Kim Thittichais' blog.
What is happening in her life, on the edge - of Loop Head peninsula. Her teaching . . and her dogs!
Tidying up!!
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Treasure
How are you at tidying up after a workshop or when you have finished a project?
I am dreadful!! I am making an effort, I have bought a few see through stacking plastic boxes to put my materials away in when I have finished teaching. How do you sort your materials and products? Colour? Textures? Products? Techniques?
Last week I taught my first 2 part workshop via Zoom to a group of students in America, Canada, and Scotland. 2 x 3 hour sessions 10am PDT/ 6pm BST. I can be in 3 places at once!! Students on the PDT time zone can work in the morning, and students in Europe enjoy an evening class.
The workshop was A New Starting Point. Featuring my backgrounds and pretties technique. We have the show and tell next week. I am very much looking forward to seeing what the group have developed from their samples.
3 book covers by Sue Redhead from the US.
Sue also made some greeting cards.
So - back to my messy table . . Having all these lovely boxes is great - but you have to fill them. It's a bit like buying a filing cabinet to organise all your paperwork, you need to actually use it!! Groan. I love making the mess - just hate clearing it up.
The tidying up begins
Why is there always so much to sort out?
Neat piles eventually appear
And of course, while you are tidying, you come across all kinds of treasure . . Left over torn and layered paper strips, that you just know will come in useful - at some stage. So you then scurry about to find a clear plastic bag to put them in. Deep sigh, any activity will do so long as I don't have to tidy up!!
Love these colours together
I love the Japanese papers . .
. . and I adore the gold flash of gilding flake
. . the torn edges are always so pleasing
more gilding flake is even more pleasing . .
. . I think I will stitch into this piece
all the pretties in a row . .
. . my favourite sample from the workshop.. .
If you like the look of this workshop I am teaching it as a live Zoom one day workshop in London time on Friday June 24th.
I did tidy up eventually, I have to as I open the studio every weekend. It's a good discipline.
As
you can imagine, I have a lot of samples, but they always come in
useful, particularly now I am making more videos. Have you seen my
latest one? Do leave any questions in the comments.
There are more videos that you might find helpful videos on my YouTube channel.
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
Layered Tyvek and polyester organza. We had a great day to day at Foredo wn Tower. I t was the f irst day of a two day workshop - Zap, Pow, Slash an d Burn! This workshop gives stud ents a chance to play with all the zappable products that I work with namely, Tyvek, Vilene Spunbond and polyester organza. The group painting their Tyvek . There were nine in the group and although it was pouring with rain outside and blowing a hooley, we were almost snug and warm inside. Working with a heat gun, an inch away f rom the surface of your work and holding the heat gun at a slight angle. The group ha ppily using their heat guns. The following images are all three layers of heavy (75gm) Tyvel layered with polyester organza and then stitched together on a sewing machine . The samples were then zapped with a heat gun. This exercise helps the stude nt learn contr ol - by moving the heat gun away from and towards the work, you can control the amount of lay
A scrumptious sample of textured and foiled Tyvek. I am finally catching up with myself, have been in rather a headless chicken mode for the past few weeks - things are bit calmer now. I have a few days in between each teaching session now right up to when the shows start next month. As long as I keep moving I will be fine. So . . . I have a new teaching venue in Brighton, just 10 minutes up the road from me, I can't believe how close it is - such a treat. I have booked some more workshops for next summer and once I have decided what I will be teaching, I will let you all know the dates and workshop information. The Bridge Community Education Centre is light and airy place with plenty of well equipped rooms and a fabulous cafe with scrummy food. There is a huge car park and the Centre is close to Falmer station and is also on many bus routes. www.thebridgebrighton.com We had a group of seven fabulous girls. This is the Art Room. I was teaching a weeke
3 layers of 75gm Tyvek layered with polyester organza. The Full Works is my basic workshop learning how to use heat tools. We work with Tyvek, Lutradur/Vilene Spunbond and painted Bondaweb. Solihull Embroiderers Guild is a great group. Good fun and well organised. Have a look at their website. All Guilds can do with new members, if you fancy joining, you won't be disappointed. www.facebook.com/SolihullEmbroiderersGuild and the website - www.embroiderersguild.com We started off painting up all the products which took a couple of hours. It is important for students to know how to paint up all the products if they want to do this kind of work at home. When working with heat distressable materials, it is important not to paint them too thickly or the paint will form a barrier. Painting up the products. Painting Bondaweb. Lutradur/Vilene Spunbond. We started off playng with the Tyvek, laying it between 2 sheets of baking parchment and 'stroking&#
