I just love the layers of colour you can get with disperse dyes/transfer paints. This will be my last proper post this year.  I am slowly getting my new house sorted on the w est c oast of County Clare , Ireland. It seems odd to write that sentence. 2 years ago I had only just started to think about the move - and now - here I am, gazing out to sea. It is so good when a plan comes together.    At the beginning of each session we look at what the group have done for homework. This is always great fun, haivng a catch up is very important.  I never cease to be amazed at the students creativity. Right, back to the teaching. . . I love transfer printing with disperse dyes. The dyes are made to colour synthetic fabric. In this session we used acetate satin, polyester satin and a suede like microfibre. I find it is a good idea to try a variety of fabrics including matt and and shiny. The dyes are painted onto copy/computer printer paper. Once dry they are ironed on

2 rather splendid corsages. My last workshop for 2015 was at Art Van Go, an excellent way to end the year. Viv and Kevin and the team look after everyone so well. They run a very comprehensive workshop timetable. Here are the workshops for 2016 -  bit.ly/1IjvI4U    I have a new one in August, Sticky and Shiny. Learning how to use all the glues and fusible webs with transfer foil. I think this is a long overdue workshop. Anyway - back to Making a Tyvek Box. As many of you will know, I rarely teach a workshop where students leave with something finished. teaching process is my passion. However, I thought it might be time to show how adaptable Tyvek can be and that students don't need to leave with just a bag of colourful, textured samples.   My Tyvek box sample.                   I took along the book Embroidered Boxes by Janet Edmonds. It has beautiful ideas for making boxes and has patterns for different styles of boxes with photocopying instructions. All of Janet&#

 Polyester organza applique cut with a soldering iron, ironed onto Decovil 1. Apologies for my being so far behind with this blog - life has been a tad busy.  The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexander Palace was fantastic. Very busy on most days but with room breathe. The extra day does seem to help. It was great to meet so many of you, and thank you for ALL the chocolate - I am still wading through it. So - back to Geelong and www.taftainc.com.au . What an amazing time we all had - just wonderful. The whole event was so well organised and such fun - bordering on bonkers!!! My group worked very hard and came up with some fabulous ideas. The course was my basic Hot Textiles workshop over 5 days. Plenty of time to experiment and see what all the products could do. We were working with the heavier interfacings from Vilene along with Tyvek and Bondaweb.  Keeping notes always helps.      Some of the decorated Decvovil 1.  The Heavy weight Lutradur/Spunbond