Layers of colour and gorgeousness.  Things have been a bit more down that up recently - a few big changes have occurred and I am regrouping. So it was a joy to hear about Lou Brown and her prize winning sketch books. I get the odd email now and then saying how helpful my books are and that I am an inspiration. It is always gratifying. But when my friend Jill told me about the work that Cheadle School had been doing based on my design exercise The Journey that can be found in my second book Experimental Textiles and some plastic samples from exercises in my first book Hot Textiles I was really excited. Louise Brown on the right. Louise Brown won the Manchester School of Art / Cass Art Teacher Sketchbook Prize on Friday 8th June.  Lou is Head of Design & Technology at Cheadle Hulme High School.  She teaches A level Textiles and the two sketchbooks she entered show her lesson samples as part of the course in year 12.  The judges were particularly intere

A section taken across 3 Journeys. I have reached a rather exciting and rewarding time in my own personal journey. My teaching journey. Whilst I am known for my development of surfaces to stitch onto, the course I am most pleased with is the course I wrote and developed - Experimental Textiles. It started off as a 1 year course - but my students wouldn't go away - so I wrote another year . . then another year. In the end it became a 4 year course up to diploma level. At one stage I was teaching it across 2 colleges and managing 3 first year groups, 3 second year groups . . and so on. The waiting lists were so long we had to put on extra nights and in the case of the 4th year - Saturdays.  This of course was in the days when Adult Education was properly funded. When you could write and develop your own courses. I taught the 4 year version of Experimental Textiles for 12 years. I had to stop in the end as I no longer had a life!! I thought I would never want to teach a

  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. Once dry they are ironed on