A pretty silk fibre bowl by Sally Thompson   Some of the students on the Experimental Textiles Video Library have started work again after the festive break. It only takes one to post their sample in the private group attached to one of the 12 workshops, and then a few more join in. I love it when my phone pings to tell me someone has posted a new comment or image.  Sally Thompson, Gina Dean and Sue Redhead have been having fun experimenting with silk fibres.   The other side of the bowl above         Sally also experimented with molding fibres around a ball.   The first try of a silk fibre vessel, very successfully I think.   You can of course mix your media when you are making bowls and vessels. Sally was having a clear out and decided to shred her old recipes, and then - Bam! A bowl made from a combination of paper and silk fibres. Doesn't it look fab with the toning silk fibres bringing out the orange tones in the shredded paper.   ...

One of the memorials in the Maharani Gardens in Jaipur that is featured in my Textile Travels online lecture.   How are you all doing? Are you coping with and all the rain we are having? I know some of you will be enjoying warmer temperatures on the other side of the world. Wherever you are, I hope all is well. As I now live in Ireland, I am delivering less lectures, it is a bit far to travel now!! However I do deliver 3 or 4 during the year - online. Guilds and textile groups are much more experienced with Zoom now, so it is easy to talk to groups in real time, if not the same place. I can talk about anything - but I do offer a choice of 3 when I am approached. And I can write a new lecture if that is requested, I certainly have enough images to choose from after all these years.   I was booked by a lovely group from Ayelsbury, U.K on Saturday to talk about my textiles travels. Having traveled and taught in Australia, New Zealand, India and a few places in Europe as well as...

  My first 4 books . .    Welcome to my new blog subscribers.  I have 2 mailing lists one for this blog, and one for my newsletter. This blog tends to be a long read, it can contain all kinds of things, my life here in Ireland, my dogs, my travel, whatever takes my fancy, I can ramble, I like to talk to you all. There is a search engine in the top right hand corner, I have been writing this blog for 10 years or so, so if you want to find out what I have written about Lutradur or Tyvek or New Zealand, anything really . . just pop it into the search engine My newsletter is more of a short read, what is happening with my teaching, news of shows and new travel tours. That kind of thing.         I don't know if you can hear it from where you are, but my brain is whirring with new ideas and techniques. While I am filming and updating my 12 most popular workshops, I am developing new ideas to share with you. My 'what happens if . . ' head is definitel...

A great vessel decorated with Tyvek and polyester organza flowers.                                                      Mary Kay Aukea   Do you feel that Zoom meetings are the norm now? They can't replace the engagement of in person meetings, but they are brilliant when you can't get to a meeting or a workshop because of time restrictions or physical distance. I am getting used to teaching workshops via Zoom. I recently delivered a lecture and a workshop spread over 2 days for The Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan , USA. Because of the time difference the workshop needed to be delivered in 2 halves. The Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan https://www.ntgm.org/   is a multidisciplinary fiber-art guild. The purpose of the g...

  Sunrise on September 29th Another on September 2nd It's been a while. I was sulking, Yes!! I know it is unattractive at my great age . .  Having the new website built was fantastic. It is so exciting to be able host private groups, my online teaching and in a couple of months, the new online workshop library. There was just one problem, because of changing technology, I was told I couldn't link this blog to the website - Blogger was too old! Until last week when I was having teething problems with the new online program and I mentioned it the guy from Wix who was helping me. And he worked out how to link it to the website, and it refreshes every time I post a new blog - AND the search engine on the blog still functions.  I can't tell you how EXCITED and happy I am. I have been writing this blog since July 2010 - 12 years. Most of my teaching of the last 12 years has been written up on here so if you wanted to know more about Tyvek, Design, Lutradur, Heat guns etc - just...

 A 'squidgey' print taken from the left over paint from painting the colour wheel. I have just about finished clearing up from filming the 3rd and 4th weekends of Experimental Textiles Online. The 3rd weekend looks at colour and the 4th weekend is the still life. Students will be encouraged to build their own still life - or they can paint and draw from images of mine. I find a large scale still life is less frightening than the usual bowl of fruit. The idea is to look at shapes, lines and positive and negative space. It is not a competition to see who is the best artist. Few of us can paint and draw really well, but we can try, and the more you practice, the better you get.  Jayne has a new clapper board to help her with editing the videos.  We filmed the colour wheel on Saturday and the still life on Sunday.    I use paper plates as palettes.  When I was teaching Experimental Textiles at various colleges I always used a few of the sam...