefer to visit out of hours we’ll be happy to make an appointment – to talk about a creative project you’d like to make, commissions, or to allow personal viewings of any of the work we have (and there’s lots of new work on the walls now!).

·         As always we have hand-washing facilities available and more hand sanitizer on hand.

·         We have always had a policy of each student having their own set of tools on our workshops, but it’s more important than ever that these tools are not shared between students – even if you want to be helpful.
Not sharing is the new helpful!

·         Tea and coffee will still be provided for workshops, with washing up of mugs followed by sanitizing between each use.

·         Finally, we will be unable to provide lunches during our workshops for a while so we must therefore ask that anyone attending our workshops brings a packed lunch with them.
·         Finally, Finally if there is anything you think we have missed please feel free to tell us; these are new and strange times for us all and we all need to work with each other to make our world a safer place to be.

We’ll be operating different opening hours for the time being, starting on June 16th:

Gallery
11am to 4pm – Tues, Wed & Thurs
11am to 6pm – Fri – Sat
11am to 4pm – Sunday
Or by appointment outside of these times.

Studio
Workshops will take place as per the times they are advertised, from July in our re-organized space.

As you can see, we’ve changed the layout of the studio and gallery to make space in the studio for classes, and layout out the gallery area to encourage distancing.

We understand that you might be reluctant to venture out on or shortly after the 15th June – so get in touch if you’ve seen something on our website or Facebook page and would like to test drive it at home rather than come to us.

When you are ready to come over, you’ll find new art and craft from Peter of WdWorks, Lou Thomas, Sam Burke, Linda Johns, Abby Cork, Marlene Snee, Ken Flegg and more.
There are lots of online mini-galleries to view on our website here:
https://www.vitreus-art.co.uk/wakefield-gallery.html

And we’ve made lots of new pieces in lockdown too; these are just a few examples…
Hit this page to see all the new pieces we’ve made – there are loads!
https://www.vitreus-art.co.uk/stained-glass-art.html

Workshops resume (cautiously) in July

The good news is that we should be able to resume workshops in July.
This could change, of course, but the plan currently is:

The first workshops to start are the ones where spacing can be easily achieved without reducing the learning enjoyment and where no tools or materials need to be shared.
The full list of workshops due to take place in July is below but there are a few we’d like to highlight.

On Friday Clare Tebboth will be running her next Wild With Watercolours 1-day workshop.
As places must be limited for spacing, there’re just two places available on this session – open to all painters who want to develop their use of watercolours in imaginative ways.
https://www.vitreus-art.co.uk/classes/wild-watercolours-with-clare-tebboth.html

On 4th July Clare is back again, to teach her one-day Introduction to Painting and Drawing for absolute beginners. Again, there are just a couple of places free on this one.
https://www.vitreus-art.co.uk/classes/introduction-to-drawing-painting.html


And then we have a pretty full month of workshops – most of which have one or two spaces remaining.
On each workshop the studio will be laid out for maximum space between work-spaces. Take a look at the photos of the studio to see how we’ve positioned the benches and teacher’s station.

It’s probably going to feel a bit strange for a while, but so many people have been asking about when classes can start again we felt this was a good time for an update!

As we said before, if you’ve booked a workshop and can’t attend, or prefer to join a session later in the year, just let us know. Just as some are itching to get back to being creative, some are understandably cautious.

So here’s the list of July workshops. As usual, there’s lots of info on the web page for each session.
If you want to discuss any potential concerns you have about how a workshop would run before booking, just reply to this email.

July classes with places –

All workshops are here:
https://www.vitreus-art.co.uk/classes/index.html

Finally, next time we’ll include details of the mini workshops we’ll be offering exclusively to everyone who’s agreed to move the date of a workshop as a result of CV as a thank-you.

And now it’s time to say thanks for reading, thanks for your support and do remember to support as many of the independent businesses around you as you can – they and we will be especially appreciative over the next few months!

Best wishes and stay safe,
Mike and Jenny

What’s new at Vitreus Art?

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Well you asked for it, and we listened!!

It’s time to take a peek at what we have on offer at your favourite art gallery and creative studio, take 5 minutes from your busy lives and have a relaxing read.

New workshops to enjoy after lockdown are what you have been asking for . So we have come up with a couple of little beauties for you. We’ll set out how we’re re-organising the workshop space at the end of this blog post.

Many of you have been admiring the lovely pebble bowls that Jenny has recently created in the studio, and some of you have purchased them too, thank you.
But, we know that many of you have also been asking how Jenny makes them, and you’d like to create your own.
 
So here you go – follow this link and you can find out all about how you can spend 3 fun evenings in the studio creating your very own pebble bowl. We  announced this workshop last time, and as we are only taking 3 people per course it sold out within a couple of days. So we are now offering a set of new dates in September for you, and surprise, surprise, one place has already been snapped up – so only 2 places currently available, or you will have to wait until we put more dates in the diary.

