A small selection of work from our exhibition on the Friday night   Welcome to the 4th blog post this week. If you have missed any of the first 3, you can catch up here - https://hot-textiles.blogspot.com/2023/10/geelong-fibre-forum-part-first.html It always amazes me, when you look around the class room the first morning of the first day of a workshop and there is nothing on the tables apart from the students bags and stuff. And then . . the magic happens. This group was particularly special, they worked through everything I asked of them with good humour and trust. And boy were we rewarded. From The Journey and making blocks, through the 'backgrounds and prettys' technique to experimenting with the S133, Decovil 1 and Decovil 1 light. The heavier iron on interfacings. Sally created the first of 2 3D forms that nested together very quickly   The second of Sally's structures   I have been experimenting recently with forming these interfacings with heat. Whilst they are not

A very happy OAP!!    Well how did that happen? I am now a pensioner . . .  Getting older doesn't worry me in general, but I am more aware of the groaning joints and I am thinking about what time is left to get SO much done. I have more ideas than ever now. Textures to create, designs to develop and so much more stitch to play with.  When you get to landmark birthdays, I think it is normal to take stock, to see where you are and how you would like to spend your time. After the Experimental Textiles course finishes in June/July next year I will be having a break from regular teaching. I have booked a stand The Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/ in August next year. It will be so very good to catch up friends and ex students at the show. It will be a change for me to have my own stand rather than working on a Vlieseline stand. I will be there to promote the new Experimental Textiles Video Library which should launch in January 2023 I

  A different view! Nicola Brown walking around her property. Happy New Year!!  Wherever you are in the world, I hope 2022 is looking good for you. Well here we are! Are you ready? I have lots of plans for my field/garden and the making of new videos for a subscription opportunity on my website in a few months time.   I have a few events in the diary already. 10 live Zoom workshops the last Friday in every month starting this month. I have been asked to do 4 more live streams on the Vlieseline Facebook page in January, February April and May and I am giving a live Zoom lecture to a textile group in Portland, Oregon, USA in February. That is enough to be thinking about for a while, along with running the website, social media and working in the studio.     Beautiful book covers by Sharon on a recent workshop I so enjoyed teaching the live Zoom workshops last year. They were such fun, it was wonderful to be able to work alongside the students in real time. So I am doing it all over again

Torn newspaper layered with painted Bondaweb, decorated with gilding flake and transfer foil.   Well that's it!! There is no going back now . . I have just bought a Zoom licence. My first live Zoom Workshop is on Saturday, February 27th. I have been on the other side of many Zoom meetings, now I will be hosting my own. I am really looking forward to hosting.  I am offering 3 of my favourite workshops first, then I will be adding newly developed workshops from the end of May. The one day workshops run from 10am - 4pm. The first item on all my materials list will be cake! Cake, in any form, will be an important part of my workshops. Cake will be compulsory I am missing faces, happy faces, concentrating faces, 'I don't get it' faces and cheeky faces. Live Zoom workshops are the closest way for me to get to working with students. If we can't actually be together, at least we can see each other in real time. The workshops will consist of a one day workshop and then a 2 h

One of Denise's prints I taught the August session of Look. Draw. Stitch. this weekend. Three lovely students, we had a great time and what fabulous work they produced. I have had to really sort through all the images I took. It has been difficult to choose. I run the Look. Draw. Stitch. weekends from January to November. So far this year we have ranged from one student to four. Next year when I move into the studio I hope to have six every month. Anyone can come - whether you have worked with me before - or not. Most students just come once, others come a couple of times a year. This weekend we had Susan from Australia. Denise from New Zealand and Rosie from West Clare! Usually students are from the UK or Ireland but these 2 antipodean ladies planned my workshop into their holiday in Ireland - good forward planning.  We started the weekend with a bit of drawing, nothing too terrifying. I have plenty of interesting things to draw inside and outside the house. We are ne