A New Starting Point - July 5th and 6th (Saturday and Sunday)  This is a catch up - kind of housekeeping notes. I have added two workshops in Brighton to my diary. I have found somewhere new to teach locally with plenty of parking and not too far from Falmer station. The first workshop is a weekend one - July 5th and 6th  A New Starting Point. £95.00 Discovering and developing the redemptive qualities of old newspapers. Create fascinating surfaces on which to print and stitch. Using painted Bondaweb and gilding flake we will explore the possibilities of layering textures to end up with firm pieces of work that can be used to make boxes and vessels and demonstrate the striking contrasts of the media. Rich/poor and matt/shiny. ***  Layers of heavy Tyvek layered with polyester organza, stitched and then zapped with a heat gun. I have also booked a four day Summer School August 12th - 15th. Tuesday - Friday Experimental Textiles - New Jewelle

 Painted Bondaweb decorated with gilding flake, dried rose petals and dot jewels.  We had a fast moving workshop on the Hot Textiles taster day at Denman College. www.denman.org.uk The main workshop is next month. We worked through painting, decorating and foiling Bondaweb and zapping Vilene Spunbond and cutting it with a soldering iron. We also worked with Tyvek and Hot Spots!     The Textile Studio at Denman is light and airy and very well equipped.     Three of the group machine stitching the Vilene Spunbond layers together - ready to zap!      Painted Bondaweb decorated with dried rose petals, transfer foil and 'blingy bitz'.      Unpainted Bondaweb cut to shape and decorated with gold transfer foil.    Six different coloured layers of CS500 Vilene Spunbond, machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun.      Green, yellow and orange CS500 Vilene Spunbond machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun.   . .

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 riot of colour - very Bollywood - painted Bondaweb decorated with transfer foil, gilding flake and dot jewels. It's great to back at Foredown Tower, particularly when the weather is fine, if a bit windy . . . . the tower is high up on The Downs. We had the first day of a two day version of On the Surface - good fun was had by all. We have six students in the group and three are teachers on CPD (Continuous Professional Development). They were champing at the bit to get stuck in with all the glitter and sequins. All three teachers have big changes in their curriculum and they need some ideas for Art Textiles.  We started by painting Bondaweb and Tyvek and then had a play with Hot Spots and transfer foils while we waited for the Bondaweb and Tyvek to dry.      Painting Bondaweb. There was a great atmosphere today and a good deal of joking and general fun. I prefer to teach in this way - if students are relaxed they will retain more information. Here are tw