My teaching table . . . Scrummy! A New Stating Point is now by far the most popular workshop I have ever developed. It is very satisfying when a workshop 'works' so well. I taught a 4 day version of this at The Bridge Community Education Centre in Brighton. A scant 15 minutes door to door - it is such a treat to teach so close to home. The Bridge is a great place to work and the food is fabulous. More of that later . . . A New Starting Point includes my 'Backgrounds and Prettys' tearing and layering technique and making newspaper faux chenille. Torn and layered book pages with painted Bondaweb and lots of gilding flake.  Painted Bondaweb ironed onto newspaper and then printed with a printing block. Simple and very beautiful. A torn and layered sample printed with a spiral printing block. Another torn and layered sample that has been printed. The print has been highlighted in selected areas to give definition. All the commerci

  A cake and flowers for my birthday.   . . . and then another cake . . . !!! We are now over halfway through Experimental Textiles, this session was the sixth of nine. I have only ever taught one group at a time before, this year we are running two groups - a Thursday/Friday and a Saturday/Sunday. We will be doing the same next year. It is very interesting teaching the two groups side by side - they are both strong and are producing some excellent work. One thing that I hadn't considered was the air of competition creeping in between the groups. It is light hearted - but very definitely there!!! One of the benefits of having two groups - when the tutor has a birthday - you get two cakes!!!  When we are all settled with coffee (and cake) first thing on day one of the session - we look at what has been done for home work produced to reinforce what did on the session before. On the previous session we had looked at constructed textiles - felt, knit and weave, and how

A slice of Mary's particularly delicious lemon cake. Alison arriving with a box of lemon drizzle cake and banana and toffee muffins. Rachael arrived with a box of Rice Krispie cakes and Mellisa brought in a box of dairy free chocolates. Session 5 of Experimental Textiles looks at Constructed Textiles. Knit, weave and felt. We also look at working in 3D. But first we look at the homework . . .  I am currently teaching two groups of Experimental Textiles. One on Thursday and Friday. The other on Saturday and Sunday. The course is taught over nine months, from June to March, one two day session per month. This post shows a mixture of images from both groups. This was just a small part of Kate's homework - she created several fabulous pieces. A ripped up painted still life, reassembled and decorated with hand stitch.  . . . Another from Jane . . .   . .  a detail . . . Marlilyn missed the 4th session but created her own still life and executed