One of my small hand stitched samples - viscose satin, silk and scrim. OOhhh!!! What a week we had - pure colour and enjoyment. 'The puzzle of colour' was the one week workshop delivered by Ruth Issett. The other workshops were 'Tales of the unexpected' with Kay Greenlees and 'Magic in the making' with Mary Sleigh. The TSG  textilestudygroup.co.uk summer school is a 5 day residential at Harper Adams University in Newport, Shropshire. One of the joys of these summer schools is that there is no washing up, cooking or phone calls. Just the opportunity to work uninterrupted - FANTASTIC.  Ruth in action doing 'one to ones' with each member of the group. Any one who has read any of my books or who knows me professionally will know that Ruth is one of the guiding lights in my 'career' and that I think she is a Superstar! So I jump at any chance to work with her. You can never learn or know enough about colour. Our week was base...

Mary's beautiful composition of painted Bondaweb, newspaper, foils, gilding flake and jewel dots - and seaweed! Every now and then in your teaching life you come across a 'super' group. 'Super' in the the way they work together, share their materials and experience and of course they produce some fabulous work. It is particularly unusual to find this on a three day course - it is something I would associate with much longer course. Nine students who have never met before with the widest divide of experience and age from 17 to much older, experience ranged from very little through City and guilds up to degrees and a PHD in textiles based subjects. "Where sheep may safely graze . . "  The view outside the workshop door - sigh . . . it is so beautiful. Of course, being at West Dean College  www.westdean.org.uk helped, what with stunning surroundings, space to work and wonderful food it would be difficult to find anywhere else more suited t...

One of Emma's resist prints The second day was to be spent looking at colour and how other artists use it. The group attacked their colour wheels with gusto and managed to complete their tints and tones charts with good humour. It can be very trying to have to spend a good hour or so on very controlled colour mixing but it is very important for students to know how to mix colour. Whilst most of us use colour instinctively - colour wheels are very useful when a project you are working on just isn't working colour wise and you need to work out why . . . . The tints, tones and shades chart and a colour wheel. I won't bore you all with images of all the colour exercises we did - here are some more of Saturdays resist printing samples - As we had the dye/colourwash out, some of the student s continued their experiments with wax crayons and dye/colourwash and then taking away or discharging the colour with Milton sterilising liquid. ...