I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day in the morning.

We’ve added December listings to our events page, including craft fairs at Crafty Fox and Bust Craftacular, Christmas workshops at the Crafty Pint Handmade Xmas and the new Printed Wonders’ studio in Rochester, Kent – which is also participating in Medway open studios.

We hope you can join us sometime over the festive season.

Come along to the Printed Wonders pop-up shop on Clerkenwell Green, open daily this week until Saturday 27th October. On sale are new printed tote bags, Halloween goodies, cards, vinyl window / wall stickers, bunting and prints by Xtina Lamb. Drop in and see her making window vinyls and halloween decorations.

The Corner Shop at Craft Central
21 Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0DX    Map
Open 11am – 6.30pm daily
Mon 22nd  - Sat 27th October 2012

Join Xtina for more Gocco printing fun at the Multiplied contemporary editions art fair at Christie’s auction rooms in South Kensington, London.

The fair itself is lovely to wander through, with a great range of prints and other editioned art from well known and international artists. As the work is made in editions, much of what is on offer is at affordable prices. The fair is open free from the 12th – 15th October, in Christie’s South Kensington auction rooms.

Xtina will be running fun printing workshops on the Sunday – one  for children with water basked inks, screen printing a fabric banner and flags with pop art imagery, and one for adults with oil based printing using the Gocco machines.

Have a look at the Seaside Sisters Events page for more details.

We were very chuffed to be asked by Coast magazine to share our favourite tea towel projects with their readers.  We love seaside souvenirs, and this feature shows you how to make an apron, cushion, bag and bunting all from the humble tea towel.

We were very pleased with how the photos came out, and really enjoyed working with the Coast team. All four projects for making a cushion, apron, bunting and bag are in the September issues of Coast magazine.  You can see more of our coastal crafting here on the Seaside Sisters website and tea towel souvenir workshops are planned with Crafty Pint in the autumn.  You can even buy some of the projects featured in Coast - take a peek here and here.

Printed Wonders exhibition and workshop :  11th – 15th September 2012

Xtina will be showing screen prints, Gocco prints, rubber stamped stationery, digitally cut vinyl decorations and relief printed artworks in a show at Craft Central, Clerkenwell in September. In the foyer glass cabinets, smaller work by Xtina and other artists will be on display to show a range of printed techniques.

Drop-in workshops are running each day in the exhibition space between noon and 5pm. You can start when you like and choose how long to do a workshop for. In one hour sessions you can print with Xtina’s own pre-made designs, or go for two or three hours to learn a whole process, working with your own artwork.

Tue 11th – Gocco screen printing, water based inks on paper, fabric or tote bags.
Wed 12th – Digital cutting, vinyl stickers and paper.
Thu 13th – Lino printing, on paper, cushion covers, tea towels or tote bags.
Fri 14th – Rubber stamping, paper artworks, notebooks and stationery.
Sat 15th – Gocco printing with oil based inks on stationery, cards and paper.

Craft Central, 33-35 St John’s Square, London EC1M 4DS
Prices: £10 – 15 per hour.
Pre-booking is recommended. More details on our Events page.

For those who haven’t dropped by yet, here are a selection of images from the shop to tempt you…

With thanks to Claire our guest blogger and Seaside Sisters volunteer.

You might have noticed we are partial to a souvenir tea towel or two.  So we have included a chance to print your own tea towels at our Craft Central show this Saturday.

At this workshop, you will explore vintage tea towel and textile design, and learn how to design and cut your own lino block.  These will be used to print up your own set of hand printed tea towels, all designed by you!  Whilst your tea towel is drying (which doesn’t take long), treat yourself to some homemade cakes, all included in the workshop.

We use a soft lino which is much easier to cut than the traditional lino you might remember from your school days. All inks are washable and non-toxic, so your finished tea towel can be used and washed. That’s if you don’t plan to frame your work of art!

Take a peek at our Facebook album to see all the fab things we made at our previous printing workshops.  And you can see what we got up to at our last workshop in this little film…

Our Craft Central show opened this week. We spent the day amid shoals of fish, vintage coastal prints and mysterious mermaids, meeting some very nice visitors from all over London.

We are open all week, with a tea party on Saturday with some rather special compass themed cakes and a chance to make your own compass!

Points of the Compass

Tuesday 26th June – Saturday 30th June

11am to 6.30pm

Craft Central

33-35 St John’s Square

London EC1M 4DS

Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 6.30pm.

Afternoon tea party Saturday 30^th June at 2pm.

Free entrance.

Nearest tube Farringdon.  Or a short walk / bus from Old Street or Angel.

Bus routes 63, 55, 243 and 153.