A rather splendid sample by Nadine. Here I am FINALLY, sorry this has been delayed. Have had a bit of a struggle with WIFI access while I am traveling in New Zealand. It can be a problem uploading a lot of photos. The 7th weekend of Experimental Textiles is a 'students choice'. The group negotiate what they would like to learn. I have to put my hands up to guiding them towards working with metal. It is a great material to work with, the girls had a fun time working with all the supplies they brought into class. A great bundle of fun to sort out and manipulate. Different metal shims, embossed or coloured with alcohol inks. Embossed copper embossed and cut to shape. Of course - sweet papers were an integral part of the workshop. This was a fun table full of materials - an old vegetable rack, tin foil and packs of covered metal wire. These samples were made by layering different metal shims with washers. Drinks cans came in very use...

Work in progress from Kate. Well - that's the third year of Experimental Textiles (the 9 month version) finished. The next round runs from June 2015 - March 2016. I love teaching the course in the IDC studios at The Old Needleworks in Redditch. It is a great venue, in the centre of the country and just off several major routes. There are several hotels close by for those of you that need to stay over.  The one thing I don't enjoy at the end of the course - is the students leaving. However - there will now be a way of progressing on from Experimental Textiles, a student can be invited to join ExTeXtra. This will be run as an exhibiting group with me as a mentor. It will be run as a 5 weekend course running from July 2015 - March 2016. It is my hope it will continue after March next year - but we will have to see what happens, this is all very new.    I am showing you details of the work in progress, I don't want to show the work or there will be no surprises...

One of Val's samples from the 'Backgrounds and Pretties' technique. Session 8 of Experimental Textiles is a student choice. The groups negotiate with me what they would like to do - I become their resource.  Half of the Thursday/Friday group wanted to catch up with workbooks and the other half wanted to try my 'backgrounds and pretties' technique. The Saturday/Sunday group just wanted do the 'backgrounds and pretties'. But first it was time to look at the homework - this takes longer every session. It is a great opportunity for the groups to discuss the work with each other. We had a great laugh when Kate brought in 'It'. We have christened it 'It' as we already have a 'Thing' by Rachael. 'It' by Kate. 'It' started life as a weaving supported on chicken wire that became rounded at Kate worked on it. She decided to make the piece totally enclosed and started to stitch into 'It'. 'It...