Hot Textiles - drawing inspiration from the garden. West Dean College August 29th - September 2nd

6 of the 7 lovely ladies on my course last week enjoying the sunshine on the terrace at West Dean

As the title of the course suggests I wanted to incorporate design exercises into this 4 day workshop which may then lead onto more considered samples as we worked through the 'Hot Textiles' processes. Here a few of the exercises the students worked through on the first day.





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We then worked through most of the 'Hot Textiles' techniques, half the group had never painted Bondaweb so we started with that. This lovely sample was decorated with the background paper from the Bondaweb.

These 2 samples were created with Vilene Spunbond and pelmet/craft Vilene with Bondaweb on the back, cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto more pelmet/craft Vilene.

  75 gm Tyvek layered with polyester organza,machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun.

 

Layers of polyester organza machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun


These wonderful Tyvek corsages stole the show we had at the end of the week - absolutely stunning!

One of the corsages held against Frances's almost matching colourful dress.

We had a fabulous week, with plenty of laughs as well as a lot of hard work. West Dean College is a remarkable place to teach. www.westdean.org.uk The grounds are so beautiful at any time of year, the staff are great, the food is FAB. It is really is a great experience. 

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I will be giving a lecture at Kennett Valley Hall, Lockeridge, Marlborough at 2pm on Monday for Marlborough and District Embroiderers Guild. On Tuesday and Wednesday I will be delivering workshops on 'Scrumptious Spunbond'. 

Then I will be home until the Creative Stitches show at Exeter 22nd - 25th September. I am looking forward to being at home for a while, have a go at my jungle of my garden and try to get some semblance of order in my poor house. It looks as though it's been ransacked.  . . . . . . 

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