We have had so many interesting fabric jewellry classes at Heart Space Studios recently that I have decided to develop a fabric jewellry course for the autumn using all the jewellry tutors to take a class each. I got the idea from attending Teresa Searle’s workshop and even though I was the most talkative student I produced enough ideas to develop some old pieces of work to make fabric, enamel and beaded jewellery.

You can see just Teresa’s hand pointing out a flower brooch at her recent class, she brought a wonderful selection of samples and ideas to inspire everyone not just me. She showed us several ways of making fabric into rosettes for flowers..

strings for beading,

appliques for making bracelets and has lots of ways to achieve good looking finished and wearable pieces.

Other tutors teach how to make beautiful fabric beads, here Patricia Brownen has strung her beads with pretty glass bought beads. Stringing up to colour co-ordinate is real skill and she has developed interesting and simple ways for beginners to achieve beautiful combinations in her workshops.

Other tutors make brooches out of recycled fabrics and threads, Debbie Bird always bring piles of lovely things to play with.

Jan Connet has made some lovely daisy chains for her workshop for machine embroidery using vanishing muslin

These would make lovey bracelets and necklaces if she makes them stronger, I like the idea of adding them to the fabric strings I made with Teresa. It is this combination of ideas and materials which will  make our jewellry course so fascinating for everyone involved.I also think that Jan’s paper making class could develop into bead making…the combinations of colours and materials give plenty of scope for new ideas.

I am also interested in developing and integrating the ribbon roses into the course which we made in a previous workshop.

But what I really want to achieve is a mixture of media in the new course, fabric with beads, enamel, paper, wood, bone…….the idea is to get the different materials to work together so that they form new and exciting combinations for textile jewellry.