Monday, September 12, 2016

Exquisite & Delicate - The Journals of Derika Volpi


This coming Saturday, 17 September, I am very excited to be hosting a visual journaling workshop at the Play Café which will be taught by my wonderful friend and artist, Derika Volpi.  She holds a BA (Fine Arts) degree in Information Design, and is passionate about hand lettering, typography, layout, sketching and photography.  Have a look at her instagram profile (@derikavol) and you'll see what I mean!

Derika's visual journals as well as her photography highlights all the wonderful detail that most of us tend to overlook when we see beautiful big landscapes or when we travel to new and unknown places. We are so often overwhelmed and taken by everything that is "bigger and better" that we lose so much of the exceptionally beautiful detail that surrounds us.  This is a theme that keeps emerging in much of her work.




She prefers to work in small and portable formats mostly. As a busy home-schooling mother of 2, many of her journal pages are done in her tiny A6 Moleskine Diary - which is a practice that she has inspired me to follow too.  She believes in a minimalist approach to art materials.  Derika's pages are often a combination of 3 elements only - collage, sketches and hand lettering.




She adores paper and prefers to use old labels, postage stamps, pages from old journals, vintage book papers, even the patterned insides of used envelopes as well as tiny seeds and leaves discovered during nature trips - which she loves taking with her family.

During the workshop, she will be guiding us through the creation of tiny journals made with recycled papers, and also introduce us to her unique style elements as we create our own visual journal pages.

Message me if you'd like to attend - and I'll forward you the details.

Here's a sneek peak into some of her wonderful journals:

























Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Play Café Retreats & Workshop News

I've had the amazing opportunity to facilitate two 1-day retreats during the past winter months.  It is a little slice of heaven for me to be able to spend an entire day with beautiful likeminded souls and to share with them the incredible practice of visual journaling which I am so passionate about.

The first one was held in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga.

Then came LEEF Magazine's Creative Retreat in the beautiful Cape Town where 52 courageous women journaled their hearts out at the gorgeous Altydlig Wine Estate.  What an amazing experience to be able to work with this team!  I'll be doing one of these again - this time in Johannesburg on 19 November - and feeling blessed to be working with Christine and her wonderful team once again.


Seriously wished I could put these two in my pocket and take them home with me!




Stunning view of Table Mountain covered in a rainshower in the distance.



And here's a rundown of what's happening in-house this term at the Play Café Studio/Workshop in Pretoria:



Our first workshop took place on 27 August.  We made flag journals....that became banners of love...  So much beauty came from these girls as they poured their hearts into these flags. 
17 September's workshop is 2 weeks away.  Are you coming?