This is a detail of the larger piece by Morag which is featured further down this post. A New Starting Point is one of my favourite workshops. It is newspaper based and can be taught over 2 - 5 days. This summer school at Inkberrow Design Centre was the 5 day version which means we could add print and stitching onto water soluble fabric. I love teaching at the IDC studios, there is plenty of room and the atmosphere is fabulous, slightly bonkers - just brilliant . There is room for the students to work comfortably.   Starting to paint up the newspaper and Bon daweb. The first thing we got on with was the 'prett y and background' technique featured in my book Reclaimed Textiles . B asically tearing, layering and then tearing again . . . working with both painted and unpainted B ondaweb. The group were working with all types of paper, old books, magazine pages, music . . .  We also included mica flakes and gilding flake - of course we did....

    A lovely sample of the tearing and layering process that has been decorated with a print using one of the colours in the work. Using a 'self' colour paint enables the print to bleed in and out of the work and not be too obvious.  As we only had six in the group the students were able to spread out and we managed to get a lot more done. The larger the group the slower things happen. The group caught onto the 'background' and 'pretty' rotation quickly, sometimes it can take a while. It never ceases to amaze me how the simplest process can sometimes take the longest to understand. I think our brains like to make things complicated, they get bored when something is too simple. A few of the torn and layered backgrounds -         Pru added frayed fabric thread to this sample -    It add an extra texture - if you are aiming for a lot of texture - you need to keep the colours down to a low roar . . tones of one colour te...