Nicola and Pops I have just returned from a few days away staying at Clasheen in Carlow, Ireland with my great friend Nicola Brown. Nicola and I met when we were both teaching at Geelong TAFTA Forum in Australia in 2015 and have been good friends since. We tend to get together 2 or 3 times during the year depending on how busy we both are and if we are traveling a lot. Nicola is a brilliant eco printer, eco dyer and feltmaker. She works without traditional powdered mordants to create her beautiful eco printed and eco dyed fabrics. Nicola has a huge amount of information on her YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@clasheen , you can follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicolabrownclasheen/ With me being so interested in synthetic fabrics and distressing them with a heat gun and soldering iron, you might wonder why I would want to learn about eco printing . . Nicola told me I could eco print on nylon. My head exploded with ideas when she told me this! It's great at N...

  Tall vessel created from Decovil 1 decorated with torn painted newspaper, painted Bondaweb/Vliesofix and a gold print.         It will be wonderful to be teaching at the Geelong Fibre Forum in Australia again. I was due to teach this workshop in September 2020, but we know what happened then . .  So I will be returning September 2023- Hurrah! I think it will be my 5th time teaching at this residential Forum. There will be 11 tutors teaching groups of up to 15 students. There will be a mix of international and local tutors for the first time in 3 years. Have a look at the workshops here. https://taftainc.com.au/workshops I will be teaching 'A Workshop of 2 Halves', the first part will cover design and the next part, fun with print, all things sparkle and 3D. Sparkle is optional . . but I do find once the gilding flake comes out - it is hard to resist. We will be working with the heavier iron-on interfacings to create decorated boxes, vessels and/or a canv...

A very happy OAP!!    Well how did that happen? I am now a pensioner . . .  Getting older doesn't worry me in general, but I am more aware of the groaning joints and I am thinking about what time is left to get SO much done. I have more ideas than ever now. Textures to create, designs to develop and so much more stitch to play with.  When you get to landmark birthdays, I think it is normal to take stock, to see where you are and how you would like to spend your time. After the Experimental Textiles course finishes in June/July next year I will be having a break from regular teaching. I have booked a stand The Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/ in August next year. It will be so very good to catch up friends and ex students at the show. It will be a change for me to have my own stand rather than working on a Vlieseline stand. I will be there to promote the new Experimental Textiles Video Library which should launch in ...