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 the UK,

Gur-e Mir (Tomb of the Emir) Samarkand It's happening!! Hurrah!!   The Textile & Architecture Journey of Uzbekistan 2025 with Kim Thittichai is now up on AAhilya Holidays website - here is the link - https://www.aahilyaholidays.com/tour/6c2e/-a-textile-&-architecture-journey-of-uzbekistan-2025-with-kim-thittichai#Tours_Name As you can probably imagine, I am so very excited about this trip . I have always been fascinated by The Silk Road. The colours, the designs. The wonderful structure of the buildings. The huge rounded forms against the stunning blue skies. Bibi Khanum Mosque, (dome over the north iwan) Samarkand Bibi Khanum Mosque, Samarkand Bibi Khanum Mosque (courtyard), Samarkand We will have opportunities to work in sketchbooks as we travel around these amazing cities. Do these images make you feel energised and wanting to explore? Do you fancy joining me? Madrasah and minaret of Islam Khodja and Soviet school, Khiva Kalyan Minar, Bukhara Chor Minar, Bukhara Registan

A small selection of work from our exhibition on the Friday night   Welcome to the 4th blog post this week. If you have missed any of the first 3, you can catch up here - https://hot-textiles.blogspot.com/2023/10/geelong-fibre-forum-part-first.html It always amazes me, when you look around the class room the first morning of the first day of a workshop and there is nothing on the tables apart from the students bags and stuff. And then . . the magic happens. This group was particularly special, they worked through everything I asked of them with good humour and trust. And boy were we rewarded. From The Journey and making blocks, through the 'backgrounds and prettys' technique to experimenting with the S133, Decovil 1 and Decovil 1 light. The heavier iron on interfacings. Sally created the first of 2 3D forms that nested together very quickly   The second of Sally's structures   I have been experimenting recently with forming these interfacings with heat. Whilst they are not

Simone and Kath cutting the S133 - the big boy!!!   So - we have worked through The Journey design exercise , we have made printing blocks from the isolated designs. Then we created some fabulous torn paper and painted Bondaweb surfaces using my 'Background & Pretty' technique.   Decovil 1 and Decovil 1 light, cut and rolled ready for the group to use   And then, I brought out the the heavy interfacings!!  Decovil 1 and Decovil light are leather-like interfacings for making bags, but we can do so much more with them. They are great for making book covers and small boxes and vessels. The S133 interfacing is my favourite. It is very stiff, like cardboard and fabulous for making tall vessels.  All 3 interfacings have fusible web on one side, so you can iron fabric onto them, or more importantly for me - the torn paper pieces the group had been creating. Vlieseline Australia and New Zealand kindly sponsored my workshop with these wonderful interfacings. It made a massive di