Alice? Alice? Who the **** is Alice?

Gonna find out soon, because once I’ve posted this I’ m off to the cinema. I love Alice in Wonderland and I’m a massive Tim Burton fan. Add them together and I’m in heaven.

Had some enforced downtime after a really busy week (more on that tomorrow) and finally got to do week 1 of Willowing’s Fabulous Faces course. I don’t like working in pencil and all my previous portraits have been illustrations or meant to look like someone, so doing an imaginary face, in a realistic style with unrealistic features was quite the challenge.

I’m really pleased with her though, not bad for a non-pencil user. I call her Sally, because she reminds me of the rag doll in Tim Burton’s ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’.

'Sally' 8x12" graphite on sketch paper

Bookbinding {1}-2-3 Starts Tomorrow! (March 2nd)

Back in November I agreed to teach a class for Shabby Cottage Studios and I am pleased to announce that registration is now open! All of this class is available immediately online, there is no week-by-week roll out.

Bookbinding 1 with Rhomany

I’m so excited to be teaching this class, which is the first of 3 workshops that will show you the fundamentals of bookbinding. It all starts with a scavenger hunt to find tools and materials from your other hobbies to make your books with. I have never believed that you should have to spend lots of money on specialist tools, so the only things you’ll need to buy for this class are the things you choose to buy or can’t re-purpose from around your home. You’ll be re-purposing your skills too. Want to knit or sew your book cover? Embroider the spine of your book? Do some funky things with beads and jewels? Then let’s play!

It’s being run through Creative Workshops (click the link and scroll down for the link to the workshop info) and it starts March 2nd. Price is $45*. In this workshop we’ll make two book structures, one glued and one sewn with a variation each (4 books in total), with plenty of ideas and prompts for you to make more if you want to – perfect for all your art journaling needs.

Here are just two of the books from the class.

*If you’ve taken 2 previous workshops with me, you are eligible for a loyalty discount of $10. Please contact me before signing up.

Bookbinding 1-2-3 breakdown

· Bookbinding 1: Tools, Materials & Techniques (No experience required)

· Bookbinding 2: The Art of Measuring & Stitching (No experience required but some would be useful)

· Bookbinding 3: Getting Creative & Doing Your Own Thing (No experience required but some would be useful)

Bookbinding {1}-2-3 Registration is Open!

Back in November I mentioned that I had agreed to teach a class for Shabby Cottage Studios and I am pleased to be able to announce that registration is now open!

Bookbinding 1 with Rhomany

I’m so excited to be teaching this class, which is the first of 3 workshops that will show you the fundamentals of bookbinding. It all starts with a scavenger hunt to find tools and materials from your other hobbies to make your books with. I have never believed that you should have to spend lots of money on specialist tools, so the only things you’ll need to buy for this class are the things you choose to buy or can’t re-purpose from around your home. You’ll be re-purposing your skills too. Want to knit or sew your book cover? Embroider the spine of your book? Do some funky things with beads and jewels? Then let’s play!

It’s being run through Creative Workshops (click the link and scroll down for the link to the workshop info) and it starts March 2nd. Price is $45*. In this workshop we’ll make two book structures, one glued and one sewn, with plenty of ideas and prompts for you to make more if you want to – perfect for all your art journaling needs.

*If you’ve taken 2 previous workshops with me, you are eligible for a loyalty discount of $10. Please contact me before signing up.

Bookbinding 1-2-3 breakdown

· Bookbinding 1: Tools, Materials & Techniques (No experience required)
· Bookbinding 2: The Art of Measuring & Stitching (No experience required but some would be useful)
· Bookbinding 3: Getting Creative & Doing Your Own Thing (No experience required but some would be useful)

Eve to Eve Art Journaling Workshop: 1 Week Countdown!

Only one week left til Eve to Eve Art Journaling Workshop kicks off.

We’re starting on Halloween with the first of 9 weeks of videos that will take us all the way through to New Year’s Eve. The aim of these 9 weeks is to create a themed keepsake art journal using a variety of techniques. We’ll be looking at things like creating frames for written pages, 3-D Collage, stencilling and stamping (and I’m not talking card-making techniques from Create-It-TV channel here), drawing Celtic Knot-work, calligraphy with dip pens and much much more – because I generally think of cool stuff along the way and throw that in too.

Every week you get at least one video to download, at least one pdf to download and there’ll be some templates and stuff to use along the way as well.So… questions…

Can I join after the workshop starts?

Yes you can. You can join anytime. My classes stay open after the videos go up, you can hang around as long as you like, take as long as you like and generally mingle with others doing the class for as long as you want. The advantage to signing up on the start date is that you get one thing to work on each week. But if you like to have everything at once that’s fine, you can join on January 1st next year

I wanted to make my own book for Eve to Eve but I missed your Cryptic Coptic class. Will you be running it again?