We ran taster sessions before Christmas where we showed you how to make your very own tealight holders and the demand was so great we have decided to bring you this as a proper workshop.  Again we have listened, and have noted that not everyone can commit to a whole day, so this one will be a half day workshop. Follow this link and you will see pictures and details of the fun session and of course how you can book your place!!
 

The other workshop you have been requesting is ‘Bendy Glass’.
To those in the know this is officially called ‘Glass Slumping’, as you ‘slump’ the glass into a mould using heat from the kiln – but we do like the name that one of our visitors came up with recently, so we are sticking to it – ‘Bendy Glass’ it now is.  Not only will you be adding texture to your glass, but also form.
For more information click here.
 

Wow, that’s an awesome 3 new workshops so what are you waiting for?
Take a look and see what gets the creative tingle in your fingers going.

We know how much you all love Clare Tebboth’s workshops, as her Painting & Drawing course is always fully booked and seldom makes it on to our website.  But aside from the 6-week Painting & Drawing course Clare runs at Vitreus Art, she also runs a selection of one day workshops.
 
Her next one day Oil Painting For Beginners class in the alla prima technique is on 2nd October and there are just 3 places remaining, so if you have ever wanted to try your hand at oil painting, this is the one for you, don’t miss your chance.

Art For Beginners and Art For Improvers Evening Courses with Emily Brady

We know not everyone can make a daytime art course so we asked Emily to run a beginners painting and drawing course on Tuesday evenings for us.

The first Beginners course was a great success with feedback like:

‘An excellent opportunity to try new techniques’, ‘An excellent introduction to various mediums’, ‘Very interesting and fun’, ‘Learned a lot about different techniques and mediums, I feel comfortable about experimenting further’
 
Emily is now teaching the next level up – Art For Improvers, starting on Tuesday August 11th. This is also a 6-week evening course and is perfect for anyone who’s done a little painting or drawing and wants to develop. Small Class sizes, warm studio, tea and biscuits, and a friendly environment – ideal for developing your creativity!
Follow this link for the dates and info – just 3 places left now.And the next 6-week evening course Art For Beginners (which really is for complete beginners and up) starts up again in August. As places are limited we suggest you look at your diary soon and get your place booked!

For further dates coming up after we resume workshops in July please see our Classes website page and you will find an easy to see list on the left hand side of the page.

 New Work in the Gallery

We are very fortunate to know some very talented, local artists and are delighted that we have some new pieces in the gallery from Lou Thomas; on the left, Coniston; on the right – Mont Blanc.

And if you happen to follow our Facebook page you will have seen that Jenny has also been a little bit busy too, creating her new piece ‘Velocity’. This piece actually took 4 firings in the kiln.
Jenny was keen to get the colours just right, so only added small amounts of colour at a time until she reached the point at which she was happy with it.

New Artist in the Gallery
We are very pleased to have recently made the acquaintance of Peter & Greta Holland who between them create some lovely pieces of woodwork for the home and we are delighted to have some of these pieces on display in the gallery now.
 

And now, something a little more serious….
We need to take precautions!

When we resume workshops we’ll be making a number of changes to keep us all safe.

We’ll be restricting access to the gallery side of our premises, and ensuring that the workshop space is kept separate from visitors to the gallery by using the door to the gallery just for gallery visitors and keeping the workshop door closed to other visitors.
  • We’ve re-organised the workshop space so we’ll all be further apart, and not facing each other as has been the case in the past.
  • We’ll all be wearing masks – which we can provide if you don’t have your own.
  • We’ll have cleaning stations and sanitiser at each entrance and workbench.
  • We’re reducing class sizes for the time being and spacing out our teaching benches and student benches.
  • We’ll be cleaning all the surfaces and workbenches, card readers and desks and door handles as well as the kitchens between each session, and at the beginning of each day too
We’re following the official guidance and reviewing the COVID-19 retail and education checklists provided by HM Government in drawing up our workshop and gallery plan.

If you’d like to make a personal visit outside our normal hours so you can visit on your own, just let us know via our contact page.

Thanks for reading, and your support as ever.

Best Wishes
Mike & Jenny

 

Creativity and wellbeing – can art or craft really help?

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Have you opened up a magazine or Sunday newspaper supplement lately to find bold claims being made about the power of creativity to boost wellbeing?|
There’s a good chance you have – it’s one of the most written-about topics in the health world at the moment and there’s a growing appreciation that enjoying a creative pastime or artistic activity can indeed improve that sense of ‘living well’.

It’s not all anecdotes –creative experts worked with civil servants to research a report in 2017 with findings that agree – being creative helps keep us well and socially engaged.

