2 workshops at The Granary Studio and the next online workshop.

A fabulous transfer print.

The Granary Studio is a great place to learn new skills and techniques. It is run by Susan Chapman. The studio is well equipped and offers exciting courses - do have a look - granarystudio.com

My Granary Studio workshops -

On Friday the 9th June I taught my 1 day workshop - On the Surface and on the 10th and 11th I taught my Transforming Transfer 2 day workshop.

On the Surface is my Bondaweb based workshop. The group also wanted to play with Tyvek, so we had a good play session for the whole day, working with painted Bondaweb, transfer foils, gilding flake and mica flakes - and Tyvek.

The first activity was to paint the Tyvek and Bondaweb. It is important to know how thickly to paint both products. If the paint is too thick, the Bondaweb won't stick and the Tyvek won't texture with heat as you are creating a barrier with paint.

As the Tyvek dries faster than the Bondaweb, we started with that - learning how to texture and then how to foil the texture.

Some great samples of textured and foiled Tyvek.

As Bondaweb is ironed down, it is flat, sometimes you need a bit of texture to raise the surface of your work. Tyvek can do this, used sparingly and painted the same colour as the Bondaweb background.

A painted Bondaweb sample with added Tyvek to add texture.

Painted Bondaweb is beautiful before you even think about decorating it. When the backing paper ripples you get subtle ripples that create a fabulous background to stitch onto.

 

Painted Bondaweb before it is decorated.

 

Sometimes leaving the painted Bondaweb as it is, is the best thing to do. . 

 . . or maybe add just a few slashes of transfer foil.

However, adding transfer foil and mica flake can create amaze effect and create interesting imagery.

On Saturday and Sunday it was all change to get ready for two days of transfer printing using disperse dyes. Disperse Dyes are specifically for dyeing synthetic fabrics. Once the dyes are ironed onto the synthetic fabric, they are washable and colourfast. The dyes are painted onto a non absorbent paper such as copy paper. Left to dry and then ironed onto your fabric. Using a heat press gives you fast, bright colour, using and iron takes a little longer . . .

Because you paint the dyes onto paper, once the dyes are dry, you can tear, cut, crumple and generally play with the dyed paper. One of the many great things about the dyes is that they are translucent, so you can over print and create beautiful shadow effects. As a rule you should get 2 or 3 prints from one piece of dyed paper, depending on how thickly you apply the paint.

 

Torn strips of disperse dyed paper, repeat printed.

As we were working with synthetic fabrics it meant we could use soldering irons to cut shapes form the fabric. If you iron unpainted Bondaweb onto the back of the fabric first, then you have ready made applique.

The Granary Studio is suitable for small groups up to 8 people. This means you get all the attention you need from your tutor. Being used to teaching groups of 16, it was a joy to teach such a small group.

Cutting shapes from a piece of fabric with a soldering iron, with unpainted Bondaweb on the back of the fabric.

Shapes cut out of a Bondaweb backed piece of fabric.

 

Once the shapes have been cut out they can be ironed onto a background.

I encourage students to try ironing onto a similarly coloured printed background so that the applied shapes 'bleed' in and out of the background. Definition can then be created with stitch.

 

some of the applied samples . .

                                     . .  and beginning to stitch.

I had a fabulous 3 days teaching at Granary Studio, I will be back there in 2019.
It was also good to spend time with Susan Chapman, Susan is a great friend of mine yet we rarely get together as we both travel so much. Luckily the show season is coming up, so we will see more of each from August and Festival of Quilts.

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On the Surface will be my third online workshop to launch in September and and Transforming Transfer will launch in October.
If you wish to be the first to hear about the dates of the launches, do email me at info@kimthittichai.com and I will add you to the database for newsletter.

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The launch of my second online workshop - A New Starting Point.

A sample created with my 'background and pretty' technique, which is included in this workshop.

Course overview
My most popular workshop. Discover and develop the redemptive qualities of old newspapers, maps, music and books. Create fascinating surfaces on which to print and stitch. Using painted Bondaweb/Vliesofix and all manner of sparkle, we will explore the possibilities of layering textures, ending up with exciting surfaces can be further embellished with print and stitch. If ironed onto a firm interfacing these gorgeous pieces of work that can be used to make boxes, vessels and brooches. 
This workshop is the equivalent of a fast paced one day workshop and will be available to view on Ruzuku for 6 months.

It is very encouraging to see that many of the students on my current workshop have already signed up for this workshop.

 Decorated newspaper, ironed to S133 (heavy iron on interfacing), then cut to shape with a die cutting machine.

 Decorated and stitched newspaper, ironed onto S133 and then cut with a die cutting machine.

Enrollment is now open for this workshop. The course is £80 and includes a 16 page full colour inspiration book of photos delivered to you, anywhere in the world. 
As Ruzuku, the platform we use is American, you will pay in American dollars. This is all sorted out by clever PayPal.

On enrollment you will be able to view the 'Welcome and your materials list' video and print off your materials list. The 4 workshop videos will go live on Friday July 7th. This will give Jayne and I time to print the workshop books and get them out to students before the workshop starts.  Jayne is a partner in the online workshops with me. It is she on the other side of the camera, who edits and uploads the videos and sorts out the books. I couldn't produce the online workshops with out her. 

to enrol go to - https://app.ruzuku.com/courses/22344/enroll

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Hello Jill, you are a superstar . . .

Hello Diana - have you made it to your workshop?

Hello Tod - will try to ring later . . 

x x x