Day 1: Masterboards & Concertina Journal

• Morning: The Vision & The Intention

  • Arrive and establish the seasonal focus. A guided exercise exploring intentions for the year ahead, identifying core visual energies, boundaries and words of intent. 

  • Participants jot down quick notes, fragments of text etc

  • Masterboards - Working on large, heavy sheets of paper, participants lay down the foundational layers of their masterboards using:

    • Paints and starch-paste resists

    • Scratching, writing, gesso

    • Stencilling, mark-making, and stamped motifs

  • Building the Vision - Layering directly into the wet/tacky masterboards with collage elements, botanical tissues, script and visual fragments that represent the vision for the coming season. 

• Lunch (masterboards dry completely)

• Afternoon: Harvesting the Masterboard & Folding the Concertina

  • Paper Mechanics - Scoring, bone-folder discipline, and folding a multi-panel concertina spine from heavy stock.

  • Harvesting & Board Binding - The most striking, coherent sections are cut to size and glued directly to grey boards to create the front and back covers. Remaining scraps are set aside for tomorrow’s pockets, tags, and pin components.

  • Setting the spines and mounting the concertina paper accordion into the masterboard hard covers. Weighted to dry flat overnight.

Day 2: Textile Resists, Dimensional Pockets & The Witness Pin

• Morning: The Fabric Masterboard & Slow Stitch

  • The Boundary Focus - Checking the pressed book covers. A brief grounding prompt on creative boundaries and physical anchors, and how to protect the creative vision.

  • Fabric Masterboard - Translating the masterboard technique to unbleached linen or heavy cotton scraps. Stamping, resist-drawing, and ink washes to create a unified textile panel embedded with symbolic marks.

  • Slow Stitch - Quiet, rhythmic hand-stitching across the textile swatches using thread, or metallic accents, sealing personal intentions into the cloth through repetitive movement.

• Lunch

• Afternoon: Assembling

  • The Talisman - Using offcuts from your paper masterboards and stitched fabrics, participants assemble a dimensional wearable pin or weighted talisman with wire wrapping, beads, and tiny rolled intention scrolls.

  • Populating the book - Cutting windows, fold-out flaps, pockets, and tip-ins from the leftover masterboards. These are mounted into the concertina folds to create a dimensional, sculptural vision book that can stand open like an exhibition piece.

  • Studio Showing & Closing Circle - Expanding the books along the tables and pinning the brooches. Sharing one structural learning from the craft and one boundary or project claimed for the spring.