I don’t need to – it hasn’t finished! See above answer, which applies to all my classes. Links to the current workshops are over there —>

I have a slow Internet, will I be able to download the videos?

You  should be able to yes. I provide a HD video which is huuuuge and a ‘medium quality’ one which is smaller and quicker to download. I have a high speed storage space thanks to @sonniesedge,  so download speeds aren’t capped too badly. If you really struggle email me and I’ll do what I can to help. You can also watch them online.

I’m a beginner. Do I need experience of art journaling?

Nope. What’s the point of doing a class you already know how to do? If you can figure out that art journaling is basically a journal, with art in it, you know enough to do the workshop.

I’m not a beginner. Will it be too easy?

Nope. I put plenty of stuff in there and the knot-work especially is pretty challenging. There will be written prompts, art prompts, new techniques – you should have enough to challenge you. Plus there will be some discussions for you to get involved in too which should keep you busy.

Do I have to be able to ‘do art’ as in drawing and painting?

Nope. There’s a whole lot more to art than drawing and painting. Although, if a 5 year old can paint, what’s your excuse?

What sort of book do I need?

That depends on what sort of media you like to use. If you’re into wet media like paints and such, you need watercolour paper. If you prefer collage and a pen, then thick drawing/cartridge paper will do. I generally recommend 140lb paper. If you want to make your own book cheaply, you might enjoy the Cryptic Coptic workshop.

I saw in your video you talked about tarot, astrology and goddesses. Is this basically a Book of Shadows?

Well, mine is yes. But you don’t have to copy my book to use the techniques. I will do a short video separately on the subject of my page each week, which those who are interested can watch. If you’re not into all that and you just want the art and journaling to apply to your own book of (insert your theme) that’s fine, you can skip the subject videos and go straight to the art journaling.

What supplies do I need?

Whatever you have. More info on the supplies list on the workshops page. Bare minimum you need a book, a cartridge, fountain or dip pen, a glue stick and some collage material. Plus the usual tools like pencils, rulers, scissors etc. I use very few specialist supplies.

Will you be doing touchy-feely-emotional stuff?

No. I don’t do touchy-feely-emotional stuff, I leave that kind of teaching to the experts like Willowing. I teach techniques. I give you ideas. I show you how to use my techniques with your theme, I will even help you brainstorm ideas for your page if you really can’t see any way to get your Celtic Knot-work into your recipe journal. I don’t believe you have to be into touchy-feely-emotional stuff to create something spiritual. In my world, spirituality does not require a particular religion, way of thinking, counselling or anything else of that nature. Spirituality requires you to recognise that you have a soul, and make friends with it. To treat others in the way you would want to be treated yourself, to show kindness and respect to others and to connect with something other than your own ego and wants. One of the ways you can be spiritual in your everyday life is to be creative. So you’re pretty much already there. However, the pdfs will include some ‘further thoughts’ bits and pieces for those who want to give a bit more thought and feeling to their work.

Is your special offer still on? What if I’ve already paid for one class and want to do another? Can I pay in  £s or €s because of the exchange rate?

The special offer is on til New Year’s Eve – do Cryptic Coptic and Eve to Eve for $75 (saving $15). If you’ve already bought one and want to add the other later, just email me rhomany{at}gmail{dot}com or IM me on Ning and I’ll invoice you for the balance. Ditto if you want to pay in £s/€s (I used XE Currency converter for all exchange rates)

Have more questions? Still not entirely convinced? Follow me on Twitter and let me talk you into it. I have to do it for Jackie anyway!

Use Your Words: Self Study Workshop

The ‘Use Your Words‘ workshop that I ran in August/September is now available as a self-study workshop. All the videos are available to download and work through, there’s a chat group available if you want to connect with others doing the course and you can email me with any questions you might have about the videos, the exercises or the videos. I do pop into the group occassionally jsut to say hi and make sure everyone’s getting on OK, but I don’t ‘teach’ the course like I did the first time round.

You can find out more about the self-study workshop and sign up here.

Here are some of the pages I created for the workshop to give you an idea of what we covered. Remember this workshop focuses on the words, not the art, so all the art techniques are very simple to do and don’t require specialist materials.

'In My Dream' 8x10"mixed media art journal© 2009 Klair Scattergood

'Rosie & the Gold Dust' 8x10"mixed media art journal© 2009 Klair Scattergood

'In the Park' 8x10"mixed media art journal© 2009 Klair Scattergood

'Freedom' 8x10"mixed media art journal© 2009 Klair Scattergood

'Forgive' 8x10"mixed media art journal© 2009 Klair Scattergood

'Goals Revisited' 8x10"mixed media art journal© 2009 Klair Scattergood

'Feng Shui' 8x10"mixed media art journal© 2009 Klair Scattergood

'The Cure' 8x10"mixed media art journal© 2009 Klair Scattergood