Inspiring art and craft workshops at Cowshed Creative  - there is something for everyone

Workshops at Cowshed Creatives are based in our two storey traditional Lakeland barn cow shed conversion.  The art studio is a stunning open plan space and there is plenty of room to wander outside and take inspiration from the amazing landscape and environment of the peaceful Kentmere Valley. Treat yourself to a wonderful experience with great company

We are so proud to receive this award for excellent 5 star provision from student recommendation & verified by Craft Courses after running workshops for only 12 months.  A huge thank you to our fantastic tutors and to our students for such great feedback

We have parking available on site.  We are keen to share our green ethos and are very aware of our environmental footprint.  If you live nearby and it's possible, why not come by bike.

Lunch is a tasty two course meal with home baked bread, cake & refreshments.  We finish the day with a cup of tea and a slice of cake

Join us for a Christmas Wreath Workshop on the 12 Dec

December

Natural Christmas Wreaths

Join us for a fun, festive workshop and create a stunning Christmas wreath using natural foliage, cones and dried flowers, all sourced locally.  Alongside a roaring wood fire, chat, make, nunch on some Christmas eats and be inspired by arist and gardener, Belinda Worsely and her natural approach to wreath making.  The perfect way to get in to the Christmas spirit.

12 Dec  10 - 12

£35  including teas, coffee and Christmas treats

 A creative experience for someone special

- the perfect gift!

Our 2021 Creative Workshop programme

Still to be confirmed but includes many old favourites alongside some exciting new courses

April    

Celebrate Spring with a Needle Felt Animal

Learn how to create a beautiful felt animal with felting needles. Using dry felting techniques you will blend your own wool to create subtle colours and learn to model an animal of your choice. Be inspired by a wide range of wonderful illustrations or base your design on a much-loved pet  Join us for a relaxed and sociable day and be amazed by what you create.  No previous experience needed.

10 April    10 - 4.30

£70 including lunch  

Colourful Anodised Aluminium Jewellery

Join us for a splash of colour in this exciting and playful process.  No experience needed, just enjoy experimenting with felt pens, stamps, paint brushes, inks and dyes to transform aluminium with beautiful colours and patterns.  In the afternoon you will learn how to create jewellery from some of your patterned metal and take home earings, bangles, or pendants.  

Lakeland Landscape: Watercolour & Mixed Media

Enjoy the stunning views of the Kentmere valley and capture the natural beauty of the landscape and the fresh spring colour. The day will combine practical painting and drawing exercises in the art studio with opportunities to work directly outdoors focusing on fells and skies.  A great opportunity to develop your watercolour painting skills combined with pastel painting and drawing techniques.

Drapes to Dungarees . Bespoke Dungarees in a Day 

Have you got an old pair of curtains that you love but are no longer in use? Come and learn how to turn them into a bespoke pair of dashing and daring dungarees, designed to fit your shape.  

The course will cover the whole process and you’ll leave with a new or honed vision for creative reuse. In this spirit; second hand materials are highly encouraged, but if you have your eye on a new piece of fabric that’s great too.

18 April   10 - 4.30

£70  including lunch

Water Colour Portraiture

A fantastic opportunity to explore portrait painting using watercolours.  Work with Sky TV Portrait artist Catherine MacDiarmid and gain expert insight and advice. You will be guided through a variety of exercises covering colour and colour mixing, wet into wet, lifting out and expressive mark making, all with emphasis on gaining confidence painting watercolour portraits.  Using photographs as source material, you will create a final portrait of someone important to you.

23 April   10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Willow Garden Structures

Learn the skills to create your own willow ‘tipi’ garden supports that will stand you proud in your borders, just in time for the growing season! 

These beautiful willow structures are the perfect natural addition to the garden providing support for a wide variety of flowering plants and veg; roses, sweet peas, runner beans, peas and miniature squash. Create your own contemporary look using traditional rural crafts skills.  No previous experience is required.

24 April   10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Dry Stone Walling

Enjoy a great day out in the countryside on our Lakeland farm learning traditional dry stone walling skills from an experienced and friendly tutor who will explain the process. You will learn the basic principles; sorting stone, building foundations and helping to construct a section of wall, developing your confidence as you go. A great introduction to the heritage and ancient rural craft of building walls using only the stone in the field, without cement.

