A new adventure: Art Classes for you!
One of the things I’ve learned recently is that if you don’t try you won’t succeed. It’s an old adage isn’t it, the whole idea of not bothering to put in the effort reaping no reward. Well I’m pleased to say I put in a lot of effort on this project, a LOT of effort! All my arty blood sweat and tears has gone into making this new adventure a reality, and it’s all thanks to The Princes Trust once again.
A little while ago I wrote about my trip to Birmingham where I met Ben Roman and Jo Hutchinson from Princes Trust and ran an art session for their wonderful staff members at their headquarters. It was a fantastic day, I really enjoyed myself and I got some incredible feedback from everyone involved. Click here to read about our messy play adventure from April!
Now one of the important things I took from this experience is that people actually enjoyed my class. They enjoyed listening to me explain how to make the art, they enjoyed talking to me about their ideas, they loved the process and the creation and what came out of their design. And I loved it too! So I thought, why not do it again? Which is where the birth of this new idea came from.
I got wonderful words from Jo Hutchinson in support of my new venture, and with new found confidence I decided let’s just do it!
So here I am proudly pleased to present my new business classes!
First and foremost I’ll be offering three different types of class for businesses and corporate events. With the pandemic and the rise in remote meetings, face to face or in person events have sadly had to be canceled or adapted to this new way of life. I want to help bring that personal touch back to your lives by offering in person art classes for your employees, residents and students.
If you want something different as a team building exercise, a meeting ice-breaker or a corporate conference break-out session, I have the ideal solution to help the day get energized!
My easily affordable creative art sessions will put your team members in a relaxed and creative mood so that they can participate constructively and positively in your work place.
My sessions encourage creativity and mindfulness, relaxation and calm, and, most of all, team bonding. Most, if not all, of the materials are included in the cost of the package. All you need to do is provide me with a space and some willing participants!
"Em at Fragment Crafting ran an art-based mindfulness session for our team day, it was completely different to anything we’d done before and a huge hit with everyone. The approach was very accessible, with warm ups and getting people thinking creatively and comfortable with sharing their drawings in front of their peers. We then spent a good chunk of time chatting and each creating a piece of art which we could keep after the session. It gave everyone a chance to relax and be present, connect and chat about non-work stuff and just slow down for a while. I have had feedback from many people that it’s one of the best team activities they’ve done, I highly recommend!" -Jo Hutchinson
One of the other package options I’m pleased to present is focused all around social care and community. I want to work with community groups, charities, clubs and meet ups to provide something different to your schedule. Adding a bit of creativity sparkle is what makes my day great so I want to offer that as an outlet to anyone that needs it.
Lockdown has been hard on us all, and no other sector has been as hard hit as the Care Sector; and whilst many employees have been able to work from home, the same can’t be said for our carers. Whilst technology may have boomed in allowing people to work remotely, it has unfortunately crushed the face to face meeting so important for our older generation. Isolation and all that it has brought along has devastated many, and my sessions offer a chance to reignite that social interaction that we all desperately crave.
If you want something different to stimulate the minds of your residents, I have the ideal solution to help them get energized!
My affordable creative art sessions will put your residents in a relaxed and creative mood so that they can participate constructively and feel that they have achieved something to be pleased with. My sessions encourage creativity and mindfulness, relaxation and calm, and, most of all, a sense of achievement. Most, if not all, of the materials are included in the cost of the package. All you need to do is provide me with a space and some willing participants!
Hopefully soon I will be expanding my offer of art classes to schools and kids clubs, something that once inspired me as a child to do art and could hopefully inspire others too. At the moment I need to do a bit more research before getting into that area, but if I get enough interest it will definitely be an option!
So now you know a bit about why I want to offer these courses, let me tell you a bit about what they are.
Firstly we have hand print artwork where participants will paint their hand, create a print on artists paper, and be encouraged to see within the print something magical and fantastical. I encourage all my participants to make something unique, to see the lines and art that might already be inside the curves of your fingers or the fingerprints you’ve made. And the best part is that all prints are unique! No two hands look the same, so we each get to make something completely unique to ourselves that they are then encouraged to take home and frame forever.
Other art courses include bad art making, a course I designed specifically to throw the concept of perfectionism out the window and open the doors to just having fun. I’ll be providing lots of different art mediums and canvases for participants to make exactly what it says on the tin: BAD ART! The aim is to encourage relaxation and letting go of detail orientated work. You’ll find how mindful it is to just sit and let the paintbrush do what it wants rather than to think 6 steps ahead and have a game plan for how it ends. That’s my job! You guys just sit back, paint something terrible, and have fun doing it. There is no wrong answer here.
And lastly one of the other types of courses I offer will be Scrap Journaling. We all love a good notebook, I know I have piles and piles in my home just waiting to be used, but who uses notebooks more than office workers? You’ve got all these important dates and schedules to keep up with, meetings to take notes in, clients to keep up with. It’s all very physical sometimes, and nothing beats the crisp first page of a new notebook. So let’s turn that upside down and make our own!
Scrap journaling connects the two ideas of junk journaling and scrapbooking. I want to mix the two together to create something unique to each participant. While scrap booking is seen as a familiar memory holding activity, junk journaling really does embody the chaos of artistic exploration. So the aim is to merge the best of both worlds. Do you need a specific kind of notebook with specific pages? Well lets make one then! And the best part is these notebooks are person-centric. They’ve got everything in them that YOU want there to be. We’ll go through learning how to bullet journal and how to extend pages, how to decorate and all in all how to have fun with the creation process. What you do afterwards with your journal is completely up to you!
So those are just a few classes that I now offer. If any of these seem like a good time, and I promise they are, then check out my Art Classes page on my website for more information. You can also email me at info@fragmentcrafting.com to discuss bespoke packages and tailored events.
Don’t be shy, book me today!
As always,
Stay Creative!
Em