Unlocking Your Sketchbook (CB04X4YHa)
February 4, 2027 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
£79.00
Unlocking your sketchbook – A tactile approach to creating jewellery design ideas (CB04X4YHa)
This course is perfect for anyone daunted by a blank sketchbook and the thought of adding pencil to paper. Think cutting, tracing, using stickers, lots of design challenges and exploring alternative techniques specifically designed to keep your sketchbook colourful and inspirational.
Guided by jewellery tutor Beccy Gillatt, you will create a stunning, colourful sketchbook packed with vibrant ideas for your next jewellery projects.
This session is designed to push your design skills and encourage you to look at everyday images through a brand-new lens. You will learn to spot negative spaces, isolate gorgeous colour palettes, and extract unique design elements. You’ll never look at the world around you the same way again!
While this workshop will challenge you to think outside the box and push your creative boundaries, it is incredibly rewarding. It will help you fluidly develop concepts for your future jewellery making before you ever need to worry about technical drawings.
Before the Session:
1) Complete Two Colour Grids
Pick a specific colour or a unique shape, then find 9 items that match it around your home or out on a walk. Take photos, print them out, and arrange them into a 3×3 grid.
Pick a specific colour or a unique shape, then find 9 items that match it around your home or out on a walk. Take photos, print them out, and arrange them into a 3×3 grid.
2) Collect Visual Inspiration
Gather images of anything that catches your eye from magazines, photographs, or Google Images. Don’t overthink it—focus on shapes, colours, patterns, or textures that interest you (such as circular items, a specific colour palette, or different types of leaves).
Gather images of anything that catches your eye from magazines, photographs, or Google Images. Don’t overthink it—focus on shapes, colours, patterns, or textures that interest you (such as circular items, a specific colour palette, or different types of leaves).
During the Session:
Visual Inspiration & Mood Pages
We will dive right into the images you collected before the session, transforming them into beautiful mood pages to kickstart your unique design process.
We will dive right into the images you collected before the session, transforming them into beautiful mood pages to kickstart your unique design process.
The Art of Tracing
Tracing is a fantastic, pressure-free way to put pencil to paper. It allows you to create lovely lines and forms to guide your future work. We will use tracing throughout the day to navigate all of our workshop challenges.
Tracing is a fantastic, pressure-free way to put pencil to paper. It allows you to create lovely lines and forms to guide your future work. We will use tracing throughout the day to navigate all of our workshop challenges.
The Creative Challenges:
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- One Shape Challenge: Choose a simple shape and scale it to three different sizes. Next, form these shapes out of wire and push yourself to arrange them into as many different patterns as possible, taking photos of each layout.
- Repeat Pattern Challenge: Select a shape and draw it out in various repeating layouts to explore innovative new chain designs.
- Stone Design Challenge: Print out multiple copies of a single statement stone. You will design jewellery around it by drawing directly onto and around the images to frame the stone in different ways.
- Components Placement Challenge: Select three or more components from your silver scrap box (or create a few quick paper shapes and a stone), then arrange them in as many configurations as you can think of.
- Design Grid Challenge: Take a favorite inspirational image and print or trace it into the top left corner of a 12-box grid in your sketchbook. In the first box, draw a piece of jewellery inspired by that image. Move to the next box and alter, tweak, or add to the design based on your source photo. Keep evolving the design box-by-box until the grid is full!
Enhancing Your Designs
At the end of the day, we will use a splash of coloured pencil alongside several different pencil grades to bring your absolute favourite concepts to life.
At the end of the day, we will use a splash of coloured pencil alongside several different pencil grades to bring your absolute favourite concepts to life.
What to Bring:
- Mindfulness Colouring Books: (Charity shops are brilliant for these!) Look for books filled with lovely shapes and patterns. We will overlay tracing paper to extract lines for pendants and other components.
- Magazines to Cut Up: Gather colourful leaflets, garden magazines, or local brochures. Don’t worry about the text or topics—just look for great colours and imagery.
- Physical Inspiration: A few little items you love from your scrap pot or small test pieces you’ve previously made.
- Sketchbook: A clean, blank-page A4 sketchbook.
Materials: There will be a large selection of resources to use in addition to the above (what to bring)
Level: Suitable for all
Tutor: Beccy Gillatt
Cancellation policy – Please read before booking https://beccygillatt.com/cancellation-policy/
View our other workshops here: www.beccygillatt.com/events