28 April   10 - 4

£75  including lunch

Indigo Dye & Shibori Techniques

Shibori is the Japanese art of indigo resist dyeing. In this hands-on workshop you will learn the basics of Shibori inspired folding, binding, clamping and stitching techniques.  Dipped in Indigo, you will create your own stunning patterns on fabric. Create a stash of samples, working up to a Shibori cushion or cotton scarf.  Perfect for the summer!

29 April   10 - 4.30

£75  including lunch

May

Seaglass Jewellery

The spring is a great time to comb the coast for sea glass, that's been tumbled smooth by the waves. Transform and recycle the subtle coloured pieces into jewellery that is perfect for summer.  You will learn to use a range of tools and develop jewellery making skills, working with sterling silver alongside your sea glass, to create beautiful finished pieces of  jewellery.

1 May  10 - 4.30

£75  including lunch  

Oil Painting Techniques

Be guided by an expert through a variety of oil painting techniques, with an emphasis on experimenting with different approaches to mark making using both thin and thick paint, brushes and palette knives.  You will also develop your skills in mixing colour and tone.  Be prepared to go out of your comfort zone to learn new skills, refresh your approach and gain confidence with this wonderfully versatile medium.  A great workshop for both beginners and  those with more experience.

Image: Student work

11 May

£75 including lunch

Mosaic in a Day

Join us for a fun and relaxing day learning the art of mosaic.  Create a colourful plaque to hang outside or to decorate a wall indoors, a trivet for those hot pots on your table or brighten up coffee breaks with your own mosaic tray.  You will learn about different materials and how to use mosaic tools, with lots of tips on design and pattern. Treat yourself to a great day out and take home an original mosaic of your own.

6 May      10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Bountiful Baskets - 2 day course

Learn a traditional rural craft and make your own timeless round basket with a handle. A course for anyone who likes to use their hands, enjoys the smell and creaking of willow as they work on their woven basket and wants the satisfaction of creating something unique with lots of practical uses. 

This two day course will equip you with the skills to make a truly original basket and provide you with the confidence and ability to work on further baskets at home.  No previous experience required

15 & 16 May

£150 including lunch both days

Monoprint with Gelli plates

Gelli printmaking is a form of mono printing where you take just one image from your plate. It’s fun, quick and messy, with magical results. There is no need for a printing press or any previous printmaking or drawing and painting experience. 

It is an ideal introduction to printmaking using a range of simple techniques to create your own prints. 

21 May    10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch 

Spinner Ring – Silver Jewellery

Spinning rings are both contemporary and mystical. Created from two silver rings; the small middle ring spins around the wider inner band encircling the finger. The spinning motion is perfect for meditation and reducing stress. Join us to create a unique piece of silver jewellery that will be a joy to wear or make a perfect gift and learn a range of jewellery techniques in one day.  Suitable for beginners and more experienced makers 

22 May    10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Enamel Jewellery

Enamel is a decorative coating of coloured glass fused to metal.  It is a really exciting process  experimenting with coloured powder, stencils and sgraffito, then firing your own work to see how the glass melts to the silver or copper, with jewel like results. You will create a number of  jewellery pieces using this decorative process.

The perfect workshop for beginners, those with some jewellery experience and anyone who loves colour.

23 May   10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

June

Raku Pottery  –   2 day course

Raku is a really amazing process that includes firing your own pots outside in a custom made ‘open’ kiln to create unique patterns and designs on your pieces. Raku firing is one of the most dramatic and daring ways to fire pottery. It was developed in Japan in the early 1550s by Zen Buddhists to create ceramics for the Japanese tea ceremony.

The first day you will develop hand-building skills to create a range of pots or models that will exploit raku glaze effects.  These will be dried and biscuit fired ready for you to experiment with glazes and oxides the following week. Chris will guide you through the stages

On the consecutive Saturday, prepare for an exciting session working with an outdoor kiln with controlled use of fire and smoke!  ‘Raku’ loosely means ‘happiness in the unexpected’.  The effects you can achieve can be stunning. 

5 & 12 June  10 - 4.30

£150 including lunch on both days 

Wildlife and Hedgerow in Lino Printing

Be inspired by the wildlife and hedgerows of the Kentmere valley and learn the skills you will need to cut and print your own unique lino design, creating a small edition of stunning prints to take home. 

