Scultpure in a house in Whetstone, N20

What: Sculpture and pottery classes taught by Linda Zeff

Where: Totteridge and Whetstone tube is a stones throw away

When: Day time and evening courses

I felt slightly unsure about whether I was in the right place as I walked round the cul de sac and found the correct house number. Wondering whether I might interupt a family sitting down to dinner, I knocked on the door. Thankfully, a friendly woman with clay on her hands greeted me and led me inside into a makeshift workshop in which I planned to spend the evening creating a sculpture.

The woman was Linda Zeff, the teacher, and once she'd got another new student set up she took me on a tour. Her laundry room contains 2 kilns for firing the clay models and shelves full of student's work which spill over into her other store room. I was then led into the 2 rooms at the back of the house which were buzzing with people, sleezes rolled up, critically examining and fiddling with their clay shapes in front of them. It was quite a short tour but I liked how proud she clearly was of the set up.

As Linda sat me down between 2 fellow students, Tattiana and Freddy, I felt apprehensive. I'm used to drawing... working in 3D is a whole different ball game. I was kitted out with a board, a turny thing to go under it and a heavy handful of cold, wet terracotta clay. I decided to make a torso to sit in the window of our soon to be new flat. This was perhaps a little ambitious but I was somehow feeling more confident already.

Linda showed me how to get started; by building the shape slowly from a flat base of clay and adding smallish chunks at a time with a bit of hoping for the best and a sculpture to copy. I felt quite pleased with my progress until Linda came back over and turned it round, revealing a misshapen backside - top tip for sculpture is keep turning it round. She pointed out that it looked like it was crouching to 'do it's business'. Her honesty was refreshing and the humour made it all feel entirely unintimidating.

Linda did a bit of torso damage control, got me back on track and then went off to help everyone else (she was very good at spending enough time with each of us). I continued, with unhelpful but quite funny comments from freewheeling massive head moulding Freddy who said she looked like she'd been "cut in half and stuck back together without a spine". His comments were offset by Tattiana's encouraging remarks on the shapely breasts and womanly bottom.

I continued in a sort of semi meditative manner and experienced the amazing process of watching this blob of clay slowly transform. One of the highlights during this was Linda's husband Colin appearing and taking hot drink requests. How happily I sipped on my tea as I squidged and smudged and prodded at my lady's stumpy legs.

By the end of the evening I'd made a torso fit for our future windowsill and perhaps for an episode of Baywatch - I think even Freddy was impressed by it's shapely form. Linda's a straight talker, so when you've finished and she says 'that's turned out beautifully' you feel like she truly means it.

Along the way I got to know Mike the osteopath from Enfield, Tattiana the documentary maker from Old Street and Freddy the student from Angel. There was a gaggle of other women in the back room having a good natter too. It was generally a very convivial way to spend the evening.

So the upshot is, if you want 2.5 hours of creative therapy complete with hot drink and nice people to chat to if you so wish, this is for you. Linda will make sure you end up with something you're proud of, drawing on her 13 years of teaching experience to give you as much help as you want.

Here's what Linda told me about why she does these classes:

"In 13 years I've never had anyone do something that doesn't get me excited. Some students come to me saying they can't do it but they always surprise themselves and then they just get more and more ambitious. I get a buzz when I open the kiln and their sculpture is sitting in there looking beautiful, or when they glaze them - it's like alchemy seeing the colours emerge."

For more information on prices and times or to book a class, visit www.lindazeff.com/

London Drawing at Tate Modern

2 pictures copywrite of London Drawing














What: Life drawing with a difference

Level: Accessible to beginners and artists alike

Where & when: Tate Modern galleries on Monday evenings from 18.45–20.45. 19th October- Monday 30th November

How much: £20 for one session

My friend Lucie and I spent Monday evening in the Warhol room at the Tate taking part in London Drawing's fresh take on the standard life drawing class.

Kicking off with juice and biscuits (a delight), we were taken into the Andy Warhol and then Jeff Koon rooms in which naked women with stars on their nipples were posing. Our two tutors Anne Noble-Partridge and David Price gave us shorts talks on the artists to get us into their mindsets and asked us to create something that played on those themes and captured the essence of whichever room we chose to create in. We were asked not to get hung up on trying to draw the model in front of us, but to embrace the materials they had provided us with (coloured paper, magazines etc) and perhaps focus on particular elements that drew our attention, or particular styles of representation such as repetition.

The 2 hours we had sped by in no time and if anything, they could do with making the course a little longer to include time to go round the galleries to inspire us out of our day-at-work-heads. Going round looking at everyone's wildly varied art at the end, it was clear that there was a whole range of different abilities and personalities - clearly we all got truly into the spirit of the class. Lucie went for sillhouettes and 3D, and now has it hung proudly on her wall. Mine is abandoned half fallen behind a radiator because it turned out a bit crap. But I had fun doing it!

We walked home with a girl we met at the class called Joanne - another lovely bonus of going to classes like this. She's a jewelry designer who was looking for fresh ideas. Here she is and what she had to say:

"Pop art isn't very me, but the tutor explained ways to make it work for you... I just did my thing with bolder colours and lines... I loved it"

And here's what Anne, one of the tutors, has to say about it:

Our goal:
London Drawing aims to radically reinvent the traditional concept ofdrawing from life through producing unique drawing workshops, which areengaging, inspiring and entirely relevant to contemporary practice.

