Newspaper block printed with Colourful Thoughts multi surface paints (bubblegum & copper) I had a day off yesterday - Shock! Horror!! I had chance to work on a large piece of newspaper faux chenille - Oh no!!! not newspaper AGAIN you cry!!! Colourful Thoughts multi surface paints are thick enough to print with and can be watered down to paint Bondaweb and Tyvek and they are gorgeous. craftynotions I have a deep box canvas 1m x .30cm I wanted to cover so layered up 7 - 9 layers of old dyed newspapers and backed it with some dyed craft/pelmet Vilene. My finished layers were large enough to cover the canvas and stick down around the edges. I have new wooden printing block I wanted to try out that Sarah Lawrence had given me at Festival of Quilts. I printed the top layer of newspaper, waited for it to dry then pinned all the layers together ready to stitch. I wanted to try stitching wider channel than I have been to see if I liked the effect. The channels are 2"

6 of the 7 lovely ladies on my course last week enjoying the sunshine on the terrace at West Dean As the title of the course suggests I wanted to incorporate design exercises into this 4 day workshop which may then lead onto more considered samples as we worked through the 'Hot Textiles' processes. Here a few of the exercises the students worked through on the first day. * We then worked through most of the 'Hot Textiles' techniques, half the group had never painted Bondaweb so we started with that. This lovely sample was decorated with the background paper from the Bondaweb. These 2 samples were created with Vilene Spunbond and pelmet/craft Vilene with Bondaweb on the back, cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto more pelmet/craft Vilene.    75 gm Tyvek layered with polyester organza,machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun.   Layers of polyester organza machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun These wonderful Tyvek

  amazing layers by Mary Campbell - layers of zapped Vilene Spunbond and craft/pelmet Vilene cut with a soldering iron The students produced some amazing work on this 3 day workshop at Art Van Go www.artvango.co.uk there many different levels of experience in the group but everyone got on really well, sharing materials, experience . . . . and chocolates . . . . Beautiful textures by Tracey Fordham, layers of zapped Vilene Spunbond and ployester organza applied to a painted Bondaweb background More zapped Vilene Spunbond embellished with French knots and stab stitch. This lovely sample ended up on the cover of a sketch book. I was particularly pleased with this sample by Phillipa Hamilton, it is the best piece of work I have seen so far that manages to incorporate and disguise textures Tyvek - stunning! Close up of Phillipa's sample another sample by Phillipa, this time layers of heavy Tyvek and polyester organza machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun.

layers of Vilene Spunbond cut with a soldering iron and bonded onto craft/pelmet Vilene Today was the first day of a 3 day summer school at Art Van Go www.artvango.co.uk Having established that most of my 12 students are absolute beginners I decided to start right at the beginning with decorated painted Bondaweb and sampling Vilene Spunbond - looking at different edges. some of the girls learning how to use the soldering irons the once tidy gallery are at the back of the studio, the floor covered in glorious colour painted Bondaweb ironed onto black cotton, decorated with Hydrangea petals and Artichoke heart seeds a combination of craft/pelmet Vilene cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto more craft/pelmet Vilene the same again - Fabulous design . . . .    The girls left exhausted at 4pm, they had painted, bonded, soldered and zapped all day - they produced some fab samples. Tomorrow we will be layering, using sewing machines and zapping back.  Now it's off out to dinner

an octopus's garden - painted Bondaweb and Vilene Spunbond CS800 cut with a soldering iron Wow!!! What a Fab last few days at Denman College! www.denmancollege.org.uk My group worked very hard and produced some excellent work, it's a shame I can't fit all the work on here. A few of the group were beginners and the rest were quite experienced so it was an interesting mix to teach. Everyone got on well together and there was lots of sharing, both of ideas and threads and fabrics, this always helps things to run smoothly. flowers cut with a soldering iron from Vilene Spunbond that has been backed with Bondaweb, (apologies for bleaching it out with the flash on the camera) Vilene Spunbond cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto pre dyed pelmet Vilene with painted Bondaweb decorated with machine stitch and gold heat transfer foil layers of Vilene Spunbond and pelmet Vilene backed withBondaweb, cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto pre dyed pelmet Vilene polyester or

  this stunning Houseleek/Sempervivum graces the front terrace of the villa Because of worries about the threatened Spanish air traffic control strike and illness we were a small and exclusive group. This meant we could get through a lot more work, it was a great luxury. It is unlikely to ever happen again so we all made the most of it. The timetable was -  Monday am - Market Monday pm - Studio Tuesday - Studio Wednesday - Studio Thursday am - Studio Thursday pm - Tapas lunch in Murcia than a guided tour and shopping! Friday - Final day in studio and 'show and tell'. Working in the studio during the week - As with all of my workshops we had to paint all the products before we could use them. Of course being in Spain that was no hardship, everything dried in record time. We painted up the Bondaweb and Tyvek with Colourful Thoughts paints from Cratynotions www.craftynotions.com These are high metallic paints that stay really bright even when you need to water them down to pai