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Chrissy Cottrell

Creative Marketing Manager

Chrissy Cottrell is a creative marketing professional specialising in brand strategy, content marketing and customer engagement. As Creative Marketing Manager at Specialist Crafts, she leads content and brand initiatives that connect products, creativity and learning. Outside of work, she maintains an active creative practice with a particular passion for mixed media and printmaking, exploring materials, techniques and experimental processes, bringing both industry knowledge and hands-on experience to her content.

Our Latest Posts

10 Contemporary Textile Artists for Art Teachers: Inspiring Artist References for the Classroom

  Finding contemporary textile artists who give students something meaningful to investigate can be harder than it sounds. The most useful artist references don't simply provide an image to copy – they introduce new materials, processes, ideas and ways of thinking.Contemporary textile art is particularly rich territory for GCSE Art ...

Essential Fabric Techniques for Textile Artists

Discover creative sewing and textile techniques that transform fabric into textured, dimensional designs. Techniques include American smocking, English smocking, appliqué, reverse appliqué, double tucks, flounces, gathering, pleats, ruffles, shirring, heat-gun and slashing with a focus on fabric manipulation and surface detail. ...

Essential Monoprinting Techniques for Artists

Explore Monoprinting: Essential Techniques, Texture, Colour & Creative EffectsDiscover how to monoprint with our step-by-step printmaking video series for art students and teachers. Learn how to ink a printing plate and explore additive and subtractive monotype, trace printing, ghost printing, layering, stencils, texture, chine-collé and ...

How To Guide: Experimental Botanical Monoprint Collage

Watch the Full Video or Follow the Step-by-Step Guide BelowDownload PowerPoint Slides Download PowerPoint slides document.getElementById('sc-pptx-download').addEventListener('click', async function (e) { if (!window.showSaveFilePicker) return; // Firefox/Safari: normal download e.preventDefault(); var url = ...

10 Contemporary Monoprint & Monotype Artists Every Art Teacher Should Know

  Looking for contemporary monoprint artists to inspire your students? From expressive portraiture and atmospheric landscapes to abstraction, identity and storytelling, contemporary artists are using monotype and monoprinting in remarkably different ways.For secondary art teachers, these artists offer much more than examples to add to a ...

12 Contemporary Acrylic Artists to Inspire Your Next Secondary Art Project

  Finding contemporary artists that genuinely engage secondary students can be surprisingly difficult. Many artist lists rely on the same historical names, but introducing practising contemporary painters helps students see that painting is still evolving and remains relevant today.Whether you're teaching portraiture, abstraction, landscape ...

Essential Acrylic Painting Techniques for Artists

Master Essential Brushwork, Texture, Blending & Special EffectsAcrylic paint is one of the most versatile and forgiving painting mediums, making it ideal for beginners, students and experienced artists alike. From smooth colour blending to bold textured effects, mastering a range of acrylic painting techniques will help you develop confidence, ...

Exploring Mixed Media Concertina Sketchbooks with Karen Stamper at Kettle's Yard

Recently, we hosted a mixed media concertina sketchbook workshop with artist and former art teacher Karen Stamper at the inspiring Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, bringing together art teachers for a day of experimentation, creativity and practical classroom inspiration. The workshop focused on building expressive sketchbook pages using layers, ...

Teaching Oil Painting Without Solvents: The Secret Science Behind Water-Mixable Oils

  For centuries, every art student has learned the same rule:Oil and water do not mix.Yet today you can buy oil paints that thin with water, clean up with water and often don't require solvents at all.So what changed?Have chemists somehow broken the rules of painting?Not quite.Water-mixable oils are one of the most significant developments in ...

Stretching the Story: How Concertina Sketchbooks Help Students Develop Visual Narratives

Narrative is one of the hardest things to teach well in art. Students often have strong starting points, a feeling, an issue, an image; but struggle to sustain ideas, sequence meaning or show development clearly over time. Pages fill up, but the thinking stays fragmented.Concertina sketchbooks offer a simple structural shift that can radically ...
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