Castanea - Part 2 of 5

 this stunning Houseleek/Sempervivum graces the front terrace of the villa

Because of worries about the threatened Spanish air traffic control strike and illness we were a small and exclusive group. This meant we could get through a lot more work, it was a great luxury. It is unlikely to ever happen again so we all made the most of it.

The timetable was - 

Monday am - Market
Monday pm - Studio
Tuesday - Studio
Wednesday - Studio
Thursday am - Studio
Thursday pm - Tapas lunch in Murcia than a guided tour and shopping!
Friday - Final day in studio and 'show and tell'.

Working in the studio during the week -
As with all of my workshops we had to paint all the products before we could use them. Of course being in Spain that was no hardship, everything dried in record time. We painted up the Bondaweb and Tyvek with Colourful Thoughts paints from Cratynotions www.craftynotions.com
These are high metallic paints that stay really bright even when you need to water them down to paint these products. We then painted copy paper with transfer paints (disperse dyes). Finally I mixed up some Procion dye powder and water to use as a colour wash on the Vilene Spunbond.

 Jill G and Jill W painting up their transfer papers
 
Jill W, Pauline and Jill painting outside the studio

 As we had some procion dye mix left I thought it would be a good idea for my ladies to dye a sketch book each, everything was going really well until the breeze got up and lifted the newspaper we were working on - Yep!!! Dye all over the table - but we got some fabulous kitchen towel out of it . . .

Kitchen towel used to mop up the dye - gorgeous!

Because my group were at different levels of experience we started right at the beginning with all products. We worked with the painted Bondaweb first then discovered how versatile Tyvek was.
We then went onto paint up and then iron off the transfer painted papers.


Pauline painted some beautiful papers, this one was ironed onto Evolon (Evo 80)
This was part of Jill W's ongoing work with a flowing sand design

 These 2 pieces were created by Jill W by ironing Bondaweb onto the back of the transfer printed craft Vilene which was then cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto more dyed craft Vilene.

 This sample by Jikll G was constructed from layers of transfer printed Evolon (Evo 80) and craft Vilene again with Bondaweb on the back and then shapes were cut with a soldering iron. These were then ironed onto a heavy craft Vilene background.

This sample by Pauline was inspired by the shapes and colours of a recent trip to India.

It was quite wonderful just working away all day in the studios breaking for coffee, teas and gorgeous lunches. It was such a treat to be waited on. Sitting having lunch in a lovely garden with like minded ladies was fabulous, as the week went on all the students started to get on very well - with them all going out for dinner together in the evenings. 

I will update more tomorrow, am off to the dentist, I have broken the third tooth in three weeks - I'm falling apart!!!! wish me luck - x



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