Printed and painted Bondaweb lifted off the backing paper, torn and ironed into place onto a canvas decorated with more painted Bondaweb an old newspapers.  I have had a few days to play - a rare treat. I have been making samples for the new show at Excel next week and for my upcoming workshop at West Dean College. Solufleece and the new self adhesive Solufix are very popular at the moment. I thought you might like to know about printing onto Solufleece. Teaching across the country as I do it is very apparent that many of you are not confident in your drawing skills. A way around this is to use printing blocks, your own or commercial designs. As Solufleece is water soluble you would think that printing onto it with (wet) paint would make it dissolve - not if you stretch it first.  A selection of wooden blocks from Art Van Go www.artvango.co.uk    Boxes of blocks in many designs as well as single designs are available from Colouricious www.colouricious.com T

 Christmas street decorations in Granada 2012. Well the rain has stopped in Brighton - for at least an hour now! Blimey it's been wet. My thoughts are with those of you who are still struggling with having been flooded for the second or even third time. The sun is shining as I write this, it is a treat to write this looking out at a bright blue sky - long may it last!  I am off to France later today to stay with good friends and share New Year with them. Like most of you I have been thinking back over the past year and planning for 2013 . . and 2014 Gulp!  x 2012 Started well for me as I was in Spain staying with my dear friend Brenda Killigrew who runs The Old Needle Works in Redditch where I teach my ExTex course. We visited Granada at New Year and visited the Alhambra. It had been long been a resolution/need of mine to visit the Alhambra and thanks to Brenda we spent a wonderful day there. Cordoba is next on the list. Brenda has a house in Spai

One of Gina's beautiful pieces that ended up as a book cover. Only having four students on the course was a great treat for me - I'm not sure how the students felt, as many of you will know, I'm not very good at leaving my students alone to work in peace . . . I don't quite know why there were only four bookings, I have taught in December or January with ten every year so it is a mystery. I know some students worry about the possibility of snow, and it has snowed hard once or twice at this time. Anyway, we had a great time and it was a first for me so that was good. The students worked hard and fast so I had to introduce more than I was expecting to. It's good for me to be 'kept on my toes'. I can get a bit blase if things are too easy. 'Jewelled Surfaces' involved layering newspaper, painted Bondaweb and all kinds of glittery things and then reinforcing them with different iron-on interfacings. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it

  Vicki's gorgeous sample. Torn layers of newspaper layered with painted Bondaweb and sparkly bits and then printed onto. After a fabulous weekend at Foredown Tower selling my jewellery it was a quick turn around to unload the car and re load ready to teach at West Dean College. This week it is Jewelled Surfaces for Decorative Textiles. This is a newspaper based course along with my favourites, gilding flake and printing. The idea is to create sumptuous surfaces with newspaper and then iron the papers onto iron-on interfacing to give support to make vessels, jewelry, boxes . . . We will see what is achieved by Thursday lunchtime. I love teaching at West Dean,  www.westdean.org.uk the grounds are stunning, everyone is very friendly and of course the food is fantastic.  The girls busily painting Bondaweb.    Colour washed newspaper.     Decorating the torn and layered newspaper samples.   A colourful torn and decorated area that has been printe