What Happens at Eleven 16 Coffee Mornings?

What happens at the Coffee Morning

By Rosemary Black 

In June I was very lucky to get a Tuesday to attend the free monthly coffee morning at the Eleven17 studios above The Face Painting Shop. The coffee morning is FREE, although you do need a ticket. Tickets are available when the event is announced on  Facebook.  

While each coffee morning has different face painters attending Nicky Gardner is the host. If you’ve never actually met Nicky you’ve probably seen one of her live videos or had an order packed by her. Nicky is one of my favourite on-the-job artists, she’s a great font of knowledge on paint, SFX and henna. Speaking of which, while we waited for other artists to arrive she beautifully applied some to my hand. 

Liz Bylett of Follies Faces (and The Living Art Show) was in attendance and most of the coffee morning was centred around her recreating part of her amazing body paint from the Chelsea Flower Show. She showed us how to paint peonies which we all had a go at on our own arms. There was also plenty of chat with the other painters who were all of varying levels of experience! 

I think there are three major benefits to attending the coffee morning;  

1. Free knowledge, it’s almost like a mini class or a try before you buy session.
2. We are a solitary bunch! Mostly painters work alone or are too busy painting hordes of customers to properly chat to each other. It’s always good to have a talk with your peers.  
3. The Face Painting Shop is just downstairs. After spending the morning trying all the colours and new products upstairs you can go add to your kit.

So be on the look out for our next coffee morning.