Garden Gnome - Fabric Sculpting Workshop

Learn how to create a characterful little gnome for your home or garden using fabric sculpting techniques.

Through a series of video tutorials, artist, Abigail Lagden will take you through how to create this project step by step.  You will learn how to build base structures for your projects, before using fabric sculpting techniques to 'dress' your gnome. I will then demonstrate my special colouring technique so that you can really enhance the detail and textures using colours and shading.


Project Kits

If you need the materials to build your gnome, you can buy one of my Garden Gnome Workshop Project Kits in my shop.

The Basic Project Kit contains all of the fabrics and embellishments to create the gnome shown as well as it's base and slate mount. 

The Full Project Kit contains everything in the basic kit, plus the fabric hardener, varnish, pigments, brush & gloves that you will need to complete the project.

Workshop Overview

  • 1

    Welcome to the course!

    • Meet Your Teacher

    • What to Expect From My Courses

    • How to Get the Most From This Course
  • 2

    Introduction to Fabric Sculpting and Fabric Hardeners?

    • What is Fabric Sculpting?

    • What are the Differences Between the Different Brands of Fabric Hardeners?

    • Guide to Working With Fabric Hardeners
  • 3

    Garden Gnome - Fabric Sculpting Workshop

    • Introduction to Garden Gnome Workshop

    • Materials - What are We Going to Need?

    • Prepare Your Workspace

    • Building Your Base Structure

    • Dressing Your Gnome - Sculpting with Fabrics

    • Applying Colour to Your Gnome

    • Mounting Your Gnome onto a Base

    • Finished Gnome
  • 4

    Additional Inspiration and Ideas

    • Other Gnome Examples & Designs
  • 5

    What Next?

    • You've Finished! What Now?
  • 6

    Additional Resources

    • Choosing Your Base Colour

    • Talking Textures
  • 7

    Tips, Tricks & Troubleshooting

    • Help! I can't get the lid off the bottle!

    • Help! My fabric hardener has gone all runny/gloopy!

    • Sticky Sausage Fingers!

    • Looking after your tools (brushes, etc.)

    • Re-using & reducing plastic waste

    • Adding bling & other embellishments you don't want to paint

    • Working with plastic bases & embellishments

Online Workshop Terms & Conditions

By viewing/purchasing my online workshops, you agree to the following conditions:

  • You can only access the videos through this website. To access videos you have purchased, you need to be signed in to the account you bought them under.

  • The videos cannot be downloaded.

  • Online workshops are provided for your personal, private use only.

  • All intellectual property rights, including copyright in all content and communication belongs to Curiously Contrary/Abigail Lagden.

  • You may not copy, reproduce, modify, store, redistribute, publish or exploit commercially in any way, any part of my online workshops, either online or offline, digitally or in hard copy.

  • You may recreate the projects from my workshops to sell in small quantities.

  • If you share what you create by following my online workshops on social media, I ask that you acknowledge Curiously Contrary/Abigail Lagden as the provider of the workshop/designer of the project, and include a link to my website and/or facebook page.


If you have any questions about my online workshops, either before or after purchasing, please get in touch. Also, if you have any difficulties accessing my online workshops, please let me know.


In my videos I will share with you the skills and techniques that I have learnt, developed and mastered over a number of years. I have carefully designed and created the projects for my workshops to ensure they are suitable for people with all levels of experience before filming and editing the videos. At the end of this process, I hope that people will be able to follow them with ease and create some wonderful things.

Please respect the amount of time and effort that has gone into making these tutorials available to you by adhering to the conditions above.