Two scrumptious Tyvek corsages. We had a great weekend at Foredown Tower, a small but perfectly formed group of five. It was a great luxury to have two days to play with Tyvek, normally it is just included as one of many products in a workshop.  Tyvek is a very versatile product which responds well to heat. It can be heated and shaped while hot so Tyvek is great for making three dimensional objects such as bowls and beads. It can be ironed lightly between baking parchment to create beautiful textures and also distressed and shaped with a heat gun.                                 Some of the corsages made on the weekend. This is Pip making a rather large bead . . .     She made a few more and created a  . . . hair ornament!!!!   Claire making one of many beads.   A selection of Val's beads - they would make great tassel heads. The group eating the very delicious cake that Pip made for the group. A very chocolatey, gold frosted masterpie

The field opposite the tower. The second day started with a 'show and tell' of the work from yesterday. It was a surprising amount of work. We then got on with experimenting with Tyvek. I wanted to show the group how to raise the surface of a Bondaweb based piece of work. As Bondweb is ironed, it is flat, and sometimes you need extra texture. Small strips of Tyvek or Tyvek beads can help.  Introducing Tyvek might not have been my best plan . . .   I also mentioned how to make corsages . .  and they were off!!!! Not in the direction I was planning!!    Two of yesterdays Hot Spot! samples.  My plan for today had been for the group to have a quick play with Tyvek and then get on with a considered, stitched sample using painted Bondaweb - Huh!!! Fat chance!!    Olivia making several corsages at once.    Pip going into mass production.            As you can see, they had great fun creating some gorgeous pieces.       Sophie even sewed h

A flipped and mirrored design taken from 'The Journey'. I love teaching at Art Van Go, everyone is made so welcome and always so well l ooked after. Art Van G o offer a very comprehensive range of workshops throughout the year. Have a look see - www.artvango.co.uk/workshops/ Design, Inspiration and Interp reta tion is my rather formulaic way to help groups get jump stared when they need a bit help to get going with ideas. It can be difficult to pull designs ideas out of fresh air and even with bulging sketch books you somet imes need a refresher.  On this two day version we worked through two design exercises, took sections of the designs, flipped and mirr ored designs and then made printing blocks f rom on e of the designs.   The first design exercise was 'The Journey' If you have a c opy of Experimental Textiles or a re a regular reader of this blog you will be aware of this exercise. It is a great mark making exercise that ca