With expert guidance, explore the importance of mark making and texture. After planning and transferring your design onto an A4 piece, enjoy the rhythm of cutting and interpreting your design into the lino plate.

You will learn hand printing and burnishing techniques and produce both one colour and multicolour designs by varying the inking up. If time, you can introduce chine colle (tissue paper collage) to your print as well.

An ideal introduction to printmaking for beginners and improvers.

6 June    10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch 

Swedish Wood Carving: Spoons & Utensils

Carving decorative and useful utensils from wood is an ancient skill.  Learn the easy, time-honoured and low-tech way of carving creative spoons and gifts out of wood.  Revel in shape and colour,whilst learning safe carving and finishing techniques to enable you to continue on your own.  

The Swedish carving tradition uses mainly axe and knife, which sets it apart from other carving where a variety of chisels are needed. 

13 June    10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch 

Indigo Dye & Shibori Techniques

Shibori is the Japanese art of indigo resist dyeing. In this hands-on workshop you will learn the basics of Shibori inspired folding, binding, clamping and stitching techniques.  Dipped in Indigo, you will create your own stunning patterns on fabric. Create a stash of samples, working up to a Shibori cushion or cotton scarf.  Perfect for the summer!

26 June  10 - 4.30

£75  including lunch

Seaglass Jewellery

Early summer is a great time to comb the coast for sea glass, that's been tumbled smoothe by the waves. Transform and recycle the subtle coloured pieces into jewellery that is perfect for summer.  You will learn to use a range of tools and develop jewellery making skills, working with sterling silver alongside your sea glass, to create beautiful finished pieces of  jewellery.

27 June    10 - 4.30

£75  including lunch  

July

Experimental Portrait Drawing

Learn to paint quick and lively oil portraits in this one day workshop that focuses on expressive oil portrait painting techniques.  With expert tuition from Sky TV Portrait artist Catherine MacDiarmid, you will be guided through a series of exercises exploring a variety of oil painting techniques, use of different painting brushes/tools and different colour palettes.  It is designed to challenge your practice and broaden your approaches to portrait painting. 

Working from a model in the afternoon will enable you to put those skills into practice with a portrait from life. 

3 July  10 - 4.30

£80 including lunch and model in the afternoon

Lakeland Landscape in Gouache and Mixed Media

Enjoy the stunning views of the Kentmere valley and capture the natural beauty of the landscape and the early autumn colour, using opaque water colour gouache.  The day will combine practical painting and drawing exercises in the art studio using with opportunities to work directly outdoors focusing on fells and skies.  A great opportunity to develop your painting skills and explore a variety of mixed media techniques.  

4 July    10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Printed Table Runner Inspired by the Sea-shore

Learn how to combine your own carved lino block with stencils to create a fabulous linen table runner inspired by the sea-shore. You will plan out a design on paper, cut your own stencils to use with fabric paint and learn to carve a small lino block to combine together onto sample pieces of fabric.  Once your confident with the process, bring these skills together to stencil and print  your own table runner.  Perfect for summer dining

8 July    10 - 4.30

£70 including lunch

Bountiful Baskets - 2 day course

Learn a traditional rural craft and make your own timeless round basket with a handle. A course for anyone who likes to use their hands, enjoys the smell and creaking of willow as they work on their woven basket and wants the satisfaction of creating something unique with lots of practical uses. 

This two day course will equip you with the skills to make a truly original basket and provide you with the confidence and ability to work on further baskets at home.  No previous experience required

10 & 11 July   10 - 4.30

£150 including lunch both days

Silver Clay Jewellery

Silver clay is an exciting medium that appeals to both jewellery novices and more experienced craftspeople as it requires little by way of equipment, and responds beautifully to the imagination! This putty-like clay contains tiny particles of silver, water and binders, which is fired on the day, bonding your design into a finished piece of pure silver, ready to take away. Silver clay lends itself to texture, 3D forms and experimentation. It can be rolled, moulded, stamped and will retain fine imprinted detail

24 July.     10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Drawing Local Wildlife in Mixed Media

Join us on a traditional Lakeland farm to develop the basic drawing skills you need to draw animals confidently and to observe animals in their natural environment.   You will have plenty of opportunities to observe, sketch and photograph animals on the farm and experiment with water-  soluble brush pens.  The workshop will cover steps on how to draw animals using simple shapes and lines, the concept of gesture drawing combined with observation and some basic animal anatomy.

