Surface Design...

is great fun, but I don't see myself getting out to the shed today. There's still lots of snow in the garden, and I doubt if the Berco Boiler has defrosted itself yet... so I'm staying put and playing with the cloth that I've already made. Like this sample, Lutradur 100 coloured with Brusho. All the colour was added using these flexible little watercolour inks. I'm really quite pleased with the outcome, a sample for a class I hope to be teaching soon, smaller than A4. As you can see, I've added a couple of small pieces of felt, and embellished them with some free flying fleece. I was contemplating adding some stitch, but I'm not so sure now. Small and uncomplicated seems to suit my mood. See what you think. I have to say, it looks better in the flesh... but that's the way of these things.

...And Brightening Up.

It's remarkable how much better a tidy workspace is for one's morale. I've unearthed a few medium sized pieces that need to be worked on, like the one above, which is layers of both Lutradur and Evolon, with red wool tops felted into them, as well as throwing out quite a few small pieces that just didn't work and really aren't worth working on any more. And if you marry that up with a long conversation about The Work, and what I'm intending to do, then you have a process that takes you not just out of the blues, but into the Zone. Thanks, Sally, for listening while I droned on about what was going on in my head, and for giving me your opinions, gently but firmly. And having the patience to let me sort things out in my own head.

In many ways, that's the real trick, when you're talking to someone about their work. Let them talk. Someone much smarter than me said 'I know what I think when I hear what I say'; Sally listened to me talking about how dark the earlier work had been, and how dark this new stuff also seemed. We worked out why that was, and what it meant, and then, at the end of the conversation, there was room for a small but definite brainwave unrelated to the work we were talking about, but a definite possibility for a series of work with BB. Watch this space!

Friends, what would we do without them?

Oh, and the other thing I've stopped doing is the procrastination around the images for the book. My lovely designer should get the whole thing tomorrow. The thing about procrastination is that it's SO good when you stop! Why not try it with whatever you have been avoiding, lately? You know you want to...and I bet that whatever it is is not as difficult as you think it is going to be. Trust me, I'm a quilter.

Tidying Up...

is, I suspect, best done in a bad mood. Failing that, a questioning mood. Why do I keep all this stuff? Why don't I tidy up as I go along? Why do I feel as if I want to work larger than I have been? Do I really need all this fabric? Where can I put all these books? You know the kind of thing, I'm sure. It helps you to throw things away, or give them to others, which makes it easier to find places to put things; and that, in turn, gets things clearer in your mind. I write about it at length in the Creative Focus book. At times like this, I rather think I should be taking a large dose of my own medicine.

And that really is what I intend to do. I spent an hour in one of the fabric studios today, and it still looks like a large bomb hit it. Partly that's because my son has several boxes of his stuff, mainly books (wonder who he gets that from...?), in that particular studio. They're going back up to Scotland just as soon as I can manage it (mwahaha...). But it's also my doing. There is a lovely (or rather, unlovely) guddle in both cloth studios, and I'm sick of it. So the next few days will be partly spent working on putting things to rights, and the rest of the time spent telling the cats that I didn't order the snow up just to spite them, and that there's plenty of food in their bowls...in between cuddles, of course.

That 'work larger' thing is intriguing, though. Partly it's just Bertha's influence. Partly, though, it's a need to give myself the space to express things, as I do in my paintings. I don't like painting small, and I no longer feel I want to sew small, either. And partly it's the restlessness that you get at the beginning of a new phase of work, as you wonder, is it worth it? Do I really want to do that? Say that? Express that? Will I be able to do the theme justice? I don't know any of that. But I do trust the process, and at the moment, the process seems to be saying, tidy up, get ready to work, get out of your own way, and hurry up about it. So that's what I'm doing. Wish me luck, it's scary.

On A Roll...

carguably, with the odd disaster still creeping in... This is a variation of the original cave painting image, where I've used the software to allow me to draw on top of the manipulated photograph, and then used those additional lines to suggest the stitch lines. What I've produced, is a primitive, semi abstract man shape. If I could only see it as that, I'd be happy.

