My dear friend Brenda and I at the Mexican party on Saturday night -  (They are stick on moustaches - not our own!!!) After a wonderful week being a student at the TSG (Textile Study Group textilestudygroup.co.uk) summer school in Newport, Shropshire - I drove down to Redditch ready to for the weekend.  It was the third weekend of my Experimental Textiles course at The Old Needle Works. The plan was to look at positive and negative space and to paint colour wheels.  After having a look at all the homework the girls had done in the previous month we got straight into decorating white cartridge with wax crayons. This is a wonderful 'play school' type of activity where you don't have to think too much. It is a great way to ease into the weekend.     We were going to colour wash these masterpieces with procion dye powder and water on Sunday. The wax resists the dye. Then it was onto the main event of the weekend - Colour Theory!!!! In particular pai

  Fabulous painted newspaper and painted Bondaweb.  This is going to be a hit and run post - don't have much time as I am about to leave for Shropshire. So lots of photos and not many words. A five day summer school at Foredown Tower - New Layered Textiles. And it was definitely summer - pheeWWWWeee, very hot. We coped womanfully!!! There were ten lovely students which is the maximum for that teaching studio. We covered painted Bondweb on fabric and paper, Tyvek, newspaper faux chenille and cutting CS500 and 800 with a soldering iron and applying it to different back grounds. These images are a small selection of what we got up to -  Painted Bondaweb on fabric and newspaper and book covers              ] Newspaper faux chenille -     Painted Vilene Spunbond CS500 and 800 backed with unpainted Bondaweb, cut with a soldering iron and then applied either to fabric of more CS800.               I haven't added the Tyvek i

  Two scrumptious Tyvek corsages. We had a great weekend at Foredown Tower, a small but perfectly formed group of five. It was a great luxury to have two days to play with Tyvek, normally it is just included as one of many products in a workshop.  Tyvek is a very versatile product which responds well to heat. It can be heated and shaped while hot so Tyvek is great for making three dimensional objects such as bowls and beads. It can be ironed lightly between baking parchment to create beautiful textures and also distressed and shaped with a heat gun.                                 Some of the corsages made on the weekend. This is Pip making a rather large bead . . .     She made a few more and created a  . . . hair ornament!!!!   Claire making one of many beads.   A selection of Val's beads - they would make great tassel heads. The group eating the very delicious cake that Pip made for the group. A very chocolatey, gold frosted masterpie