One of my favourite pieces of painted and distressed Tyvek - Ever!    Is it odd to have a favourite sample of Tyvek?   Tyvek is one of my favourite products. Having taught all my heat processes for so many years, I thought I had probably taught most of the people who were interested. Apparently not! My first book, Hot Textiles seems to be having a bit of a revival, and with that comes new interest. So, in response to all the emails and messages I have received asking how do I work with Tyvek - I have written 2 new workshops. How to enrol and all the details are at the end of this post.   All the samples in this blog post have been made by students on previous workshops with me. Some are from as back as the early 2000's. The first one will be Workshop 4 - Raising the Surface. You may have noticed that I LOVE working with painted Bondaweb. You can create some fantastic effects by adding transfer foil or gilding flake. But as you need to iron Bondaweb, your work is always flat. Adding

 Sample by Julia Zagar Well my first live Zoom didn't go too badly at all. I had 14 lovely ladies in the group who were great fun, and were patient while I learned how to 'pin'. There weren't too many hold ups and I think the flow was there. Zoom can never replace being the same room with your students, but it was a good second best as it was in real time. I have now discovered there is a 'spotlight' function that will help us all see one students work. Who thought we would all be learning all these new skills? A fabulous torn sample that works so well as the colour palette chosen is analogous/tones of one colour with silver highlights. It took a long time to set up for the workshop. Trying to think ahead. The students had a list of materials to paint and collect together before the workshop. The workshop was A New Starting Point, so we were working with painted Bondaweb, painted papers, gilding flake and transfer foils. The worst thing was not being there and b

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

The view across my field today  Happy New Year!!  All is calm on Loop Head today. The light is bright and golden and it is almost warm in the sun. We have just weathered Storm Bella - for 4 days!! That was a big one. With some amazing waves. But not as big as some of the waves we saw at the end of October - my goodness they were huge, as you can see from this image. Massive waves at the Kilkee Cliffs on the 28th October 2020. This is a short film I made of the waves. Wave Watching at Kilkee Cliffs  ***   It feels we have a lot to catch up on - but not much has happened. Time has certainly passed . . Who would have thought, this time last year, that we would be in turns afraid, angry, scared and just inert, with the feelings that Covid 19 and all the restrictions brought with them. I hope 2021 is finding you reasonably positive and healthy. With the prospect of the vaccine looming, there appears to be hope for us all. Do we have the energy for it? I don't know about you, but I have

Printed and painted Bondaweb, ironed onto black cotton and decorated with torn skeleton leaves, gilding flake and herringbone stitch. It always helps to read the small print in a contract!!! I have been continuing to pay the monthly subscription to Ruzuku so that students who are currently on workshops can get their work finished before I stop teaching online on May 27th. Since inquiring about deleting my subscription to Ruzuku, I have discovered that the students currently on workshops, and any that enrol before midnight on Tuesday 26th May , can view the workshops and videos INDEFINITELY. So if you were put off enrolling on a workshop because you thought the workshops wouldn't be available after the end of May, we were both wrong. So - here are the links again - 30% off as there are no more inspiration books to send out. Only use these links to enrol. The links on the website are full price. To find out more about the workshops have a look here - http://kimthitticha