However, I also see it as a badly drawn man shape. When I was stitching it, I couldn't see the head as I originally envisaged it, which was quite a bit larger than the one in the image, and in a completely different position. I can see it now, of course, in the photograph, but at the time, I couldn't. So I stitched what I saw, and went with the flow, as I always do. The head seems to suggest that the body is facing one way, where the leg in the bottom left corner, suggests that the body is facing in another. Now that I've seen that, I can't unsee it.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to intention. My intention was to create a semi abstract, primitive man shape, and that's what I've produced. What's more, despite my own discomfort, I'm not going to change it to conform to the 'rules' of what a man shape should look like. In fact, the more I look at it, the more I warm to it. This is a 'man' who is ruled by his body, not his head. Who is, perhaps as a result of that, confused and unsure of where he's going. Tentative, hesitant, almost.

Like I said, I can't unsee the 'wrong' bit. But I can accept it for what it is, an expression, resulting from my process, which has taken me a bit of thinking to comprehend. This post is very much for me... but it's also for everyone who has worried that their intention will not be seen by the viewer. My suggestion is that you live with it, just as I'm doing. Ambiguity is good. Risk taking is good. Expression is good. Above all, you have to trust the process... at some level, you really do know what you're doing, and why. It might take a little time for the conscious you to catch up, but that's okay.

ps It's worth looking at the images enlarged, I think...just click on them. The first one is a detail shot, that shows some of the drawing I did, as well as some of the stitch.

Returning From The Brink Of Disaster...

...or how to survive One Of Those Days. I'm definitely having one, and much of it centres round this piece, called 'Cave Drawings I'. It started as an inkjet print on Evolon, as I'm writing a section about doing just that thing at the moment. I then added some net, and some stitch, but felt it needed Something. A gel transfer, I thought. Forgetting, of course, that I hadn't actually set the ink (I use a spray). So, what happens? Ink runs in one section. No problem, I thought, just whip the gel back off again, which I did, and we'll add something to that area. I know, a print done on Bondaweb.

Problem was, the Bondaweb wasn't sticking well to the backing sheet, so I covered it with greaseproof paper and ironed it. So well, in fact, that it stuck to the greaseproof paper. No, that has never happened to me before, and to be honest, I didn't believe it. So I ran it through the printer, fusible side up. Nifty print of a fossil. Try to iron it onto the piece. It did. Trouble was, the paper didn't want to come off again. Stood for half an hour peeling it off laboriously. Some of the Bondaweb stayed on the piece, some of it didn't. In the meantime, I'd forgotten where exactly the original problem area was. Ahem. And I left a few pieces of the paper on the cloth, as they looked interesting.

Meanwhile, ran two other pieces of Bondaweb through the printer. One was successful; the other was eaten by the printer, and disgorged itself slowly in shreds. That kind of a day? Oh, yes. Still, I'm quite pleased by the work. Wait til you see the next one in the series...if I get that far...

New Directions...

and who knows where they will lead. This is the inaugural piece from Big Bertha (BB), my lovely printer, and it's called, 'Are We Dancers?'. It is made from Lutradur 100, silk and wool fibres, and measures 17.5" by 24"; it's great to be able to work on a larger scale than A4 with a photographic image! Although the piecemade in layers, I don't think it really qualifies as a quilt (of which more another time). The image is manipulated; the original was a picture of a crack in the floor of one of the buildings at the museum at Gressenhall, just up the road from here. I did contemplate beading this piece, but thought better of it. I think it's complicated enough without it. There's always the risk that you add too much to a piece, and distract from the original intention. Sadly, the main picture doesn't do the colour justice; the colours are very subtle in places. I hope to get a better photograph of it when the snow disappears and I can get to the gallery, where the lighting is good. The close up does a much better job of rendering the colours of the original.

As you can tell from the image, I've given my embellisher a bit of an outing, and intend to work much more with it in the next few months. I've rearranged my work space so that it has a table to itself, and I've already used it more in a week than I did in the whole of last year, just about. Which is sad, really. I didn't buy it as a toy, but other than buying rather a lot of things to use with it, I didn't make time to work with it. Now, I have a clear plan about using it, and a clear purpose, and I do feel better about it. And I'm wondering what other bits and pieces of things I'll work with next... other than BB, of course, she's an essential part of my new directions. Hope you like what you see...

Playing With The Inner Child

I've always had a thing about crayons. Chubbi's in particular, the kind they have in nursery schools, the big thick ones. Only thing about them was, they sometimes didn't make all that great a mark...there was something hard about them, and they sort of squeaked on the table sometimes... I've often felt the same about textile crayons; the idea is great, but they always seem so hard... and then I went to demo for ColourCraft at Harrogate last year. Oooh, crayons, I said. Yes, they said. They're just for kids. But when I pouted, they said, go on then, you can play with them too.

