. . . we are working really . . This a shot of the Light Craft Room where I am teaching, it is very well equipped and Hope, Technical Support, is always so helpful and makes sure we tutors have everything we could possibly need for our teaching. We are all having a great time and I will post the work the students are developing in the next two days but now to what else is happening at Denman this week.  Apart from my course there are beading, photography and flower arranging classes going on. These are some of the beautiful displays that are being created But onto something closer to my heart . . the PUDDINGS! Teaching residential courses can be quite intense so I only teach at two colleges four to five times a year. One of the bonuses is the food and how well everyone is looked after. No washing up, no phone calls just teaching FAB students, making new friends and catching up with old ones. It' s a tough job . . . Apple Strudel or - chocolate brownies or - chocolate mouss

  book cover created by melting plastic shopping bags together between baking parchment   Wow!!! What wonderful weather! I hope most of you in the U.K have managed to get out in the sun - if only for a few minutes. It is not until it gets quite warm that you realise just how dark and cold it has been. From my window I can see the early sun on the white blossom of the Hawthorn tree at the bottom of the garden against the bright pale blue sky - beautiful. One of my jobs to catch up with this week is to write a few workshops for the VERY patient Kathy Troup of Stitch magazine, Kathy has only been waiting for 2 years. While going through my images to decide which ones to use I came across some I had put somewhere very safe - and then couldn't find them!!!!!  Early this year Laura Manning sent me these fabulous images of book covers and small bags created using melted plastic bags. I met Laura at the Design and Technology show last November and she told me that she had been running

A small postscript after the Wey Valley Workshop post. While I was setting up the lecture and workshop that Friday, Mary Gray showed me a sample of her final project for the HE Diploma in Stitched Textiles at Windsor . She had used plastic carrier bags and machine stitch to create a remarkable piece of work. I was so impressed I asked her to send me an image so I could show all of you how amazing it is. Any of you who have read Hot Textiles will know of my love of melting plastics.    Mary's statement follows - TRANSIENCE  My work concerns the depiction of fragmented and distorted imagery on the multifaceted surface of moving water. The challenge has been to capture the complexity of the fractured reflection, created by a swimmer breaking through the surface of the water and the refracted images that the moving water makes of the swimmer. Mary Gray I hope you think it is as amazing as I do . . . . . . . . x