Packed and just about on weight!!   Right, I am all packed and my cases are just about borderline weight wise! Gulp!! I am off to Dublin airport to fly to Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. Let's hope it has stopped shaking. I dont fly til 8.30pm, but I need to park etc.   I will be staying with my good friend Denise and her hubby on their farm for 4 days then I will be flying up to Auckland on the North Island to start 3 weeks of teaching. I hope to be able to drop in on Alysn Midgelow Marsden and inspect her new home and her new aircraft hanger of a studio, jealous?? ME??  Denise hiding in the foliage on her verandah. Gore Bay. Close to the farm, great for long walks.   Denise lives in Cheviot and has been coping with almost continual shaking of the ground since the big earthquake earlier in the year. They had a 4.9 shake 2 weeks ago. Scary. Cheviot was cut off for several weeks until the roads were cleared. I hope to be...

 Beautiful inspiration for design . . and colour. This is a quick post to keep you all up to date with what is happening teaching wise.  I have now finished teaching Experimental Textiles at IDC and will be offering modules from it online from January 2018. They are likely to be 6 week modules, but I will see how everything goes this year. I am going to start online teaching at the end of May this year, but they will short courses. More technique based. As my first book Hot Textiles had been withdrawn from print - I thought I might start with that!  I have so enjoyed teaching my course Experimental Textiles in various forms over the past twenty years or so, and of course, there is also the book of the same name. It is time for me to cut down on my teaching and get on with my own work. All the time I am teaching, I can't concentrate on my own work. And it is time . . . *** It was the last weekend of ExTex as it is called in short form. It was odd - seeing th...