And in 2018 age UK released its own study – Creative and Cultural Activities and Wellbeing in Later Life. This considered the links between participation in artistic activities and the wellbeing of 15,000 respondents aged over 60.

Overall, these and other studies conclude that being involved in art activities or belonging to creative groups has real potential to enrich all our lives, at any age.

To get our own informal insight, Jenny and I at Vitreus Art asked some of our students how they felt they benefited from the art workshops they attended at our studio.

Precious Metal Clay )PMC) – a great way to get started in Silver jewellery making

 

 

One said, “I lost track of time, I was so engrossed in what I was making”. Another said, “I haven’t learned something totally new for years – how refreshing”. A third said, “I love being able to forget about work, the cold, dark winter and home chores”.

And then there’s the new vogue of TV programmes devoted to traditional crafts and restoration skills, along with painting and pottery competitions pulling in sizeable night audiences!

This, plus the rise of the maker-movement and growing appreciation of traditional skills means the idea of making one’s own craft or art is more appealing and more accessible than it’s been for years.

And independent shops selling hand-made or upcycled goods and craft-collectives where makers collaborate to supply and sell are injecting some much-needed vibrancy and variety to our town centres.

We’re are all better served than ever when it comes to places to learn new skills, or to discover the joy of making now.
There are friendly card-making and stitch-and-bitch groups in towns of any size now, there are independent shops and galleries selling hand-made goods and art close at hand, and several art workshops running craft courses in just our area alone (Northants, UK).

At the Vitreus Art craft & art studio, you’ll find stained glass courses including traditional and modern styles and glass fusing classes using a kiln to melt and manipulate glass in to unique pieces of art.

You can also discover the amazing properties of Precious Metal Clay, allowing complete beginners to create their own pieces of 99% pure silver jewellery.

Students keen to develop their painting and drawing will benefit from our tutor Clare Tebboth’s lively and productive teaching style, producing work to a high standard while having fun!

A working glass studio and art gallery as well as friendly art workshop venue, there’s always glass work being created by resident artists Jenny and Mike, or craft workshops being taught. Visitors are welcome to call in during gallery hours to find out more.

Vitreus Art is located at Wakefield Country Courtyard, just off the A5 a few miles south of Towcester. On site you’ll also find the ARTtea Room and plenty of free parking.

So if you’d like to learn a new craft or create your own art, visit the studio in person or online at www.vitreus-art.co.uk and make 2019 the year you improve your own wellbeing!

Make your own stained glass column lamp – a new 2-day workshop with Vitreus Art

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A finished lamp, made to one of the designs we offer on our 2-day workshop

There are few stained glass projects more satisfying than making a piece that’s decorative and practical at the same time!
Our established stained glass mirror workshop gives you a chance to experience this joy for yourself in a beginner-friendly environment.

And now, after quite a bit of planning and thinking and experimenting, we’ve developed a new workshop – 2 days to make your own stained glass column lamp.
We’ve decided to go for a column lamp design for a couple of reasons – it’s a cool, modern design that suits contemporary home decor moods, and it’s a practical project for a beginner with two days to spend, and no prior experience.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy to make a lamp like this though – there are some challenges to overcome, and that’s what this workshop is all about!

Firstly, cutting your glass. For lamps, one generally uses opal glass – it conceals the lamp and gives a pleasing, diffused illumination. However, the partial opacity of opal glass means cutting on top of the deisng (how stained glass is usually cut) doesn’t work as the design’s cut lines are indistinct, or more likely, invisible!

Cutting glass using a lightbox – essential for accurately cutting opal glass

This is where the lightbox comes in, as the photo shows. Make sure the lightbox you use is sturdy enough to use as a cutting surface, like the ones we use in the studio. Most art lightboxes won’t be – they’re designed to be used for tracing.

It’s essential to make sure all the sides of your lamp will fit together precisely too. This depends partly on the accuracy of your glass cutting, and how you set up your sections when grinding.
This workshop will share all of these techniques with you.

 

 

Using jigs is the way to make sure all the sections of your lamp will fit together properly!

Take a look at how I’ve set up my grinding and soldering jig here – using pins and aluminium strips to ensure the sides of my lamp sections are parallel, and that the sides end up the same size!
I used this when grinding the glass, and then again when soldering.

All our stained glass classes for beginners include an emailed PDF info pack, sharing with you where you can buy tools, glass and hardware. Many of our students have gone on to set up their own studios and have told us this information was invaluable to them, along with our advice – provided free to anyone who’s attended one of our classes!

 

Now – soldering your pieces together.
This is where things get a bit trickier! It’s not possible to solder foiled glass unless it’s horizontal. Just a moment thinking about how lamps are made up of several ‘sides’ joined togther and it’s clear that some arrangement to hold the pieces together while soldering is needed.

