One of Tracey's stitched samples using torn prints from the 2nd week-end We all had a very colourful and exhausting week-end on the 3rd week-end of Experimental Textiles at The Old Needleworks in Redditch.  We started off looking at what the group had done for home work. Part of it was to stitch into some of their prints from the previous week-end. The three images below are just a sample.      The next thing we did was to colour wash their sketch books with procion dye powder and water. You can paint all the pages in the sketch at once and wait for the sketch book to dry (it takes ages) and then you can peel the pages apart. You can't do this with paint or ink as the pages would stick together. It gives you great backgrounds on which to add any notes or samples and is much less terrifying than being faced by a book of pristine white pages. The ExTex girls painting their sketchbooks - having great fun splashing all the...

  Painted Bondaweb decorated with newspaper strips, gold foil and glitter. We had another fabulous day at Foredown Tower yesterday playing with painted Bondaweb on newspaper and fabric . Playing with a technique is very important. It is much easier to learn in a relaxed environment. The group working hard. The workshop was the same as the one I taught last week but with different students so apologies for more of the same - of course it is never the same, as you will see. The images below are all painted Bondaweb on fabric decorated with foil and/or glitter and/or gilding flake - This sample is decorated with foil, strips of newspaper and grass. This one is decorated with foil and gilding flake. I love this one, I'm sorry it's not quite in focus. I just love the simplicity of it. The images below are newspaper based with all the sparkly bits at my disposal . . . There were many more fab samples which you...

A square of orange painted Bondaweb ironed onto space dyed fabric which has then been decorated with strips of newspaper, foil and glitter. So - to part 2 of this post featuring the work using fabric as a background rather than newspaper. All the pieces have been created by experimenting with layering up different types of decoration and with the idea of making surfaces on which to stitch at a later date. The metallic paints we used were Colourful Thoughts mixed media paints from Craftynotions the gilding flake is also from them. The paints were watered down by half with water to paint the Bondaweb and they still retained a high metallic effect - Fab! This was an interesting piece that just used painted Bondaweb to great effect. Another simple sample using painted Bondaweb and gilding flake. Painted Bondaweb with gilding flake and feathers. These torn skeleton leaves seem to be floating around the painted Bondaweb, this piece is just crying out for stitc...

Old, dyed and painted newspapers layered with painted Bondaweb, glitter and sequins. I have just got back from a brilliant workshop, it was one of those days where everything went smoothly and at a gentle pace - we all had such a great time. There were eight in the group and they all got on well with each other and shared things like their dried hydrangea flowers and glitter. It makes such a difference when a group get on well together. The workshop was at Foredown Tower and we were looked looked after by Jayne who runs the tower and is also a very good friend of mine. The day started well with hot chocolate and muffins!!!!  Jayne had some clotted cream leftover from cream teas she was serving yesterday so we had to finish it off - it would have be very rude to say no - chocolate muffins with cream, and before 10 o'clock. Oh! we were SO bad! I did start teaching soonish after 10 - we didn't want to rush our naughtiness.  The idea of the workshop ...