Nadines and Anna's vessels.  The past weekend was the 8th and penultimate session of Experimental Textiles 4. Their final session is next month so the energy within the group is starting to change. You get the impression the girls are starting to put their shoulders back and their chins up, ready for the last push. Their end of year show will be at the NEC at The Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch Show in March. As the course is not accredited, there is no pressure for the group to finish anything. They can concentrate on their work books and develop some of their samples from the course. It is up to them. Because of this I find the work and the course workbooks are generally of a higher standard than students who are on accredited courses that have to tick boxes. We have much more freedom and we self moderate. Having taught both types of course - I know which I prefer . . .     Catherine's cake. A great start to the weekend. Delicious. We had some very exciting n

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

  A colour wheel and a tints, tones and shades chart.  Here we are back at the IDC studios at The Old Needle Works in Redditch www.inkberrowdesigncentre.co.uk/experimental-textiles. I am teaching my two ExTex 3 groups - we have a Thursday/Friday group and a Saturday/Sunday group. This month we are looking at the use of colour in art and textiles and painting colour wheels and tints, tones and shades charts. We will also be playing with their printing blocks along with wax crayons and procion dye.    Painting the colour wheels.  Some very pretty mixing plates.  A finished colour wheel. The Thursday/Friday group produced some fab homework - there isn't room on here for all of it, but here is a selection . . . . I will post more about the work the girls create over the next three days on Monday before I dash up to Art Van Go to teach my Transfer to Transform workshop.  * * * Just a quick plug for my Hot Textiles weekend