Friday 21 June 2013

Featured Artist - Charlotte Priest

This June and July we are delighted to be exhibiting work by the talented Charlotte Priest - aka Studio Charley.
Installation view of Charlotte's beautiful Paper-cuts

Stunning Fairy-Tale paper-cut

You are the reason I breathe
 Studio Charley is the brain child of an over caffeinated, scalpel wielding paper-cutter  with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Communication and a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, who can often be found dissecting paper at her home in Essex.


Wedding Sampler

Detail of Wedding Sampler
During her admittedly short life (she is only 22!), Charley has explored and experimented with many different art and craft forms, before stumbling across the art of paper cutting a few years ago. She was immediately hooked with this art form as it fully allowed her to revel in her “cough” slight “cough” paper obsession, and she is currently combining it with her other love, fairy-tales  to bring their beautiful stories to life.
Detail of "If you go down to the woods"
Why not take this opportunity to commission a unique gift for that someone special or that special occasion. Studio Charley can produce birth, anniversary, wedding, congratulations or Family tree samplers plus images from your favourite fairy-tales – order yours today.
Family Tree
If you would like to exhibit your work at The Laboratory please contact:

Lisa Smith on 07970332097 or email the_laboratory@hotmail.co.uk

Monday 17 June 2013

Superheroes Party at The Laboratory

This weekend we had a top team of  superheroes swoop into The Laboratory to celebrate a special birthday. Our super heroes enjoyed making their own mask, cape, split pin moveable figure and special super hero badge......and still had time for The Laboratories special arty pass the parcel.
Find out how our heroes got on below:


How fabulous are these Super hero themed cakes?

All good super heroes need a little help at times, mum helps to add sparkle to this beautiful pink mask

This super heroes green mask had sparkly numbers added ready to solve all sorts of equations

It takes great concentration to make a great mask and a split pin super hero!

The birthday boy working hard colouring in his mask - green appeared to be the colour of the day!

As each child arrived they were given this split pin super hero template to colour in whilst they waited for our other party super heroes to fly in

Looking on whilst getting some top tips for party host Lisa

This little super hero adds sparkle, and felt shapes to his hand made cape

More fantastic super hero cape designs being made


How amazing do these capes look? 

DC and Marvel have nothing on this lot, a lovely picture in full costume showing of their stunning masks, badges, split pin super hero and cape - all made in 2 hours - phew!

After all that hard work making it was time to play pass the parcel

Super hero pass the parcels ready for our super heroes to blast through!
Have you ever wondered what gives super heroes their power? Well we have found out the answer - popcorn!

At The Laboratory we design and deliver art parties for all ages! You chose your own theme and we design the party. You can choose from papercraft, fabric, sculpture, canvas painting, pottery, nail art, tiara and jewellery making or model making.
Themes can include under the sea, prince and princesses, bugs and butterflies, pirates, jungle animals, mermaids, hot wheels, ghosties, football, moshi monsters, Dr Who, Star Wars, Cars, The Simpsons and sooooooo much more!!! - Phew!
If you would like to enquire about a birthday parties at The Laboratory email Lisa on the_laboratory@hotmail.co.uk 

New Make over for The Laboratory

We are proud to launch our new range of promotional materials for The Laboratory Art Studio based at Wat Tyler Country Park in Basildon. The fabulous designs have all been created by the very talented Lisa Dunn, showcasing the range of activities available at the studio including weekend workshops, children's art classes, adult art classes, children's art parties, exhibition space for hire plus artwork for by yours truly.
We hope that you like our new look and look forward to seeing you at The Laboratory soon!
Our Newly designed generic flyer

Information on our art classes

Information on our children's art parties

Our new programme for July - Don't forget to book your spaces

New signs up 

I hope to see you soon at The Laboratory, if you have any questions or queries email me on the_laboratory@hotmail.co.uk

Father's Day art at The Laboratory

Last weekend children of all ages joined us at The Laboratory to make some personal and special gifts for some very lucky Daddies! As promised I have posted this blog after Father's Day as we didn't want to give any of the lovely presents made secrets away!!!
Our weekend workshops run between 12:00noon and 4:30pm and offer families the opportunity to spend a bit of quality time together whilst getting creative in a fun environment. This Saturday was no exception and children and adults enjoyed creating a paper craft banner, a beautiful Fathers Day Card and painting a wooden key rack using acrylic paint.
Here is what we got up to
Working hard to make a banner for Dad

Once the triangles were decorated they needed to be spaced out ready to be attached to a piece of ribbon

This is what we like to see at The Laboratory, a busy working table

Making a rainbow coloured Father's Day card

Getting a little bit of a helping hand from mum
 And here are some of the beautiful finished pieces
Some children added paper craft cut outs and embellishments to complete their designs

We love this simple but stunning design painted using acrylic paint

One of our lovely families showing off their afternoons hard work

I wonder what is the message in this bottle under the sea!

A lovely sparkly keyrack