The two Valeries getting stuck in to their 'Journeys'. The life of a freelance tutor can be fun, exciting, tiring and a bit of worry as far as earning a living is concerned - but sometimes a course and a teaching venue come together to create such an amazing energy that all worries are forgotten.  The venue was Art Van Go - I love teaching there, it is always good to see Viv and Kevin and their team are always helpful - nothing is too much trouble.  The course was Creating Original Designs. We had seven in the class, enough to have fun as a group but small enough for me to be able to work with each student individually. Creating Original Designs is a course I have developed over the last twenty years while I was teaching my four year version of Experimental Textiles.  Lynda painting her Journey . . . I use three design exercises, The Journey which is my own, and an expanding and and a flipping out exercise that come from a book my tutor gave me when she ret

 A New Starting Point - July 5th and 6th (Saturday and Sunday)  This is a catch up - kind of housekeeping notes. I have added two workshops in Brighton to my diary. I have found somewhere new to teach locally with plenty of parking and not too far from Falmer station. The first workshop is a weekend one - July 5th and 6th  A New Starting Point. £95.00 Discovering and developing the redemptive qualities of old newspapers. Create fascinating surfaces on which to print and stitch. Using painted Bondaweb and gilding flake we will explore the possibilities of layering textures to end up with firm pieces of work that can be used to make boxes and vessels and demonstrate the striking contrasts of the media. Rich/poor and matt/shiny. ***  Layers of heavy Tyvek layered with polyester organza, stitched and then zapped with a heat gun. I have also booked a four day Summer School August 12th - 15th. Tuesday - Friday Experimental Textiles - New Jewelle

Baby wipe applique. I have had a busy and fun week. I made nine new videos with Jamie Malden of Colouricious on Thursday. We combined products from nid-noi.com and the printing blocks from colouricious.com/craft-supplies The new videos can be accessed on the left of the blog. They use polyester organza, Decovil 1, Decovil 1 light, S133, transfer foils and baby wipes!  It is always great fun making videos with Jamie - she relaxes you and we get a lot done.  Decovil 1 clutch bag decorated with transfer foil and a fossil printing block.    Decovil 1 decorated with torn newspaper strips, printed with small printing blocks and then defined with machine stitch. I thoroughly enjoyed creating the projects, particularly the printed polyester applique.  Printed polyester ironed onto Bondaweb and cut out with a soldering iron.  Decovil 1 light colour washed with a very dilute solution of acrylic paint and then decorated with torn newspaper. This was then print