Light shades made from the rings that seal plastic bottle tops   Yes!! I teach and create Experimental Textile surfaces - but I have also been working with plastic on and of since 1975!! The work in this exhibition was a challenge to me, by me!! It has been a while since I have had the time to experiment with new work and try out new processes. In the end – you just have to make time. I started working with plastic in 1975 on the degree course Wood, Metal, Ceramics & Plastics. We were trained to be artists craft persons and I have worked in that way ever since. I have never been interested in mass production – only making by hand. Living on Loop Head I am surrounded by farms and grazing cattle. One of my favourite views from my house is the local herd of cows coming out and going into milking. I am also aware of the brightly coloured sheets of plastic that wrapped around the feed and fertiliser bags on the farms. The colours are fantastic. Plastic bottle ...

  Treasure       How are you at tidying up after a workshop or when you have finished a project?  I am dreadful!! I am making an effort, I have bought a few see through stacking plastic boxes to put my materials away in when I have finished teaching. How do you sort your materials and products? Colour? Textures? Products? Techniques?   Last week I taught my first 2 part workshop via Zoom to a group of students in America, Canada, and Scotland. 2 x 3 hour sessions 10am PDT/ 6pm BST. I can be in 3 places at once!! Students on the PDT time zone can work in the morning, and students in Europe enjoy an evening class.  The workshop was A New Starting Point. Featuring my backgrounds and pretties technique. We have the show and tell next week. I am very much looking forward to seeing what the group have developed from their samples.    3 book covers by Sue Redhead from the US.             ...

A rather splendid sample of textured Tyvek. Happy Easter!! It's a wild and wet here in Ireland. A good day to catch up with my newsletter and this blog. I hope you are all enjoying a day with family or friends and eating way too much chocolate . .  My recent online Zoom workshop Tinkering with Tyvek yielded some fabulous work. I do have wonderful students. Just look at this Tyvek dress made by Arley Berryhill. Small scale Tyvek dress by Arley Berryhill Arley is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has worked with me on a few workshops. He is a fantastic doll maker and costume designer and maker. Do look at his website - https://www.arleyberryhill.com/ It is not often I see anything resembling gold work on my workshops!! Arley created this great sample by stitching Tyvek to gold lamé and then texturing it with a heat gun. Beautiful faux gold work, just fabulous       I love the way Arley has added beads to accentuate the edge of the Tyvek shapes. This workshop was quite inte...

Teresa adding the final layer of fishing net to the float This past week has seen the preparations for the first local St Patrick's Day Parade since the first lock down. And some absolutely incredible fundraising for our Ukrainian guests. Firstly - the parade I was asked to decorate a float with plastic. It is well known locally that I have a stockpile of plastics from local farms and beaches. The float in the parade I asked my friend Teresa to give me a hand, we had a great afternoon decorating the trailer. It was good to be working in the warm sunshine. I had a selection of coloured plastic to use. We decided to use the colours of the Irish flag. The sun shone on the day of St Patricks Day. Kilkee was packed with visitors, it is a very popular place to holiday at any time of year. It was brilliant, such an amazing atmosphere Having fun in the sunshine     The winning float. Carrigaholt School  *** Then, on Saturday the town of Kilkee did something amazing.    ...

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 ...