Recycled cardboard packaging woven into with printed newspaper. The completed weaving was then printed and hand stitched - by Shaun West   I have been teaching weaving as part of the Constructed Textiles module of my course Experimental Textiles for many years. When I taught 'in person' we would create a huge pile of fibres, paper, yarns, fabrics and plastics in the middle of a huge table and the group would take what they thought would work for them. We always concentrated on interesting texture rather than weaving techniques. It is quite possible to create something rather special with simple techniques and interesting materials. The work in the first 5 images in this post was created by Shaun West in 2013.  All you need to weave, is a grid or a warp. With recycled cardboard packaging that is sliced in regular intervals it becomes quite possible to stretch it out and weave into it. Choosing to weave with painted and printed recycled newspaper keeps to a muted colour pallette.

A section of a beautiful piece by Val from the ExTextra group. I am nearly up to date with this blog now. There are 2 'ExTex' groups running at the moment, the regular 9 weekend Experimental Textiles and a 5 weekend 'ExTeXtra'. ExTeXra is a continuation course for ex Experimental Textiles students.  My year runs from June to March. This is more of a mentoring group with the members developing their own work and style. The girls are doing so well, I am so proud of them. They will be exhibiting at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show - 12th - 14th November at The Exhibition and Conference Centre, UWE, Bristol. I don't want to show complete images of the girls work, it's not really my place now - but here are a few tasters . . . .         The group have called themselves 'Out of Line'  and they will continue to exhibit as a group under this name. Now back to Experimental Textiles - session 5. This weekend was devoted to looking

A slice of Mary's particularly delicious lemon cake. Alison arriving with a box of lemon drizzle cake and banana and toffee muffins. Rachael arrived with a box of Rice Krispie cakes and Mellisa brought in a box of dairy free chocolates. Session 5 of Experimental Textiles looks at Constructed Textiles. Knit, weave and felt. We also look at working in 3D. But first we look at the homework . . .  I am currently teaching two groups of Experimental Textiles. One on Thursday and Friday. The other on Saturday and Sunday. The course is taught over nine months, from June to March, one two day session per month. This post shows a mixture of images from both groups. This was just a small part of Kate's homework - she created several fabulous pieces. A ripped up painted still life, reassembled and decorated with hand stitch.  . . . Another from Jane . . .   . .  a detail . . . Marlilyn missed the 4th session but created her own still life and executed