25 July 10 - 4.30

£75  including lunch

August

Dry Stone Walling

Enjoy a great day out in the countryside on our Lakeland farm learning traditional dry stone walling skills from an experienced and friendly tutor who will explain the process. You will learn the basic principles; sorting stone, building foundations and helping to construct a section of wall, developing your confidence as you go. A great introduction to the heritage and ancient rural craft of building walls using only the stone in the field, without cement.

26 Aug    10 - 4.30

£75  including lunch

September

Hand Building and Raku Firing – 2 day course

Raku is a really amazing process that includes firing your own pots outside in an ‘open’ kiln to create unique patterns and designs on your pieces. Raku firing is one of the most dramatic and daring ways to fire pottery, developed in Japan in the 16th century 

Day one is dedicated to making, with an emphasis on clay forms that exploit raku glaze effects like crazing, copper flashing and contrast of clay body to glaze. Students will be guided through hand building methods, developing slab, pinch and coil techniques so they can complete large pieces as well as bird and animal forms.  These will be biscuit fired ready for you to glazing the following week.

On the consecutive Saturday, prepare for an exciting session working with an outdoor kiln with controlled use of fire and smoke!  ‘Raku’ loosely means ‘happiness in the unexpected’.  The effects you can achieve can be stunning. 

4  & 11 Sept  10 - 4.30

£150 including lunch on both days 

Colourful Anodised Aluminium Jewellery

Join us for a splash of colour in this exciting and playful process.  No experience needed, just enjoy experimenting with felt pens, stamps, paint brushes, inks  and dyes to transform aluminium.  In the afternoon you will learn how to create jewellery from some of your patterned metal and take home earings, bangles, or pendants.  

12 Sept   10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Drapes to Dungarees . Bespoke dungarees in a day 

Have you got an old pair of curtains that you love but are no longer in use? Come and learn how to turn them into a bespoke pair of dashing and daring dungarees, designed to fit your shape.  

The course will cover the whole process and you’ll leave with a new or honed vision for creative reuse. In this spirit; second hand materials are highly encouraged, but if you have your eye on a new piece of fabric that’s great too.

18 Sept     10 - 4.30pm

£ 70 including lunch

Silver Clay Jewellery

Silver clay is an exciting medium that appeals to both jewellery novices and more experienced craftspeople as it requires little by way of equipment, and responds beautifully to the imagination! This putty-like clay contains tiny particles of silver, water and binders, which is fired on the day, bonding your design into a finished piece of pure silver, ready to take away. Silver clay lends itself to texture, 3D forms and experimentation. It can be rolled, moulded, stamped and will retain fine imprinted detail

21 Sept    10 - 4,30

£75 including lunch

October

Spinner Ring – Silver Jewellery

Spinning rings are both contemporary and mystical. Created from two silver rings; the small middle ring spins around the wider inner band encircling the finger. The spinning motion is perfect for meditation and reducing stress. Join us to create a unique piece of silver jewellery that will be a joy to wear or make a perfect gift and learn a range of jewellery techniques in one day.  Suitable for beginners and more experienced makers 

16 Oct   10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Enamel Jewellery

Enamel is a decorative coating of coloured glass fused to metal.  It is a really exciting process  experimenting with coloured powder, stencils and sgraffito, then firing your own work to see how the glass melts to the silver or copper, with jewel like results. You will create a number of  jewellery pieces using this decorative process.

The perfect workshop for beginners, those with some jewellery experience and anyone who loves colour.

17 Oct   10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch

Willow Platter

Learn a traditional rural craft and make your own willow platter. These simple, yet stylish platters are great for displaying  baked bread, cheese and fruit  and make a special gift for friends.
 

This technique uses lots of short sticks, making it an ideal starter project for people interested in gathering hedgerow-material from garden and walks!  No previous experience required.

22 October 10 - 4.30

£75 including lunch  

December

Cowshed Creative Social Media Links