The cover of Lynda Monk's latest book. I love looking at new books, stroking the pages - and yes - inhaling them . . .  I think a lot of you will know what I mean. I do read a lot of books, but being totally honest, not all of them. I do mean to . .  Lynda's new book is one you can't put down and doesn't take long to read. It is a real page turner. The book is full of gorgeous images and the information in the book is very clear. Lynda is a great tutor, always encouraging and so generous with all her information. The way Lynda develops and shares her techniques is always well set out, and quite frankly, very exciting.  Lynda's book are published by D4Daisy books under the watchful eye of Maggie Grey. d4daisy.com The book covers many layering techniques including two products that I am very fond of - Decovil and Bondaweb .  Here a few images from the book. I don't want to show you too much or you won't enjoy the lovely surprises that...

A fabulous transfer print. The Granary Studio is a great place to learn new skills and techniques. It is run by Susan Chapman. The studio is well equipped and offers exciting courses - do have a look - granarystudio.com My Granary Studio workshops - On Friday the 9th June I taught my 1 day workshop - On the Surface and on the 10th and 11th I taught my Transforming Transfer 2 day workshop. On the Surface is my Bondaweb based workshop. The group also wanted to play with Tyvek, so we had a good play session for the whole day, working with painted Bondaweb, transfer foils, gilding flake and mica flakes - and Tyvek. The first activity was to paint the Tyvek and Bondaweb. It is important to know how thickly to paint both products. If the paint is too thick, the Bondaweb won't stick and the Tyvek won't texture with heat as you are creating a barrier with paint. As the Tyvek dries faster than the Bondaweb, we started with that - learning how to texture and the...

Fabric weight Tyvek, painted green, textured between baking parchment with an iron and then foiled. Two weekends of fun, colour and texture, who could ask for more? I taught my Hot Textiles workshop at The Bridge in Brighton ( www.thebridgebrighton.com/create-craft ) on the 4th & 5th of June and then we had a weekend of Extreme Surfaces for Stitch with my ExTeXTra girls at the IDC studios in Redditch. inkberrowdesigncentre.co.uk Teaching two similar workshops on following weekends is a great treat- I don't have to unload and reload the car. I am looking forward to the end of the year when all this stops. I have 2 summer schools and two workshops left this year - then that is it - till June 2017. So if you want to work with me, book up now. All the workshops on are the right hand side of the blog. I will also be doing several shows. So - on with the texture and colour. Both workshops included Tyvek, polyester organza and Lutradur/CS800. ExTeXtra painting...