So me and my inner child played with the crayons for a bit, and they were Good; very satisfyingly chunky, not unlike Chubbies were. As you can see from the illustration, the colour is bright, and they work nicely on Evolon that had been transfer dyed in places. What you can't see from the illustration is how nicely they work on cloth; they feel really soft and smooth, and I loved them! But they're just for kids, they kept saying. I'm of the view that I don't care who they're for; if they work, they work! And they certainly do. (The flower tops are made with copper Gutta, by the way...).

So now I'm having a conversation with my inner child. We're thinking... resists under Procion... detail over Procion... drawings just for fun... tshirts.... all we have to do now is wait until the Little Green Shed defrosts a bit (the water for dyeing has frozen), and go Try It Out! In the meantime, my inner child and I are going to prepare some Evolon for blasting with heat... and colouring a little doll, too. We like colour. We like easy. We like fun. Hurrah!!!

What Do You Do...

when the BBC is showing a feature length episode of Casualty? Well, I don't know what you do, but I sit and stitch by hand. This piece has been hanging around for a while, only a third done. I used to take it to the Gallery to do on open days, but that stopped when I got the Paid Job. Last night seemed like a good moment to resume work on it, and despite a little jockeying for postion amongst the cats, and Merlin deciding that the thread was To Be Played With, I got quite a lot done. I'll be doing Open Studio in May this year, and I'd like to have some new pieces to show, other than the work I'm doing with BB. Besides, hand stitching is possible in lunch hours and the like, when I do go back to work.

The piece is provisionally entitled Strata, reflecting the way that the stitches increase in size in some places, as well as the markings of the rust, which seem stratified, somehow. The cloth is rust dyed silk habotai, stitched with cotton hand dyed threads by Myfanwy Hart. I very rarely dye my own threads, too fiddly for my liking, but I like Myfanwy's. I've got some rust dyed Evolon still to play with; there's instructions for that in the upcoming book, two different methods. I love the effect that rust dyeing gives; must do more of it. In the meantime, though, I'm happy to work on the first of BB's pieces; pictures of that tomorrow.

It's lovely to be back on the blog. Thank you to everyone who has been patiently waiting for me to come back...and a particular thank you to everyone who comments. I read every one, and appreciate them greatly.

Tidying Up...

mainly, today, in the Gallery. We're going to use the smaller of the two spaces as dedicated workshop space, that can be used on a drop in space, rented out by groups or artists for small workshops, or in which we'll conduct our own workshops, as usual. The adult group I run on a Tuesday is not meeting until the first Tuesday in March, and we'll be kicking off with a fabric swap. In my case, that'll be a fabric getting rid of, I hope... too much fabric, not enough time. I'm certainly going to start selling my hand dyes in the gallery, soon, so that will take some of the pressure off, at least. Phew.

Tomorrow, I start to tidy up the Evolon book, adding the chapters I talked about yesterday, and getting it to the designer, so that it will be printed (at last, I hear you holler...). And I definitely need to tidy up the threads I have in my possession, as I started using one in particular on the piece I've made on BB, and I can't find any more of it, though I know there is some somewhere...

In the meantime, though, I'm going to finish off this particular day of tidying with a quick dash through the kitchen, where too much of the shed's stuff is lurking. Back it goes tomorrow, but meantime, I hear the allure of the empty dishwasher, and the rumble of my tum. Off to clear the decks, and cook the tea!

A Leap Of Faith

Last year was the year when I made my first true leap of faith. When we realised that the future of my husband's employers was a little...well...shaky, I decided to go back into HR. For me, that was a leap of faith. I didn't know if I could cope or not with the demands of paid employment, which was the reason I got (really) ill in the first place, last time round. But needs must when the devil drives, and I spent a joyful five months working in a great place, which is now, sadly, closed. You would have noticed the quiet blog, here, which was a direct result of the Paid Job, and for that, I'm sorry. I missed talking with you all. Now, though, I'm about to take another leap of faith, which is to continue to look for paid employment (anyone looking for a proactive HR Manager?), but to combine it with a simplification of my creative life. I'm coming back to textiles in a focussed way, with a bit of mixed media on the side.