What we want people to gain from our workshops:
We hope to encourage participants of all levels of ability to useunconventional materials and approaches to explore their own visuallanguage. We aim to provide a creative, fun environment where participantsare encouraged to 'think like an artist' in workshops which are arecompletely accessible - working on the premise that no skills or drawing experience are needed to make strong and exciting work.

To book classes in the future, follow this link: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/coursesworkshops/19597.htm

To check out the other great looking classes London drawing offer, follow this:

http://www.londondrawing.com/

Recipease, Clapham Junction

What: Learn how to cook even better
Where: Recipease, 48 - 50 St. Johns Road, Clapham Junction, Battersea, SW11 1PR

How much: Varies depending on whether you do a class or make a pizza (2 pizzas for £10)

My boyfriend James and I are listening to Tina Turner and tucking into the delicious pizzas we made for lunch at Jamie Oliver's latest retail venture Recipease in Clapham Junction. This isn't just a shop for over priced marmalade, it's also a place to make good food using great fresh ingredients - and you don't have to clean up afterwards!

There was a big group making fresh ravioli while we were there

for which they had to pay £20 each to learn how to make (they

were all also happily sipping on free wine). We were just nipping in to buy some lunch but were told that you don't have to book to make pizzas from scratch

They kit you out in an apron and for £10 you are handed a bowl of dough and an essentially endless supply of chunks of mozarella, salami, jars of oily anchovies and sundried tomatoes, you name the topping, and they have it, nicely chopped up and in little individual bowls like TV chefs always have.

The staff are inordinately helpful and nice and don't even give you disapproving looks when you try and use every single topping available. The uncooked beautys get put into take away pizza boxes and then you take it home to cook. James is now eating a meaty feast and I am eating a 14 topping taste sensation.

Let Rip at Sir John Soane's Museum

Yesterday I made one of my regular pilgrimmages to what is possibly my favourite place in London - Sir John Soane's Museum. It's filled with objects of curiosity and reminds me of my Grandad. This time I went with a purpose beyond just wandering around the place imagining it was my house. I went and took part in a free workshop called 'Let Rip', held as part of the Big Draw event.

We made a motley crew of 11 of all different nationalities, ages, and levels of drawing ability (i.e. from 'I can't draw really' to 'I'm an artist and lecture in art college'). We first spent an hour drawing an object that caught our fancy from inside the museum with the condition being we had to choose something with lots of light and dark contrasts within it. Armed with lots of B pencils we were encouraged to keep shading and shading till our drawings near sprung out of the paper.

Back in the workshop our teacher laid out vast quantities of painted paper and this we used to make collages based on our drawings. A lovely silence descended on the room for the next few hours as we busily concentrated on ripping up bits of coloured paper and gluing them into position carefully. Sticky fingers and cups of tea and contented smiles on everyones faces.

The collages started off looking horrible but after much encouragement and comments like 'it's coming together' from our teacher, they really did start to take shape and by 4pm we all had two pictures, one drawn and one stuck together, that we were rather proud of.

Sir John Soane's museum does other events for adults and for kids and families, you can find details of them here: http://www.soaneeducation.org.uk/home/index.cfm?CFID=1739361&CFTOKEN=51516954

P.S. A great British artist called Mary Delany pioneered this process and created pictures of flowers that appeared to be paintings unless you looked very closely. See her work at the British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/m/mary_delany,_physalis,_winter.aspx

The Big Draw

The Campaign for Drawing is an arts educational charity aiming to get everyone drawing.

Their flagship event, The Big Draw kicks off on the 10th October and runs for a month across more than 1000 venues, from village halls and nursery schools to national museums and castles.

In London, there are 166 events that you can be part of... too many to list here but if you follow this link you'll see all of them:

http://www.thebigdraw.org.uk/bigdraw/search.aspx?RAB=3

Highlights include screen printing in West Norwood, free workshops making masks and mosaics in the British Museum, taking part in a watery drawing activity at Brockwell Park Lido and 'miniature drawing of drawing and small spaces' in the labyrinthine Sir John Soane's Museum in Holborn.

There are also lots of half-term family activities, most of which are free. The problem is which ones to choose!

Create in the City

This is a blog to help people get creative and make things in London

Why?

Recently I had a spontaneous urge to do a life drawing class during a particularly boring day at work. When I tried to find one happening that evening in the area, I got nothing. This was even after I searched for quite some time (when I should have been getting on with more important things like project schedules).

Eventually, I found somewhere by happening to pass it one lunchtime and noticing a little leaflet in the window. I went and it was great. I felt inspired, invigorated and like I’d done something different with my time for once. I drew some slightly disfigured figures and now they're proudly displayed on my wall at home.

There is not one place online that brings together all the creative activities happening all over London. There’s a site for courses (hot courses) and there’s sites for things you can do in London (Time out) but there’s nothing that focuses solely on creative pursuits. That’s where Create in the City comes in.

This is all new to me. Like my life drawing class experience, it may come out slightly disfigured but I hope it leaves me (and you) feeling inspired and invigorated and most importantly gives you some tips on places to go in London for your creative pursuits.