A series of creative workshops – Nature and art
The Handmade Paper Factory in Kobyłka invites you to Art and Nature – workshops inspired by nature. They are organized for groups of 20 people throughout the calendar year.
Art and Nature Workshops – these workshops are inspired by observing the changing colors, shapes, and textures that emerge with the changing seasons.
Inspired by what forms the basis of human existence – nature and its observation. In today’s busy world, we are increasingly losing the connection between humans and nature.
The workshops will utilize natural materials sourced from the surrounding environment, a variety of modern artistic techniques, and those that are being replaced and forgotten over time. The project aims to inspire human resourcefulness and creativity – creating beautiful things, sometimes “from nothing”. All of the proposed artistic disciplines are translated into simple workshops that can be used by anyone – adults and children.
The workshops aim to encourage and teach creativity, explore creative possibilities, and also emphasize and utilize the sense of human connection with nature. These workshops should also highlight activities aimed at taking action in one’s own environment that will protect the environment – recycling paper, reusing fabrics, cardboard, etc. The proposed activities are adapted to the changing seasons.
Outline of the annual class series:
1ST PORCELAIN AND CERAMICS WORKSHOP
Date: WINTER
While nature is asleep and the world is shrouded in white and gray, we propose:
The first introductory class will explore the history of ceramics and the possibilities of its production in a workshop setting. Each participant in the “Nature and art” class will develop their own graphic symbol, which they will use to mark their works. We will create our own casts using St. James’s clam shells, hard-shelled nuts, and other containers and bowls, which will serve as the basis for plaster casts.
We will cast porcelain bowls and fire the containers. The whiteness, glassiness, and durability encapsulated in porcelain—like the nature of winter silently encased in a porcelain vessel – are the foundation for creative thinking, using various everyday objects or natural creations to create beautiful objects. Ceramic vessels created during the workshop will be presented at the final exhibition.
The workshop comprises three sessions.
2nd CLAY WORKSHOP
Date: EARLY SPRING
When the thawing snow reveals the thawing soil, and nature adds brown to the palette, we invite you to a clay workshop.
Becoming a mature ceramic artist requires years of practice… Because this is the beginning of our artistic ceramic experiences, we will create clay tablets with plant prints that will serve as coasters for pots in the kitchen or as paintings.
Our task will be to carve square or rectangular forms from clay into which we will press plants, branches of flowering catkin or hazel, and dry branches. We will burn the tablets – the natural plants will burn to ash, but they will leave a decorative impression in the clay. The works created during the workshop will be displayed at the final exhibition.
This workshop consists of one session.
3RD WORKSHOP ON STAMPS USING NATURAL GIFT OF NATURE ON FABRICS
Date: SPRING
The surroundings are getting greener. The sun is shining… A new, joyful time has arrived.
For this spring workshop, we will use plants that have just bloomed or unfurled their delicate leaves…
This workshop draws on the idea of Leonardo da Vinci, who made plant stamps to create herbariums, necessary to convey his own medical experiences to contemporary people. We will create herbariums on fabrics – which will become unique fabrics – adorning clothes, linings, interior fabrics, or simply finished garments – clothes that have worn well will become new, spring-like, and attractive.
Everyone will find a use for the fabrics they create. A wonderful, colorful, and easy workshop for everyone. The fabric dyes used do not fade – they are permanent. This workshop includes two sessions.
4TH HANDMADE PAPER WORKSHOP
Date: SPRING
Suddenly, an explosion of color occurred with a force we had anticipated… It’s so hot, so many flowers, the grasses are blooming…
We invite you to a wet and cool handmade paper workshop.
