A detail of one of the panels of the mobile Those of you who teach will know how great it is when a past student sends you an excited email with images of work they have created (and sold) after one of your workshops. This student, who doesn't want to be named but has given me permission to use her images. She took various online workshops with me during the pandemic. This work was created after working through my workshop A New Starting Point, which features painted Bondaweb and recycled papers. Maybe a bit of glitter and foil too . . ! The work that has been sold is this beautiful mobile. Isn't it fabulous? The mobile featuring 11 double sided panels of gorgeousness   Here are a few of the panels in progress . . Detail of the print on these small panels    The decorative papers were torn and layered with painted Bondaweb and decorated with transfer foil and print. I love the use of red, not many people use it, It balances the darker blue beautifully.   Here are few...

Chasing rainbows Having taught many students over the years, from 4 year courses to one day workshops, both in person and online, I get quite lot of interaction via email. News about exhibitions of work, getting onto a higher education course, that kind of thing. I was delighted to receive an email from Carrey Gorney last week. Carry has taken various workshops with me, both in person and online. A few years ago Carry created a body of work entitled 'Burnt Histories' - "I have created ghostly portraits using the torn pieces of lace and faded photographs carried out of Germany by my Granny and her sisters when they fled the Nazis. They were always sewing, even before” Kaiser Bill” led the Germans into World War One. My grandmother had longed to become a doctor, like her brother, to rip up her sewing, to rip open her corsets and to become herself. I have ripped, scorched and singed the last fragments of their v...

  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.             ...

A rather splendid sample of textured Tyvek. Happy Easter!! It's a wild and wet here in Ireland. A good day to catch up with my newsletter and this blog. I hope you are all enjoying a day with family or friends and eating way too much chocolate . .  My recent online Zoom workshop Tinkering with Tyvek yielded some fabulous work. I do have wonderful students. Just look at this Tyvek dress made by Arley Berryhill. Small scale Tyvek dress by Arley Berryhill Arley is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has worked with me on a few workshops. He is a fantastic doll maker and costume designer and maker. Do look at his website - https://www.arleyberryhill.com/ It is not often I see anything resembling gold work on my workshops!! Arley created this great sample by stitching Tyvek to gold lamé and then texturing it with a heat gun. Beautiful faux gold work, just fabulous       I love the way Arley has added beads to accentuate the edge of the Tyvek shapes. This workshop was quite inte...

Layers of Tyvek and polyester organza stitched together and zapped with a heat gun. *** A glorious weekend   Well, what a fabulous weekend. It has been warm in the sun. It is so good to feel the heat, even if it won't be long lived. We have to enjoy the sun when we can in Ireland!!! We have unsettled weather coming up. Over the past couple of days I have been catching up with admin as well as working in the garden. I thought a catch up on my live Zoom workshops might be helpful. We had great fun on The Journey in January and Creating Unique Printing Blocks in February. The Show and Tell 2 weeks after the workshop has proved very successful, students are pleased to have an opportunity to develop their work. There are still spaces on all workshops, so if you would like to learn a new technique, or remind yourself of the fun you can have with any of these workshops, just click the link on the workshop you fancy. This month is Tinkering with Tyvek. I do so love working with Tyvek, you ...

A fabulous sample by Lynda  The group that were on my first Zoom workshop, A New Starting Point, 2 weeks ago, had their 2 hour Show and Tell yesterday. Again on Zoom. Wow!! what a great group. Such enthusiasm. Whilst Zoom isn't the best thing for a workshop, at the moment, it is the only choice we have. For the Show and Tell it was perfect. 12 students from the UK and Ireland, having a chat over coffee and talking about their work for 2 hours. What a treat it was, for all of us. I wanted to have some  sort of catch up after the Zoom workshops. I always wondered if the students had developed any work from any of my workshops when I used to teach pre covid. Some students were kind enough to send me images, but you never really knew.  With a dedicated catch up, 2 weeks after the workshop, it gives the group a chance to develop their samples, or do more, have a play . .  and have a date to work towards.  Just look at this collection of gorgeousness!!! A New Starting...