A stunning piece of work combining Tyvek with decorated and painted Bondaweb. Denman College is the home of the W.I. The main building is Georgian and is set in beautiful grounds with many specimen trees. I always have great fun there - you seem to get a different type of student, I can't quite put my finger on it, but they are usually up for anything. You no longer need to be a member of the W.I.to enrol on courses so do have a look and see if anything takes your fancy - www.denman.org.uk The workshop I was delivering was On the Surface - my basic Bondaweb course with a bit of Tyvek thrown in for good measure. As the courses I teach at Denman are residential the students can work in the evenings which means we can get a bit more done. Usually stitch - a very important part of my teaching.    The group working in The Ferris Room - there were 10 in all. The maximum, such a treat to have low numbers. As the jam festival was on while I was there ...

Layers of torn newspaper and painted Bondaweb. Regular readers of this blog will know how much I love teaching at Foredown Tower - high up on the Sussex Downs you can see for miles. It is also home to a wonderful camera obscura. The tower is open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays with camera shows at 11am, 12pm, 1pm and 2pm. On a clear day you really can see forever . . .  . Foredown Tower A New Starting Point is my newspaper based workshop. It is easily my most popular workshop I have ever written. Once the group get the hang of the 'background' and 'pretty' rotation, they are off and away, having great fun throwing glitter and gilding flake around with great abandon. I think that because the workshop is process driven and the samples aren't supposed to 'look like' something, the students can just relax and enjoy making their samples. Colour washed newspaper printed in a similar colour with a wooden printing block. Once the sa...

  A riot of colour - very Bollywood - painted Bondaweb decorated with transfer foil, gilding flake and dot jewels. It's great to back at Foredown Tower, particularly when the weather is fine, if a bit windy . . . . the tower is high up on The Downs. We had the first day of a two day version of On the Surface - good fun was had by all. We have six students in the group and three are teachers on CPD (Continuous Professional Development). They were champing at the bit to get stuck in with all the glitter and sequins. All three teachers have big changes in their curriculum and they need some ideas for Art Textiles.  We started by painting Bondaweb and Tyvek and then had a play with Hot Spots and transfer foils while we waited for the Bondaweb and Tyvek to dry.      Painting Bondaweb. There was a great atmosphere today and a good deal of joking and general fun. I prefer to teach in this way - if students are relaxed they will retain more informat...