A small selection of work from our exhibition on the Friday night   Welcome to the 4th blog post this week. If you have missed any of the first 3, you can catch up here - https://hot-textiles.blogspot.com/2023/10/geelong-fibre-forum-part-first.html It always amazes me, when you look around the class room the first morning of the first day of a workshop and there is nothing on the tables apart from the students bags and stuff. And then . . the magic happens. This group was particularly special, they worked through everything I asked of them with good humour and trust. And boy were we rewarded. From The Journey and making blocks, through the 'backgrounds and prettys' technique to experimenting with the S133, Decovil 1 and Decovil 1 light. The heavier iron on interfacings. Sally created the first of 2 3D forms that nested together very quickly   The second of Sally's structures   I have been experimenting recently with forming these interfacings with heat. Whilst they are no...

Simone and Kath cutting the S133 - the big boy!!!   So - we have worked through The Journey design exercise , we have made printing blocks from the isolated designs. Then we created some fabulous torn paper and painted Bondaweb surfaces using my 'Background & Pretty' technique.   Decovil 1 and Decovil 1 light, cut and rolled ready for the group to use   And then, I brought out the the heavy interfacings!!  Decovil 1 and Decovil light are leather-like interfacings for making bags, but we can do so much more with them. They are great for making book covers and small boxes and vessels. The S133 interfacing is my favourite. It is very stiff, like cardboard and fabulous for making tall vessels.  All 3 interfacings have fusible web on one side, so you can iron fabric onto them, or more importantly for me - the torn paper pieces the group had been creating. Vlieseline Australia and New Zealand kindly sponsored my workshop with these wonderful interfacings. It m...

Nicola Brown and me in the sunshine in Geelong         The Geelong Fibre Forum 2023 was fabulous. Yes, Australia was a long way to go, but it was worth it. There are few opportunities to teach a live 5 day workshop. They can be a challenge, but so rewarding when everything you have planned works out. It is a good test to check you are still capable of developing and delivering quality teaching. Whilst I am a very experienced tutor, you can never take anything for granted. You are only as good as your previous workshop or course. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with my good friend Nicola Brown (who also lives in Ireland and was also teaching) and tutors Mary Hettmansperger (America) and Pam De Groot (Australia) who I hadn't seen for several years. It was so very, very good to see them again. Plus I finally got to actually meet Dawn Edwards, who I have been friends with on FB for several years. There will be at least 3 blog posts about the work my group cr...

  Tall vessel created from Decovil 1 decorated with torn painted newspaper, painted Bondaweb/Vliesofix and a gold print.         It will be wonderful to be teaching at the Geelong Fibre Forum in Australia again. I was due to teach this workshop in September 2020, but we know what happened then . .  So I will be returning September 2023- Hurrah! I think it will be my 5th time teaching at this residential Forum. There will be 11 tutors teaching groups of up to 15 students. There will be a mix of international and local tutors for the first time in 3 years. Have a look at the workshops here. https://taftainc.com.au/workshops I will be teaching 'A Workshop of 2 Halves', the first part will cover design and the next part, fun with print, all things sparkle and 3D. Sparkle is optional . . but I do find once the gilding flake comes out - it is hard to resist. We will be working with the heavier iron-on interfacings to create decorated boxes, vessels and/or a canv...