We have had the first day of my new course Print, Paint, Stitch and Play! and things seem to have gone well so far. I love teaching in Bobby's studio, it is purpose built with plenty of space, power and water. We had a fab day painting Bondaweb and colourwashing newspaper. The group then worked through my tearing and layering process and this is what they have produced so far. They have already started stitching into the papers and tomorrow we will be printing onto them. We had a discussion tonight about how to spell Prettys or Pretties. Apparently the latter is correct but I like the former so that is the word I am going to use - I have no doubt a certain gentleman in the Portsmouth area will now be sitting with his head in his hands and shaking his head saying No! NO! As part of this process you need to be able to describe a piece you have layered up with gilding flake, sequins, glitter and all the other gorgeous sparkly bits we are using. So I have started c
3 A4 sheets of painted Tyvek layered with polyester organza. this was then machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun to reveal different layers of colour and to create texture. The second day of a three day course - we have covered most of the basic techniques now and the students will be combining their own layers and stitching into them tomorrow. There are seven in the group and it is another good group - textile ladies do seem to be good fun in general. I rarely get someone who moans. These are two Bondaweb pieces that I missed yesterday We worked with Tyvek for most of the day, starting with 'kissing, stroking and caressing' single sheets and moving on to layering Tyvek with polyester organza and zapping back. I don't know if you can have too much of a good thing but here are all the layered samples - front and back - Maggie's front and back Jean's front and back Janet's front and back
A stunning corsage - one of the best I have seen on a workshop. I had a great day today teaching at Southwick Community Centre for the Sussex Quilters. The workshop was 'Tinkering with Tyvek'. As usual for my workshops this was a process based day. I think it is important to know what the the materials will do before you can decide to make anything. First thing, we spent an hour painting both sides of several sheets of A4 heavy Tyvek and fabric weight Tyvek. Dull but necessary, it is very important not to paint the Tyvek with thick paint. If you do, the paint will form a barrier and the Tyvek won't react to heat. We then had a play with ironing Tyvek shapes between baking parchment, learning the 'Kiss, Stroke and Caress' way of lightly heating the Tyvek till it shrinks and puckers. We then moved on to layering 4 sheets of A4 Tyvek with polyester organza and machine stitching them together ready for zapping back - a bit like cheeky reverse
Painted and foiled Bondaweb with painted, textured and foiled Tyvek The final day at West Dean was a day of layering and stitch, a great treat. Having the extra day made such a difference, to the work and to the group. All the students bar one were beginners in the Hot Textiles field and they all produced some brilliant work. We worked through all the basic Hot Textiles processes as you will see in the previous posts. The students were left with various piles of heat treated fabrics which I asked them to create some kind of composition - here are the resulting samples - Layers of transfer printed CS800 Vilene Spunbond zapped with a heat gun and decorated with frayed organza and embossing powder. Transfer printed CS800 Vilene Spunbond zapped with a heat gun decorated with a Tyvek motif. Polyester organza decorated with painted Bondaweb, zapped with a heat gun and decorated with textured Tyvek Painted Bondaweb decorated with hea
It's almost here! I have been getting a lot of requests for me to teach online over the past 2 years. From all over the world. This combined with me wanting to stay at home in Ireland more and slow down a bit has decided me - it is going to happen. Starting in May. I am currently building a database and everyone who is on the database will be the first to hear what is happening and when. They will also receive the Sonas Studio newsletter (you can opt out). My house in Ireland is called Sonas - it means happiness and well being in Irish. I chose it because it sounded just . . right. This year I will be concentrating on my one/two day workshops that will translate well to online workshops. For example -Tinkering with Tyvek, A New Starting Point and Transforming Transfers will be online from May to July. This all very new to me and I will be having IT help from my good friend Jayne. If you have been to the show at the NEC in March you will have seen her there. She he
Newspaper decorated with painted Bondweb, silk fibres, glitter and transfer foil. On Saturday I drove over to Meopham in Kent to teach one of my last one day workshops. The workshop was Hot Textiles, working with Bondaweb, Tyvek and Lutrdur/Vilene Spunbond. As some of you will know, I no longer take bookings for one day workshops, you can never get enough done. This workshop was booked 18 months ago. Having given a lecture to this group the previous Saturday in Gravesend, I knew I was in for a good day with plenty of fun and laughter. We started off painting up the Tyvek, Bondaweb and Lutradur/Vilene Spunbond. When working with materials that distress with heat, it is important to know how to apply colour to them, most importantly, how thinly to apply the colour. If the paint is applied too thickly, the paint will form a barrier and form a resist to the heat. The group painting up their products. The Tyvek is always the first to dry - so we we experimented w
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