Bronnie and Larissa, what a team!   This is the last of 5 daily blog posts about The Geelong Fibre Forum 2023. It was important to me to record as much as I could about my students, their work and all the fun . . . and my dear friends. To see the first post and then the others - go to - Geelong Fibre Forum 2023 The organisation of an event the size of the Geelong Fibre Forum is mind blowing. It is all run by volunteers!! The main 2 being Bronnie and Larissa. How they manage to run The Geelong Fibre Forum every year, whilst working full time and running homes and families - I really don't know. Thank you so much lovely girls, this was a fantastic forum. This year was particularly special for several reasons. One being that Bronnie and Larissa had an exhibition of their own work. It was a real treat to see what they love creating. The opening party was fabulous, very much enjoyed by everyone. Bronnie & Larissa opening the exhibition Lots of happy talk and discussion about the wor...

  My first 4 books . .    Welcome to my new blog subscribers.  I have 2 mailing lists one for this blog, and one for my newsletter. This blog tends to be a long read, it can contain all kinds of things, my life here in Ireland, my dogs, my travel, whatever takes my fancy, I can ramble, I like to talk to you all. There is a search engine in the top right hand corner, I have been writing this blog for 10 years or so, so if you want to find out what I have written about Lutradur or Tyvek or New Zealand, anything really . . just pop it into the search engine My newsletter is more of a short read, what is happening with my teaching, news of shows and new travel tours. That kind of thing.         I don't know if you can hear it from where you are, but my brain is whirring with new ideas and techniques. While I am filming and updating my 12 most popular workshops, I am developing new ideas to share with you. My 'what happens if . . ' head is definitel...

A sample beaded vessel for the Baubles, Bangles and Beads workshop Looking inside I love working with different sizes of beads   It's nearly here - The Festival of Quilts 2023. www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/exhibitors/kim-thittichai/  The last show I did was Festival of Quilts in 2019. Then the world ground to halt! It seems to have taken ages to prepare for this show. Just the admin takes a lot of time, and then there are the decisions on how to dress the stand. What do I want to promote and how do I want to promote it? What will I sell? Various heat distressed effects on painted and layered Tyvek Well the decisions are all made and I am halfway through loading the car ready for the drive over to the UK on Monday. I will be promoting the Experimental Textiles Video Library & Membership with a special show discount and selling various packs of Hot Spots and Tyvek along with 2 special packs of transfer foils. I will be demonstrating on the stand every day. I will be in th...

  I'm talking to Nicola live on on Sunday at 10am BST Here is the link to the livestream on YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHH6ukhvlcQ and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/1702337703569486/?ref=newsfeed If you can't make the live interview, Nicola is recording it. Well this is going to be fun. Nicola Brown is a great friend. We first met in Australia 8 years ago when were both teaching at the Fibre Forum in Geelong. Since then we have become very good friends. Nicola lives on the east coast of Ireland, about 3.5 hours drive away from where I am on the west coast.  You wouldn't necessarily think Nicola and I would work friendship wise. We are very different and our textile practices are poles apart. Nicolas work and teaching is based on all things natural. Eco dyeing and printing and felt making. She is an authority on these wonderful processes, particularly eco printing without mordants. Nicola modelling 2 of her eco printed garments  We both love ...

  Tyvek layers zapped with a heat gun      If you love texture, colour and exploring new processes - you may be interested in this - I keep my newsletter and blog subscribers separate and you may have missed this important information, I didn't want you to miss out on this opportunity. The NEW Experimental Textiles Video Library & Membership will launch at The Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham in August 2023 for the full annual subscription price of €350. Subscribers to my newsletter will be offered a special one-off €100 early bird discount of €250 from May 4th to May 11th. The early bird members will be able to view the 12 videos as I upload them between now and August, which means they will have a 15 month subscription. 2 of the 12 workshop videos will be launched into the video library on May 4th. The rest will be uploaded regularly in the months up to August 2023. Early bird members will have access to each of the private groups (hosted on my website...

Recycled cardboard packaging woven into with printed newspaper. The completed weaving was then printed and hand stitched - by Shaun West   I have been teaching weaving as part of the Constructed Textiles module of my course Experimental Textiles for many years. When I taught 'in person' we would create a huge pile of fibres, paper, yarns, fabrics and plastics in the middle of a huge table and the group would take what they thought would work for them. We always concentrated on interesting texture rather than weaving techniques. It is quite possible to create something rather special with simple techniques and interesting materials. The work in the first 5 images in this post was created by Shaun West in 2013.  All you need to weave, is a grid or a warp. With recycled cardboard packaging that is sliced in regular intervals it becomes quite possible to stretch it out and weave into it. Choosing to weave with painted and printed recycled newspaper keeps to a muted colour pallette...

A very happy OAP!!    Well how did that happen? I am now a pensioner . . .  Getting older doesn't worry me in general, but I am more aware of the groaning joints and I am thinking about what time is left to get SO much done. I have more ideas than ever now. Textures to create, designs to develop and so much more stitch to play with.  When you get to landmark birthdays, I think it is normal to take stock, to see where you are and how you would like to spend your time. After the Experimental Textiles course finishes in June/July next year I will be having a break from regular teaching. I have booked a stand The Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/ in August next year. It will be so very good to catch up friends and ex students at the show. It will be a change for me to have my own stand rather than working on a Vlieseline stand. I will be there to promote the new Experimental Textiles Video Library which should launch in ...

A section across 3 'Journeys' one of the design exercises on Experimental Textiles.   I have finally finished wrestling with the NEW online 10 month Experimental Textiles course which will start on September 21st 2022. It was very helpful to have all the replies from the surveys that I sent out to my mailing list. The replies guided me as I worked through all my ideas to create something that would fit both my ideas and what appears to be needed. The NEW 10 month online course    A history of Experimental Textiles . . I have taught my course Experimental Textiles since 1999!! It was originally written as a one year course and eventually ended up as a 4 year course . .  because my students wouldn't leave!! I taught the 4 year course across 2 colleges for 12 years. As you can imagine, it was pretty full on. But also amazing, and I learned so much and made some great friends a long the way.  After the 12 years I swore I wouldn't teach the course again, I was worn o...