Work in progress from Kate. Well - that's the third year of Experimental Textiles (the 9 month version) finished. The next round runs from June 2015 - March 2016. I love teaching the course in the IDC studios at The Old Needleworks in Redditch. It is a great venue, in the centre of the country and just off several major routes. There are several hotels close by for those of you that need to stay over.  The one thing I don't enjoy at the end of the course - is the students leaving. However - there will now be a way of progressing on from Experimental Textiles, a student can be invited to join ExTeXtra. This will be run as an exhibiting group with me as a mentor. It will be run as a 5 weekend course running from July 2015 - March 2016. It is my hope it will continue after March next year - but we will have to see what happens, this is all very new.    I am showing you details of the work in progress, I don't want to show the work or there will be no surprises w

A slice of Mary's particularly delicious lemon cake. Alison arriving with a box of lemon drizzle cake and banana and toffee muffins. Rachael arrived with a box of Rice Krispie cakes and Mellisa brought in a box of dairy free chocolates. Session 5 of Experimental Textiles looks at Constructed Textiles. Knit, weave and felt. We also look at working in 3D. But first we look at the homework . . .  I am currently teaching two groups of Experimental Textiles. One on Thursday and Friday. The other on Saturday and Sunday. The course is taught over nine months, from June to March, one two day session per month. This post shows a mixture of images from both groups. This was just a small part of Kate's homework - she created several fabulous pieces. A ripped up painted still life, reassembled and decorated with hand stitch.  . . . Another from Jane . . .   . .  a detail . . . Marlilyn missed the 4th session but created her own still life and executed

  Jo's beautiful weaving sample.  This will be the first of two posts.   It may have been a little optimistic to think I could teach feltmaking, weaving, metal shim manipulation and finger knitting on one weekend and have the students develop a considered sample.  When you write a course and then break it down into the teaching hours, it works in your head - but not necessarily in practise. To be fair I knew all but one or two of the group had felted and woven before and we were only going spend the morning going over the principles of the processes. I didn't however take into consideration how the group would grab each process and devour it!! They are such a FAB group - up for anything and ready to get involved in anything I suggest. The idea of the weekend was to look at constructed textile processes ie weaving, felting and knitting and also look at constructed as in 3D. We ended up making small felt vessels/bowls in the morning as most of the group had made