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.   ...

Pink Birdhouse 29 Southdown Avenue Brighton, BN1 6EH      the weekends of ~ 7/8, 14/15, 21/22 28/29 11am - 6pm   The Brighton Open Houses start this week end and I am making some cushions to go into my friends Clare Rose's house. If anyone wants to pop in and say Hello! I will be stewarding tomorrow from 11 - 6, Sunday 15th 11 - 2.30 and the weekend of 28th & 29th 11 - 6. I am no longer opening my own house as I just don't have time to get it all sorted, it is such a mammoth task which is just as well with the website crashing last week. I have been having great fun working with all my scraps and oddments of fabrics making cushions. It is such a treat to give myself time to play with fabrics and see what happens. My floor is a sea of colour, I have been wading through silks, denims and cottons and it has been wonderful. It makes such a change to be working with natural fabrics and my trusty old Bernina 707. I have had particular fun combining ima...

  do you dunk yours? The snow was washed away on Friday night by very heavy rain, it was a miracle. We went to bed with thick snow on the ground and woke up on Saturday morning to virtually no snow at all. We now have freezing fog, which is very beautiful in the garden decorating all the different textures with white lace - but deadly on the roads. The change in the weather was very timely for a busy Open House weekend. I was particularly pleased this weekend as I sold a large piece of work of my own for a change. It always does my confidence a power of good to sell something - it also helps my groaning bank balance!  . . of land, sea and sky '. . . of land, sea and sky' was created on two 'L' shaped canvases by layering hand dyed silk tops onto similarly dyed heavy pelmet Vilene plus and 'knocked back' with toning painted Bondaweb. The whole piece was then painted with acrylic wax to seal the surface. The piece can be hung as one solid work or slightly sepa...