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...

Hot Textiles has been translated into Spanish - Whoo hoo! The journey home from Glasgow on Monday was a bit scary - well the first bit of it was anyway . . . .The M74 was very, very, frightening. One minute there was a reasonable amount of snowfall - The next, there was a whiteout. The traffic ground to a halt and we sat around for a while, an hour or so and then we started to move, slowly. With the ever useful travel information on the radio we were informed of an accident that had closed the motorway several miles ahead. We eventually diverted off the Southbound M74 via Lesmahagow, to return to a much faster moving M74. On the Northbound M74 there was a horrible accident involving two lorries and several cars. The scene certainly made me drive much more sensibly than usual . I delayed my journey home to Brighton as I heard on the travel news that the M23 was blocked with poor drivers stuck in the snow, most of them all night! Luckily my best fri...

  The Freudenberg Vilene stand at the NEC. Whew!! Well that was a weekend! The show was on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. It was VERY busy on Sunday and then less so as the show went on. I enjoy working at the trade show. It is less frantic than the usual consumer shows that I do. There is an air of calm as all the visitors wander about the show meeting their contacts on different stands and doing deals. Everyone is very smart and tidy. My job was to demonstrate the more unusual techniques that you are all familiar with using Vilene products on the stand and also running the retailer workshops for Vilene. This involves teaching a forty five minute workshop every day for twenty retailers. The workshops were a bit manic - I think I tried to do too much . . . We were foiling on to my new loves Decovil 1 and Decovil light. We then printed onto the Decovil light with acrylics and the excellent Colourful Thoughts multi surface paints from Craftynotions. www.craftynotions.com Thes...

A melt in the middle chocolate pudding with vanilla ice cream and delicious chocolate sauce. It has been pointed out to me by a certain gentleman in the Portsmouth area that I have been rather remiss in my posting duties. It can be difficult to find the time and then wifi to post on the blog when I am travelling, particularly when I am doing a show. I hope this one makes up for my silence. I got back from the Manchester show yesterday after calling in on a few friends on the way. The show was held at Event City just opposite The Trafford Centre in Manchester. I haven't known SUCH a busy show for a long time. I am used to busy shows, but this one was bonkers! And they were such lovely people, I don't think they get many craft shows of the ICHF (International Craft and Hobby Fairs) calibre in that area of the country. My lectures were full every day with standing room only, I wasn't sure how busy they would be as I have never travelled to that area before. I need...

Gorgeous new 'Blingy Bitz' from Craftynotions. That's enough about the weather. I know it is blowing a hooley out there but at some stage we all need a bit of colour and sparkle. I have been bullying poor David at Craftynotions.com to come up with a name for the gorgeous little colourful squares I have been playing with on my latest workshops; occasionally allowing my students to use them, but only if they are VERY good. Think of a square sequin without a hole in and you will know what I mean. I took these images with my phone and they aren't the best. 'Blingy Bitz' will be available from the end of next month in eight to ten colours yet to be decided. I couldn't wait until then to tell you about them. They put a fabulous sparkle onto your work. I iron them onto painted Bondaweb. Yep! I appreciate that will come as a great surprise. Not only but also - (Yes! I have had a glass of wine). There will also be the new 'Blingy Glitz'...

We have had the first day of my new course Print, Paint, Stitch and Play! and things seem to have gone well so far. I love teaching in Bobby's studio, it is purpose built with plenty of space, power and water. We had a fab day painting Bondaweb and colourwashing newspaper. The group then worked through my tearing and layering process and this is what they have produced so far. They have already started stitching into the papers and tomorrow we will be printing onto them. We had a discussion tonight about how to spell Prettys or Pretties. Apparently the latter is correct but I like the former so that is the word I am going to use - I have no doubt a certain gentleman in the Portsmouth area will now be sitting with his head in his hands and shaking his head saying No! NO! As part of this process you need to be able to describe a piece you have layered up with gilding flake, sequins, glitter and all the other gorgeous sparkly bits we are using. So I have started c...