You see, I've got a new toy. She's called Big Bertha, and she's a printer. She's not any old printer, though; she's an Epson 7880 (check her out here). I'm going to be working almost exclusively with images that are derived from photographs, just like the image at the top of the blog, one of the illustrations for the new Evolon book (more of that in a minute). She's too big for my studio, so she lives in the gallery in Dereham, where we'll be offering a range of services for artists and photographers based on BB. Watch this space for more details... but first, I need to master using her on cloth. That starts next week... the gallery may not know what hit them .

And the Evolon book. Yes, I know, I promised it for last year. I failed...but for a good reason (for once). I'm adding two new chapters, one on using evolon and the printer, another on distressing with heat. It will be ready in March; I hope you'll think it's worth the wait.

Oh, it's good to be back. I spent part of this afternoon in the studio...would still be there, but himself has a migraine, and the embellisher makes a lot of noise... I'm half way through working with my first large scale image on Lutradur. It's really exciting!

Finally, I wish you all a Guid New Year... one that is joyful, exciting and creative, just like mine!

Creating...

but not exactly what I expected. I'm spending today in the gallery, and now that I've got the exhibit how I want it, complete with labels, I'm working on... well...not what I intended to work on. I intended to work on the image above, a piece of Evolon that has been transfer dyed in four layers (or was it five...I forget). But somehow the little box with the correct foot for my old Bernina (which lives here part time) has disappeared in the chaos which is the Gallery's art supplies, so instead, I'm writing some instructions for a pattern. I rarely make pieces that lend themselves to patterns, or instructions, and in truth, this will be a pattern with a difference. It will tell you how to make a particular wall hanging...but it will also give you lots of control over the size and look of the piece, too. Mind you, I've never actually used a pattern, so maybe that's what all patterns do? If so, better tell me now before I make an idiot of myself...

The piece I'm writing the pattern for is called 'Autumn Rain'. I originally made it with hand dyes, but I am writing the pattern for commercial fabrics as well as hand dyes...so we'll see how that works today. I'll pop a picture of it up on the next blog, along with some images of the show.

Workshop Wonders

Just in case you were wondering what it was we get up to on a Tuesday night at the Gallery, here are some images of a recent show of student work. So far this year, we've tried a wide variety of things, from paste papers and nature printing through to altered books. We've even moved into basic 3D, as you can see from the Funky Chicken plaque (isn't it fab?). And that's just with the grown ups! The kids made the wonderful altered shoes you can see in one of the images; the adults haven't quite picked up the courage to do that yet, but I suspect it's only a matter of time!

At the moment, we're working with photographs, using a favourite photo as inspiration to produce different kinds of work. I don't know about you, but I take huge amounts of images, but often they are left on the disc to moulder as I collect even more... So we're working this month on just how to use those images. I'll share some images at the end of the exercise...though that might be some time in the future; we're finding more and more inspiration in the smallest of details.

Next week at the Gallery, my friend Jill and I are hanging a textile exhibition, entitled 'Textile Alternatives'. As well as our own work, we'll be showing a wide range of work, some of which stretches the boundaries of our understanding of what 'textile' means. I hope we'll see some of you there... it opens on Saturday 24 October, and runs til the following Saturday. Open 9.30am to5pm Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays. Check out the Gallery web page for location and more details.

And talking about Alternatives, as we were... I've given up the ownership of the Alternative Quilt List on Yahoogroups, and delivered it into the competent and caring hands of my friend and fellow artist Dijanne Cevaal. I hope it continues to grow and change. I have been very busy of late (you may have noticed a greater paucity of posts than usual around here), and feel that it's time for me to hand over the reins. Good luck, Dij!

ps There are a number of the snow leopard t shirts left over; if you would like to buy one, drop me an email. They are very low cost, and all proceeds go the the Snow Leopard Trust.

Plus Ca Change...

...plus c'est la meme chose... I don't quite think this was the intention behind the quotation, but in a way, it's very fitting. Voici the French version of Lovely Lutradur, 'Ravissant Lutradur'. Doesn't it look great? It is, of course, the same book, just translated and presented slightly differently, but it does the same thing as the old one, honest!! I hope our Francophone readers really enjoy it.