Supporting all the sections when soldering them togther – we make our own jigs for this

This is where a jig comes in!
We make all our own kit like this – you may find something suitable online if you don’t have the resources to make your own kit.

The jig needs to perform two functions – holing sides together to allow them to be soldered on the outside, and then to hold them for soldering on the inside.
The jigs we use do both tasks to make life simpler for our students – and ourselves!

Soldering a lamp like this takes a bit of skill, and rather more patience.
Over the years we’ve been teaching lamp-making on our extended courses we’ve developed some techniques that take some of the worry out of this essential stage.
We share these on our workshops of course, and the aim is for each student to finish up with a well-soldered lamp.

The next stage – soldering a brass ‘spider’ gives the lamp more strength, and a means to mount the lamp holder.

For the lamps made on our 2-day workshops we update this with a modern, low-energy LED lamp, which we provide.
The skills and techniques are the same though, so if you fancy making a different type of lamp, you’ll know how to approach it.

The next stage is to patina the lamp – giving a finish that’s a blend of traditional and modern – enhancing the look and making the solder lines look smoother too.

And then it’s time to mount the lamp on to its base. We provide a stained wooden base to finish off the lamp, and conceal the bottom edges of the glass sections.

Want to have a go yourself on our lamp-making 2-day workshop?
This link takes you the page on the Vitreus Art website where you can check out the details and book your place.

Happy lamp-making!

Mike – Vitreus art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why do we teach stained glass when we already have enough competition?!

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Vitreus Art beginners stained glass Workshop
Vitreus Art beginners stained glass workshop

By now you know we teach stained glass, right? I go on about it often enough!

Well, one of the reasons we teach (aside from wanting to share the craft we’ve become passionate about!) is that we often hear from would-be stained glass artists who’ve gone out and bought tools and glass and materials and then found they just couldn’t make it work.

They cut themselves to shreds, their pieces didn’t fit together, they wasted loads of expensive glass, their soldering was lumpy and ugly, or their fledgling abilities just didn’t develop.

Net result – most of them gave up.

We had the benefit of a day’s class when we were starting. We had no idea what was required, where to begin, what tools were needed – we just knew we wanted to find out if we liked it, and if we might show any early promise!

It could have been so different – Lord knows it’s sometimes a frustrating craft!
However, decent tuition,  access to the right tools,  and the desire to learn from someone clearly very skilled set us off in the right direction.

Starting teaching

Fast-forward 5 years and we’re making commissions,  selling through galleries and teaching. Why?

Coming from marketing and PR backgrounds, we both felt that we were good communicators, and we’d been on a very steep learning curve.  So as we began to field questions from people who wanted to try, or who’d tried and given up, we set up our first class.

Crikey – that was hard work! And the investment – we decided that 6 was a good number of students so we needed 6 sets of tools. And you may already know, a complete set of  tools costs about £150 per person, not including a grinder. And don’t forget the glass – we get through a lot!

We hooked up with a local gallery with spare workshop space (thanks Sally!) and set some dates. Luckily we found enough students (that always seems like the wrong word!) and set off on our journey.

We did a lot of planning, a lot of cost analysis to be sure we knew how long and how many classes it would take to repay the investment in tools and glass. And we sweated over the lesson plan and rehearsed, and tested.

The comments we had back after our early sessions encouraged us to carry on. We now run 13 or more sessions a year, some at an intermediate level now that we have students who are keen to progress to making bolder and more ambitious pieces.

As an example of the type of comment that led us to develop our programme, here’s one from an early student:

2009 hasn’t been the best of years for me but I can truly say that this one day was my real highlight. Your passion for the subject really shone through and your professionalism in guiding us in all the task was amazing. I am delighted with the pieces I made.  I suspect my husband actually thought I’d bought them!

And now that our classes are getting fully booked months in advance, we’ve taken the plunge and set up a 5-day workshop in Cornwall too! We must be mad!

So the message here is – if you’ve struggled to make the glass work for you, if you’ve become frustrated at lack of progress, or you want to find out what stained glass is all about before you jump in, get some tuition – for two reasons:

one – you might save a lot of money on tools if you don’t enjoy it!

two (much more likely!) – starting off with someone to show you the basics and to offer constructive feedback might get you totally hooked, like it did for us!

three – knowing someone in the trade, and being able to ask them how they got started, and what they found hardest at the beginning is great background info and reassurance

I’d love to find out how you got started, or even what made you give up.
We might be able to offer some advice!

I’m considering running a tips and tricks column on our stained glass website, or in our monthly newsletters, or on this blog.
I’d like to know if this would be useful to you – leave a comment and let me know.

Happy creating!
Mike