Layers of Tyvek and polyester organza stitched together and zapped with a heat gun. *** A glorious weekend   Well, what a fabulous weekend. It has been warm in the sun. It is so good to feel the heat, even if it won't be long lived. We have to enjoy the sun when we can in Ireland!!! We have unsettled weather coming up. Over the past couple of days I have been catching up with admin as well as working in the garden. I thought a catch up on my live Zoom workshops might be helpful. We had great fun on The Journey in January and Creating Unique Printing Blocks in February. The Show and Tell 2 weeks after the workshop has proved very successful, students are pleased to have an opportunity to develop their work. There are still spaces on all workshops, so if you would like to learn a new technique, or remind yourself of the fun you can have with any of these workshops, just click the link on the workshop you fancy. This month is Tinkering with Tyvek. I do so love working with Tyvek, you ...

Some great appliques shapes cut with a soldering iron. Well that was fun. Workshop 2 - Transforming Transfer went well. I am getting used to the live Zoom format now. I am by no means an expert, but I am dithering less. We had students from the U.K, Ireland, Scotland, France and an early start in Georgia, USA. Whilst teaching on Zoom is not ideal, nothing can replace being in the same room as your students, it is pretty good. The studio looks relatively tidy behind me - you should see it in front of the table - not quite so tidy!!           The group were asked to mix their disperse dyes and paint up their papers before the workshop. This meant after the introductions and a quick demonstration from me, we could get started. Firstly the group got to grips with ironing their painted papers onto their synthetic fabric. It can take time for the heat to transfer the dye onto the fabric. A good hot iron is necessary. At least 2.000 watts. Of course, if you have a hea...

 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...