Rachel's torn, printed and stitched papers I had a great weekend with my ExTex group. I had missed them. I am very much enjoying teaching an ongoing course again. To see the progression of each student is very exciting and rewarding. It reminds me why I trained to be a teacher. The fifth weekend of the course is a mixture of weave, knit and felt. It is always great fun teaching basic processes. When you work with basic, simple processes, your brain has a chance to get involved and excited -  making it's own connections between materials and techniques.  We started the weekend with looking at homework - the group had been asked to stitch into their torn and printed papers. There was some fabulous work.   A detail of Rachel's piece showing her beautiful stitch.       Val's collage . . .    . . . and a detail of some of her very sensitive stitch. Once we had discussed the homework we got on with feltma...

 Gorgeous late sunflowers outside the teaching studio.  Well it's not quite Sunday!! Just three days late, There seems to be so much to do with all the autumn shows coming up. It feels a while since I was at Denman, but it was only ten days ago. Denman College is the home of the W.I. but you don't have to be member to enrol on the workshops. www.denman.org.uk Denman has very beautiful grounds that are well kept and glorious at any time of the year.    A rather tropical planting scheme to welcome you at the front door.  One of the many reasons I like teaching at Denman is the food - and at morning coffee and afternoon tea we have biscuits and  . .  cakes!! yum!!! All made in the Denman kitchens - we are always very spoilt.  These little cheeky chaps had a glace cherry secreted inside - a lovely surprise when you bit into them - them!! I only had one - honest!   My group of lovely ladies, with naughty Hilary on the far ...

    A lovely sample of the tearing and layering process that has been decorated with a print using one of the colours in the work. Using a 'self' colour paint enables the print to bleed in and out of the work and not be too obvious.  As we only had six in the group the students were able to spread out and we managed to get a lot more done. The larger the group the slower things happen. The group caught onto the 'background' and 'pretty' rotation quickly, sometimes it can take a while. It never ceases to amaze me how the simplest process can sometimes take the longest to understand. I think our brains like to make things complicated, they get bored when something is too simple. A few of the torn and layered backgrounds -         Pru added frayed fabric thread to this sample -    It add an extra texture - if you are aiming for a lot of texture - you need to keep the colours down to a low roar . . tones of one colour te...