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Hot Textiles at Denman College 6th - 8th September

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 Gorgeous late sunflowers outside the teaching studio.  Well it's not quite Sunday!! Just three days late, There seems to be so much to do with all the autumn shows coming up. It feels a while since I was at Denman, but it was only ten days ago. Denman College is the home of the W.I. but you don't have to be member to enrol on the workshops. www.denman.org.uk Denman has very beautiful grounds that are well kept and glorious at any time of the year.    A rather tropical planting scheme to welcome you at the front door.  One of the many reasons I like teaching at Denman is the food - and at morning coffee and afternoon tea we have biscuits and  . .  cakes!! yum!!! All made in the Denman kitchens - we are always very spoilt.  These little cheeky chaps had a glace cherry secreted inside - a lovely surprise when you bit into them - them!! I only had one - honest!   My group of lovely ladies, with naughty Hilary on the far left . . So - the workshop was Hot

Paper, Print, Stitch and Play - Art Van Go 3rd - 5th September. Part the second . . .

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    A lovely sample of the tearing and layering process that has been decorated with a print using one of the colours in the work. Using a 'self' colour paint enables the print to bleed in and out of the work and not be too obvious.  As we only had six in the group the students were able to spread out and we managed to get a lot more done. The larger the group the slower things happen. The group caught onto the 'background' and 'pretty' rotation quickly, sometimes it can take a while. It never ceases to amaze me how the simplest process can sometimes take the longest to understand. I think our brains like to make things complicated, they get bored when something is too simple. A few of the torn and layered backgrounds -         Pru added frayed fabric thread to this sample -    It add an extra texture - if you are aiming for a lot of texture - you need to keep the colours down to a low roar . . tones of one colour tend to work best.    

Paper, Print, Stitch and Play - Art Van Go 3rd - 5th September. Part the first . . .

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    One of the samples from the first day.  I will write up this post in two parts as the group produced lots of gorgeousness.  Paper, Stitch, Print and Play is my newspaper and painted Bondaweb based workshop that also uses Solufleece and free machine embroidery to enhance your work with extra texture. A three day workshop is a great luxury - it enables a student to work through several processes and still have time to stitch. The group mastered the 'Pretty' and 'Background' technique quickly, which meant they produced some fabulous samples quite fast.      Who would have thought that old books and newspapers could produce such stunning work?    With only six in the group we had plenty of room to spread and makes lots of mess . . . Some of the first samples -                 Most of these samples have been decorated with the new Blingy Bitz. Little squares of flash and colour. Craftynotions  We also used gilding flake in various

ExTex 2 - 4th weekend

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 A a section of a fine interpretive stitch sample by Val.  Last weekend was the 4th weekend of my Experimental Textiles course at The Old Needle Works in Redditch. The 4th weekend involves a large scale still life on the Saturday and then paper collage on the Sunday. Drawing, particularly in front of others tends to terrify most students but it is a very important part of the 'looking' process.  But first we looked at the homework the group had done since we last met - They were to stitch into their 'spaces inbetween' samples. Stitching into paper can be a challenge - particularly if you are used to stitching into fabric. The front can be fabulous - . .  . .  but so can the back . . . After discussing the homework, we launched into the still life that I had set up. I had asked the group to bring in 3 objects each to help supplement the arrangement I had created. The idea was to start with a 30 minute large scal