Some great appliques shapes cut with a soldering iron. Well that was fun. Workshop 2 - Transforming Transfer went well. I am getting used to the live Zoom format now. I am by no means an expert, but I am dithering less. We had students from the U.K, Ireland, Scotland, France and an early start in Georgia, USA. Whilst teaching on Zoom is not ideal, nothing can replace being in the same room as your students, it is pretty good. The studio looks relatively tidy behind me - you should see it in front of the table - not quite so tidy!!           The group were asked to mix their disperse dyes and paint up their papers before the workshop. This meant after the introductions and a quick demonstration from me, we could get started. Firstly the group got to grips with ironing their painted papers onto their synthetic fabric. It can take time for the heat to transfer the dye onto the fabric. A good hot iron is necessary. At least 2.000 watts. Of course, if you have a hea...

Torn newspaper layered with painted Bondaweb, decorated with gilding flake and transfer foil.   Well that's it!! There is no going back now . . I have just bought a Zoom licence. My first live Zoom Workshop is on Saturday, February 27th. I have been on the other side of many Zoom meetings, now I will be hosting my own. I am really looking forward to hosting.  I am offering 3 of my favourite workshops first, then I will be adding newly developed workshops from the end of May. The one day workshops run from 10am - 4pm. The first item on all my materials list will be cake! Cake, in any form, will be an important part of my workshops. Cake will be compulsory I am missing faces, happy faces, concentrating faces, 'I don't get it' faces and cheeky faces. Live Zoom workshops are the closest way for me to get to working with students. If we can't actually be together, at least we can see each other in real time. The workshops will consist of a one day workshop and then a 2 h...

  I just love the layers of colour you can get with disperse dyes/transfer paints. This will be my last proper post this year.  I am slowly getting my new house sorted on the w est c oast of County Clare , Ireland. It seems odd to write that sentence. 2 years ago I had only just started to think about the move - and now - here I am, gazing out to sea. It is so good when a plan comes together.    At the beginning of each session we look at what the group have done for homework. This is always great fun, haivng a catch up is very important.  I never cease to be amazed at the students creativity. Right, back to the teaching. . . I love transfer printing with disperse dyes. The dyes are made to colour synthetic fabric. In this session we used acetate satin, polyester satin and a suede like microfibre. I find it is a good idea to try a variety of fabrics including matt and and shiny. The dyes are painted onto copy/computer printer paper. Onc...