layers of Vilene Spunbond cut with a soldering iron and bonded onto craft/pelmet Vilene Today was the first day of a 3 day summer school at Art Van Go www.artvango.co.uk Having established that most of my 12 students are absolute beginners I decided to start right at the beginning with decorated painted Bondaweb and sampling Vilene Spunbond - looking at different edges. some of the girls learning how to use the soldering irons the once tidy gallery are at the back of the studio, the floor covered in glorious colour painted Bondaweb ironed onto black cotton, decorated with Hydrangea petals and Artichoke heart seeds a combination of craft/pelmet Vilene cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto more craft/pelmet Vilene the same again - Fabulous design . . . .    The girls left exhausted at 4pm, they had painted, bonded, soldered and zapped all day - they produced some fab samples. Tomorrow we will be layering, using sewing machines and zapping back.  Now it's off out to dinner

One of the many great things about doing shows is meeting new people. Chris Gray from Mabon Arts had a stand across the aisle from us at FOQ and her stand was a joy to behold. Beautiful hand dyed silk threads and kits to play with. Chris was fascinated by my painted Bondaweb and asked to have a corner off one of my pre-painted sheets to decorate a sample she was working on. This is it in progress. Chris produces very sensitive work, very delicate - Yes! I CAN appreciate this - don't be shocked. The next day Chris gave me a bag full of divine threads by way of thanks, what a lovely thought. I was very tempted by all kinds of packs of dyed tissue and colour themed threads. Have a look at her blog and see what she has to offer, lovely stuff. Her new website will be 'up' at the end of this month. mabon-arts.blogspot.com x I am off to one of my favourite places to teach today - Art Van Go www.artvango.co.uk I am teaching a 3 day summer school based around my workshop Hot Ne

 torn papers layered with painted Bondaweb and gilding flake It's Tuesday already - Yes!! I realise you have all also noticed this. I don't know where Monday went, I think I was a bit tired after FOQ. I need to be very organised today. I have to plan the next week, I am leaving to teach at Art Van Go for 3 days tomorrow and after that I go straight up to Redditch to teach 3 one day workshops at Inkberrow Design Centre   . . .  aarrgGHHH!!!!   inkberrowdesigncentre.co.uk/workshops I seem to be living out of a suitcase at the moment. I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with Viv and Kevin at Art Van Go, I hardly saw them at the show we were all so busy. I will also get a chance to catch up with my very good friend Brenda Killigrew when I teach for her on Sunday, Monday & Tuesday. Watch out Redditch - we will be out on the town. The Craftynotions stand - no one would stand still for a photo, they were all being very silly . . . I think we were all delirious

The Old Brickworks by Mary McIntosh It is always very satisfying when you meet up with students who have been on a course with you and they tell you that something you taught them helped them with a project or a finished piece of work. Mary McIntosh was on a course with me at Art Van Go earlier in the year and I showed the group what I had been doing with newspaper. Mary in particular was very taken with what I showed the group and created some fabulous samples that were shown on a previous post on this blog. Mary came to see me on the stand today to say she had a finished her final piece for her City & Guilds and that she had used some newspaper in her final piece. Wow!!! what a beautiful piece of work - it is absolutely stunning. The work can be seen on Stand A48.     Detail of left hand panel   a page in Mary's sketchbook showing a faux chenille sample made with newspaper I spent the day decorating heavy iron-on interfacing with gilding flake and newspaper and then r

Here I am loving having my photo taken - not! We had a very busy first day - I haven't really had a chance to get out and have a look at any of the exhibits yet - I will try to get in early tomorrow and have a good look around and report back. . . .  Sarah's lovely daughter Fran is helping on the stand - she is great fun and has promised to help me with the mysteries of  Facebook.  Sarah is demonstrating her wonderful techniques with all things sparkly in the middle of the stand This was a piece of Bondaweb I had pre painted with Sarah's wonderful Colourful Thoughts paints and was about to cut it up into small pieces for some smaller samples but thought it was so beautiful I couldn't cut it - So I ironed it off onto a piece of black cotton. I will probably use it as a background for hand stitch.   I was working with old newspapers and painted Bondaweb today - I still can't decide if I prefer torn or cut edges . . . . . tomorrow I will be working Vilene

The Craftynotions stand I am off to the NEC this morning with all my books to sell and all my demonstrating kit . . . .  I hope my poor old Volvo will move - the boxes of books are VERY heavy!! Sarah Lawrence of Craftynotions has very kindly extended her stand so I can sell my books and have a presence at the show. I couldn't afford my own stand this year. In return for this very generous gesture I will be demonstrating some of the techniques in my new book, including layering newspaper with painted Bondaweb, decorating boxes made from heavy iron-on interfacing and distressing Vilene Spunbond. (poor Vilene Spunbond).  painted Bondaweb decorated with heat transfer foil, skeleton leaves and glitter Signed copies book will be £18 (RRP 19.99) So - if you are coming to the show do come and say Hello!!!! It's always good to meet my readers and customers, email is a wonderful way of communication, but no substitute for the real thing!!!!! I am looking forward to seeing Viv and Ke

  This is me with my wonderful sister - I am on the right! I have lost some weight - really - It was SO windy we could hardly stand up, we were hanging on to each other for dear life I got to Dungeness yesterday morning with my sister and parents. I managed to park them in the local cafe while I dashed about taking some very fast photos. It is an amazing place, very bleak but - fascinating! I want to go back and spend several days there. I am going to investigate renting somewhere near by for a weekend or more realistically - during the week. Remember you work most weekends Kim! I was attracted by this little hut on the beach - anyone who knows me knows I love rust - sad but true - I have thousands of images of rust in so very many forms.  I wonder what a certain structural engineer will think about my little hut? come on Kim - concentrate, you are back to work now! This is a short post as I must stop dreaming around and get ready for The Festival of Quilts and also ge