Dyed newspapers layered with painted Bondaweb backed with Heavy Pelmet Vilene Plus - a very heavy iron-on interfacing , decorated with gilding flake and hand stitch. I'm just getting ready for all my workshops over the next week or so. My first one is at Bobby Britnell's studio in Shropshire. It is the first time I have delivered my brand new workshop based on the newspaper exercises in my new book Layered Textiles and I am very excited about it. 'A new starting point' is meant to be a 2 day workshop but if you wanted to come and play for just one day you would be most welcome - you might not get a chance to finish a box but you will leave with some amazing layers and texture to work on at a later date.  A new starting point. with Kim Thittichai 2 days of fun and experimentation with painted and dyed newspaper, painted Bondaweb, craft Vilene and gilding flake, sequins . . . . .   . Learn how to create amazing textures with faux chenille an

 old painted and dyed newspaper layered with polyester organza Well who would have thought that old newspapers would cause such a stir??? I have had several emails and a couple of comments about yesterdays blog. All asking for more images of the faux chenille - so here you are my lovelies. Faux chenille is a technique I taught on Experimental Textiles. Experimental Textiles was a four year course that I wrote and taught for 10 years and stopped teaching a couple of years ago. I will be teaching a shortened version starting next May in Redditch, for more details go to - http://inkberrowdesigncentre.co.uk/node/1471 There are many tutorials on the Internet and more usually using natural fabric, but basically you layer at least 6 layers of Fabric/Newspaper, stitch tramlines or channels down the entire piece and then cut through the top 5 layers making sure you DON'T cut through the bottom layer. Easier said than done with newspaper. I back mine with dyed craft/pelmet Vilene. You

layers of Vilene Spunbond cut with a soldering iron and bonded onto craft/pelmet Vilene Today was the first day of a 3 day summer school at Art Van Go www.artvango.co.uk Having established that most of my 12 students are absolute beginners I decided to start right at the beginning with decorated painted Bondaweb and sampling Vilene Spunbond - looking at different edges. some of the girls learning how to use the soldering irons the once tidy gallery are at the back of the studio, the floor covered in glorious colour painted Bondaweb ironed onto black cotton, decorated with Hydrangea petals and Artichoke heart seeds a combination of craft/pelmet Vilene cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto more craft/pelmet Vilene the same again - Fabulous design . . . .    The girls left exhausted at 4pm, they had painted, bonded, soldered and zapped all day - they produced some fab samples. Tomorrow we will be layering, using sewing machines and zapping back.  Now it's off out to dinner

The Old Brickworks by Mary McIntosh It is always very satisfying when you meet up with students who have been on a course with you and they tell you that something you taught them helped them with a project or a finished piece of work. Mary McIntosh was on a course with me at Art Van Go earlier in the year and I showed the group what I had been doing with newspaper. Mary in particular was very taken with what I showed the group and created some fabulous samples that were shown on a previous post on this blog. Mary came to see me on the stand today to say she had a finished her final piece for her City & Guilds and that she had used some newspaper in her final piece. Wow!!! what a beautiful piece of work - it is absolutely stunning. The work can be seen on Stand A48.     Detail of left hand panel   a page in Mary's sketchbook showing a faux chenille sample made with newspaper I spent the day decorating heavy iron-on interfacing with gilding flake and newspaper and then r

The Freudenberg Vilene Stand The Freudenberg Vilene Boys I was demonstrating on the Freudenberg Vilene Stand at the trade show and running their retailer workshops everyday. I love working at this show as there is always calm atmosphere compared to the very busy consumer shows that I demonstrate at. It is all very sociable and professional. Having to work with 3 lovely boys is no hardship either. It was great to catch up with the Freudenberg Vilene team, particularly Gemma who will be also be helping me on my stand at Fashion and Embroidery in March when I will be running the Vilene Workshop. More of that when I come back from Glasgow. The workshops were short teaching sessions once a day for 20 people lasting 45 minutes. They are quite a tight turn around. This year I was showing how to use heavy iron-on interfacing with a Big Shot Pro die cutting machine and then everyone had a chance to decorate the boxes by ironing on sequins, glitter and foil. The iron-on interfacings have a g

I will have a stand at the show - TG18. The stand will on your left as you walk into the Textile Gallery opposite the Alice Kettle exhibit. Do come and say hello and tell me what you are up to. The preparation for the show is going well. I shall be launching 2 new Playpacks. A new transfer print pack which includes 1/2 metre Evolon, 1/2 metre white polyester organza, 4 A3 sheets of transfer print and instructions. The second pack will consist of 2 pre cut boxes, 1 heart shape, 1 square. These boxes have been cut from heavy pelmet vilene plus which has a heat fusible glue on one side so you can decorate the boxes by ironing on glitter, sequins, feathers, fabric, threads - whatever you fancy. I will be running a competition for customers who buy the box packs, details are in the packs and the 1st prize is a Hot Textiles Playpack.  the pack contains a square and a heart shaped box the two heart shapes decorated with a variety of threads ironed onto the glue side and machine runnin