The girls getting stuck in. We have started again - Experimental Textiles 4 has begun. There are 9 students in the group, Trisha, Karen, Caroline, Rosie, Anna, Jackie, Catherine, Joe and Nadia. They are a fabulous group, coming from all areas of the UK, Scotland, Manchester and North Yorkshire as well as the Birmingham area. We had a great time together over the weekend. In the first session we work on design formulae and isolate designs ready to make printing blocks in the next session. We started off by painting 'The Journey'. Building up the shapes and lines. The students are asked to paint a journey, it could be a walk on the moon, through an enchanted forest or taking the children to school. It doesn't have to be representational. The 9 journeys all lined up. Sections taken from the journeys. The next design exercise was one I use called 'Expanded'. And then the next exercise was 'flipping out'. The

Val's flipped and mirrored design painted in one colour. The second weekend of Experimental Textiles saw the group working in colour. The plan was to make printing blocks from foam core board and self adhesive foam using the designs created on the first weekend.  First of all we had a look at the home work - I had asked the group to take a design and flip and mirrored it to show several repeats to create even more designs. Kat's  . . Mary's  . . .   Barbara's . .     Rachel's . .   and more for Barbara . . .  . . . . and the course work/sketch books are beginning. These work books will be a wonderful resource for years to come. Once we had looked at and discussed the home work we got on with making the printing blocks. . . .       Then the group got on with the printing -  we tried out the blocks on A1 cartridge paper first to get used to how much paint to use on the block, how the repeats work