I'm working today on the final draft of Exquisite Evolon, before sending it to the designer. It seems to have taken forever, but I do hope the wait will have been worth it for everyone who has expressed an interest in this new book. I'm hoping it will be ready to take with me to Harrogate, so fingers crossed!

I've really been busy, recently, much of it the admin work behind the business; putting together a quote for the school which is interested in a textile project next year, for instance. That involves a six foot long Evolon snake... watch this space! I've also been saving the Snow Leopard, one tshirt at a time... when I find my camera I'll upload a shot or two of the tshirts we are selling at the gallery; every single penny goes to the charity. They are for sale during the exhibition of students work at the gallery this week; work from adults and kids, from altered shoes through paintings to collage and altered books. Everyone has been having fun, and it took the show for some of us to realise just how good the work is. Congratulations to everyone on their success and their hard work!

Professional Procrastination

Never put off til tomorrow what you can put off til next week... no, that's not right, is it? But lots of people put things off indefinitely, and I can be numbered amongst them, sometimes... Usually, I'm waiting for 'the right time'. That special, elusive 'right' time, when I'll a. feel like it b. have everything available c. want to do it d. know I can do it e. have the time to do it....and I'm sure there are lots of other things that have to be in place before I can do whatever it is.

Now, if what I'm trying to do is something unpleasant, you could perhaps see the point in putting it off. But often, what I'm aiming to do is, in fact, what I WANT to be doing...or so I say, anyway. So what's wrong with that picture? I don't let anything get in between me and a bar of chocolate (my friends and colleagues will confirm that). So why would I let things get in the way of making art? Sometimes it's to do with not being ready. I have an idea for the new Quilters Guild Contemporary Quilt Group challenge, for instance. It's part of a much larger idea I have about scars, erosion and things breaking through to the surface from the depths. I've been playing with this for a while, working with marks and images in between the writing of the books. Sitting here, now, thinking about it, that series has been ready to make for a while. I've just been doing other things, like writing, and the Paid Job, and Festival of Quilts. All of those things are great fun, and a good way to spend my time. However, and it's a big however, it doesn't get the art made.

So, what do I really want? At the moment, I want to finish the Evolon book, which is so nearly done that it hurts, to send away all the orders I've had for the completed book over the last few days (thank you all!) and to call the bank for information that I need to complete my tax form. And oh, yes, I want to make art. So, today and tomorrow, I have the time I need to clear my feet, fulfil those orders, meet with the art teacher at the school to discuss a potential project, nip to the doctor's to collect my happy pills (always important!). I'll also run a workshop on Tuesday night, and hopefully go to my friend Jill's opening (it's her MA finals show, and I don't want to miss it). I might even manage to shoehorn a haircut into Tuesday pm... And then I have three days at work. And then it's the weekend, and I have four whole days to focus on the art and the book.

Procrastination is fine, if you've got the time for it. I don't. So I have focussed on the essentials, my commitments in the short term, and I've decided how to tackle them. Many of these things are just a phonecall away. That takes five minutes from a whole day. The post office will take an hour, so will the school visit. But that's still a lot of time to get moving on what needs to be done. I'll be able to sit down with the Evolon manuscript and see exactly where I am with it, and scope out how I'm going to finish it in the next week or so. I've done enough worrying about fixing it; now it's time to fix it. Deep breath, and on it goes.

I talk about procrastination at some length in the Creative Focus book. It doesn't get a chapter to itself, though; it isn't that important. We just make it important in our heads. A bit of planning and a lot of focus gets us to where we want to be, and quickly, too. And I might just get a small bar of chocolate to reward myself with after all that work...I am on a diet, after all! But the main reward for this kind of planning is the feeling you get afterwards, that you have achieved everything you needed to, and the time ahead is now clear to get on with what you really want to do.

ps You know you're not making enough art when you can't find a new photo for a blog post... this one is 'Sun God', one of the projects in the upcoming Evolon book, a rust dyed and stamped piece of Evolon, ready for stitch.

At Last...

I've managed to put Lovely Lutradur The Book up onto my other blog, complete with Paypal buttons. It takes a while to get everything just so... so here's hoping I haven't missed any errors. I've included an extract from the book, which explains why Dijanne and I love this fabric so much; I hope you'll find it interesting. Just click on the red link above to check it out.

