One of the wooden printing blocks we will use for  the metallic printing workshop. This time next year I will be at Heathrow airport ready to fly to Jaipur.  Whhooo hoo!! it is VERY exciting! I am going back to Jaipur, India, to be inspired by the remarkable textures, patterns and colours.  While I was wandering around this amazing city in on the Colouricious Textile Holidays in September 2016 and again in January 2017, I kept thinking to myself this would be the most incredible place to teach my journey design exercise. Everywhere you go there is something beautiful, interesting or just plain incredible. The palaces, the gardens even the roadside has inspiration at every turn. So - I approached Jamie Malden, owner of Colouricious Textile Holidays with my idea and she Yes! - immediately. Just like that. Isn't a good feeling when people have faith in you? I am leading The Jaipur Journey textile holiday January 8th - 18th 2019  Fancy coming with me? Here is

 Beautiful inspiration for design . . and colour. This is a quick post to keep you all up to date with what is happening teaching wise.  I have now finished teaching Experimental Textiles at IDC and will be offering modules from it online from January 2018. They are likely to be 6 week modules, but I will see how everything goes this year. I am going to start online teaching at the end of May this year, but they will short courses. More technique based. As my first book Hot Textiles had been withdrawn from print - I thought I might start with that!  I have so enjoyed teaching my course Experimental Textiles in various forms over the past twenty years or so, and of course, there is also the book of the same name. It is time for me to cut down on my teaching and get on with my own work. All the time I am teaching, I can't concentrate on my own work. And it is time . . . *** It was the last weekend of ExTex as it is called in short form. It was odd - seeing the group wh

 Nadines and Anna's vessels.  The past weekend was the 8th and penultimate session of Experimental Textiles 4. Their final session is next month so the energy within the group is starting to change. You get the impression the girls are starting to put their shoulders back and their chins up, ready for the last push. Their end of year show will be at the NEC at The Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch Show in March. As the course is not accredited, there is no pressure for the group to finish anything. They can concentrate on their work books and develop some of their samples from the course. It is up to them. Because of this I find the work and the course workbooks are generally of a higher standard than students who are on accredited courses that have to tick boxes. We have much more freedom and we self moderate. Having taught both types of course - I know which I prefer . . .     Catherine's cake. A great start to the weekend. Delicious. We had some very exciting n