Alpaca and silk tops with painted Bondaweb and layered newspaper ready to stitch.   I hope you all enjoyed the Jubilee celebrations and that those of you that were involved in street parties didn't get washed away . . It is wonderful to have a few days to just relax and let ideas arrive. When I was in Blenheim, New Zealand, for their Creative Fibre Festival I picked up some beautiful Alpaca and silk fibres and started to play with the fibres and painted Bondaweb unsupported - I don't mean me feeling lonely, I mean not on a background. Having started to stitch into the pieces I felt the need for some kind support but nothing too heavy that would detract from the beautiful fairy like qualities of the fibres . . . and low and behold I was asked to test a new self adhesive water-soluble product. It arrived this morning and is just the thing I needed and it washes away quickly with no residue - Fantastic. Once I get permission, I will let you all know the name of it.  

  Various weights of Vilene Spunbond zapped with a heat gun and cut with a soldering iron to create fabulous edges. Foils were added to some of the edges. First the good news - There are five spaces on my workshop   'Hot new jewelled surfaces for stitch' . New, soft fairy like and jewelled surfaces can be developed by distressing Vilene Spunbond/Lutradur and layering this exciting product with embossing powders and Hot Spots! Using beautiful mica powders and high metallic paints we will create stunning layered surfaces on which to stitch – or not.  This workshop is on Saturday 16th June at Hurley Village Hall, Hurley, Nr Maidenhead. SL6 5LT to book email Lesley a t lel.a@sky.com It is unusual for one of my workshops for a Guild not to fill within the Guild - I must be losing my touch - so those of you in the Windsor and Maidenhead area who have been saying I don't do enough workshops in your area - now is your chance! I shall also be putting this infor

 One of Lana's colourful papers which she then started to cut and collage.  Art Van Go have a great studio/workshop space at the back of their well equipped shop. They have everything a girl could desire. Having made the printing blocks the students started to print with them on A1 sheets of white cartridge, working out their patterns and repeats. We used acrylic paint to print with. Once the A1 sheets were printed up and dry we colour washed them with a dilution of procion dye powder and water. You can see how beautifully the different coloured dyes bleed and mix together on the page. Once dry the acrylic paint resists the dye.   Lana started to build up layers by cutting up one sheet to apply or collage onto another sheet.   One of Lana's layered pieces which she later went onto stitch.     Another one of Lana's printed sheets .   This is one of Kate's overprinted sheets, it looks quite 3D if you slightly offset your over print. We all thou

  One of the 'flipped out' exercises. It is unusual for me to teach two similar courses consecutively, but what a treat for me that it was my favourite workshop. I will concentrate on the end result of the workshop at Art Van Go. www.artvango.co.uk as you will already have seen some similar work in the previous few posts. My workshop Design, Inspiration and Interpretation is part of the design core that was part of my original four year course - Experimental Textiles. I am now teaching a shorter one year course of the same name at IDC/The Old Needle Works in Redditch. To have a look at what is involved in that course and for next years dates go to www.experimentaltextiles.com   Another 'flipped out' exercise. It can be difficult to generate designs on demand. Even those of you with bulging sketchbooks of ideas can sometimes feel a bit lost when looking for inspiration. The formulae that I use to get students thinking about spaces in between and pos

A good time was had by all! Funnily enough I haven't had much time to post on here - I have been SO well looked after. We had another BBQ last night so I didn't get a chance to do anything on here. So while my students are working happily by themselves for half an hour I will do a quick post - we are printing with the blocks the students have made from their designs.   This is Jackie  trying out one of her blocks   I will post more tomorrow - I have taken loads of photos, I just need time to size them before I post them. I will be back home tomorrow to attack my garden and do this blog amongst many other tasks laying in wait for me. Enjoy the weather.

This is just a quick post to say what a fabulous day we had today - I have the luxury of just 5 students in the group - we can spread out and work large!!! Wonderful! This is very quick becuase Kevin is just serving up our barbque . . . .  more tomorrow. www.artvango.co.uk X

 A section across ' The Journeys' hanging on the wall Sunday saw the second day of my new course Experimental Textiles  www.experimentaltextiles.com and the group of eight intrepid students were getting used to each other. I say intrepid because these students don't really know what the end of the course will bring - neither do I!  The whole point of the course is to work through various basic exercises that any one can do but never have/take the time to do, along with good support, some exciting and original work will be created for the end of year show. It takes quite a leap of faith for students to sign up for this kind of course. I am only taking eight students each year. Eight is enough for a group to 'bond' and small enough for me to have time to work with each student individually. This will be a great treat for me - I'm not sure about the students!!! I have chosen IDC at The Old Needle Works  IDC/The Old Needle Works as the place to run the c