We will begin by learning about the history of handmade paper, following the steps of people in the 15th century to recreate the white art that was supplanted by paper machines. How many secrets does paper hold, how many can be conjured from it, how many shades and colors it can hold… You can incorporate elements of both animate and inanimate nature, such as living plants, stones, shells, etc. We will learn how to make blank sheets of handmade paper, which we will then use to sew a book during subsequent workshops. We will create large paper canvases on a giant frame with a ribbed screen, incorporating plants, stones, flowering grasses, recycled paper, etc. We will also create a special double-layer paper that will be used to make a giant lampshade, which in winter will remind us of the hot and stormy days of May. One of the classes will focus solely on recycled paper – how paper can be made in home and school conditions. I can’t wait for May…
The works created during this workshop will be presented at the final exhibition.
These workshops will consist of three sessions.
5TH FLOWER ARRANGEMENT WORKSHOP
Date: SUMMER
When I think of June, I know there won’t be time for anything… Everything changes like a kaleidoscope… Plants fade, others bloom. After each storm, everything changes… Will we use this wonderful time of nature’s blossoming for art?
Now in June, when there are so many flowers and plants to be found in meadows and gardens, it would be a sin not to seize this opportunity. In this workshop, we will use plant materials to arrange bouquets – we will learn how to make something out of nothing – using modern floral innovations: wet and dry foam, wire, test tubes for hanging in large arrangements… We will learn about the basic plant species that can be used in hand-arranged bouquets and on floral foam. These workshops will require a creative perspective on plants and nature. Anything can be useful in three-dimensional floral forms – an interesting root, a flower growing under a fence, chamomiles, or stones… Floristry is an art form for everyone, and so useful in everyday life!
This workshop consists of one meeting.
6TH TEXTILE ART WORKSHOP
Date: AUTUMN
Referring to ancient customs, we will focus on artistic textiles.
We will be introduced to the topic with classes on the “alchemy of natural dyeing of plant and animal fibers” – cotton and wool. We can try dyeing linen, but it is a difficult and arduous art. How many hidden colors and shades, and their halftones, can be achieved by dyeing fabric or yarn in plant decoctions, applying ancient “commandments” and tips, translating them to modern needs? How many colors are hidden in the inconspicuous roots of rhubarb or woodruff? Discover how joyful color can be achieved using the leaves of our trusty birch tree during the first session! The next session will be devoted to creating artistic fabrics using forgotten methods, such as cyanotype. Today, these workshops are both moving and intriguing – mastering them allows you to create unique artistic objects. They can be used for sewing clothes and interior decorations. Of course, the items created during the workshops will be displayed in the final exhibition.
These workshops consist of two sessions.
7TH BOOK SEWING AND MARBLING WORKSHOP
As the leaves fall from the trees, revealing bare branches, we will bring some autumn colors into our lives, drawing on our previously acquired experience. It’s so difficult to come to terms with the passing of summer, so difficult to stop the passage of time, so we invite you to…
These very interesting workshops will allow us to create unique artistic books using handmade paper prepared during the spring classes.
To begin sewing the book, we will first explore the old paper dyeing method used in artistic bookbinding, known as marbling. This art, known as early as the 8th century in Japan, uses a decoction of the red alga Chondrus crispus – now known as carrageenan – as a medium for making colorful individual prints on handmade paper. The marbling method was named so because the paper dyed this way resembled marble patterns. Marbling paper will decorate our unique books – endpapers and covers. This method can be used to decorate the smoothly finished spines of sewn books. Sewing a book is easy. It can be sewn without the use of a special stitch.
You can use an ordinary chair for this purpose. And how – we’ll reveal the secrets during the classes…
These workshops consist of two sessions.
Instructors will prepare a calligraphy workshop for those interested. The title pages of books would then be decorated with hand-written calligraphy letters. This can be done with a properly sharpened stick or a quill pen, which we’ll also teach!
The workshop includes two sessions.
8TH EXHIBITION OF WORKS “NATURE AND ART”
Date: WINTER
The end of our workshops has arrived; we are preparing for the concluding exhibition. We are preparing, revising, and finalizing our works. We are preparing the opening together.
Preparing for the exhibition will take two sessions.
Information about the “Nature and Art” workshops
The workshops can begin once a group of 10 people has formed.
Workshop dates for the entire year will be discussed once the entire group gathers for a joint meeting.