I'm finding that The Day Job doesn't just take time; it takes a lot of energy, too, so I'm trying to cut back in places; deciding what to cut back on is challenging, I'm finding. I recently bought a jigsaw to alter, having conveniently forgotten that altered stuff is one of the areas I'm withdrawing from... I dare say I'll remember given time! I've got a textile exhibition to work towards in late October, too, so it'll need to take precedence for now.

That said, I have an appointment with a Primary School to discuss a possible textile art project for next year. I think it would be great fun to work with kids, and give them possibly their first taste of working in textiles. I have some ideas already; the project will be based around the Rainbow Serpent, an Aboriginal creation story. It'll be interesting to see what the teachers think. Wish me luck!

At last...

...here they are, in glorious technicolour. Lovely Lutradur and Finding Your Creative Focus had their respective debuts at Festival Of Quilts, and now they're popping up for sale on my other blog
Or at least, Finding Focus is there, Lovely Lutradur will appear later on today, or possibly tomorrow. I've been catching up with my admin work today, sending some books away, some CDs too. Self employed persons don't get Bank Holidays, and neither do those of us who work Wednesday to Friday (aww...). Now all that remains is for me to finish the Exquisite Evolon book, which is in the process of having its gallery put to rights, and I'll have that with me at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate. Hurrah!

I had a great time at Festival of Quilts, particularly teaching. I love teaching, and everyone in the classes rose to the occasion, and seemed to go away happy, and with some lovely work in process, too. For once, I managed not to buy much at all in the way of supplies, but then, I was really busy... and finally, on Sunday, managed to make the book with Lutradur XL that I'd been promising I'd make all week... For those of you wondering what Lutradur XL is, it's a heavy weight lutradur, which, as well as being interesting to work with in its own right, is a wonderful substitute for Pelmet Vilene. I prefer it, in fact, as it doesn't give off fluff in the sewing machine, and it takes colour much better than Pelmet Vilene, particularly line. So...some experiments with that, maybe even a new book... watch this space!

Tomorrow is gallery day, which is always fun. I usually take hand work to do, but might just play with my sewing machine, for fun. There's a piece of Evolon which I transfer dyed which is just begging to be stitched... And then, I have the workshop in the evening, which we've transferred from the Wednesday night, as I now work three days a week, and was finding it too tiring to zoom around at work all day and then zoom around in the gallery in the evening. We are meant to be working on Beautiful Backgrounds, but last week's class on designing and making dolls was very well received, and the people who attended want to make more dolls. So we might end up with two classes running simultaneously... stranger things have happened. At least I'm flexible...

Finally....

there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't an oncoming train! The image here is the front cover of my new book, my first solo effort, 'Finding Your Creative Focus'. Didn't Terry do a great job? I got the proof image at the weekend, and the book, along with Lovely Lutradur, should be completely printed and ready to go to FOQ by Friday this week. It's really exciting!!! And Lovely Lutradur is to come out in French in September, at the Carrefour in Alsace. That's exciting, too; my lutradur quilts are in France as we speak, being photographed for this new edition.

Creative work, other than the ongoing work on the Evolon book, is at a standstill, pretty much, as I prepare for the classes that I'll be teaching at Festival of Quilts. Preparing packs always takes more time than you would think, and I like to have handouts ready for everything I teach. The classes I'm teaching at FOQ are new, so that means working things out from scratch, trying to make them the best that I can, and fun for the participants, too. I'm looking forward to getting back to normal, with the Evolon book finished, the workshops completed and a chance to get back into the shed!

There's The Good News....

and the not so good news.... but there's more good than bad, hurrah! And even the bad, has some good attached...

The good news is that I'm back, after a long blog break which has had a lot to do with me returning to the world of Paid Employment, and combining it with Self Employment, and struggling to find the time to turn round, much less write my blog... The good news is that I'll be at Festival of Quilts, and when I'm not teaching, I'll be demonstrating at Spunart's stand (D25). Anyone coming to my Instant Postcards workshop will have the chance to work with the new Lutradur XL, which I think is amazing. It will make fab postcards, and I'm looking forward to making textile and mixed media books with it. I used the sample that Spunart sent me to back some small quilts; it's great for that, too. So hopefully I won't have to do too much ironing at FOQ this year; I plan to make a small book while I'm there.

And I'm not coming alone; I'm bringing two books with me. Lovely Lutradur is at the printers as we speak, along with 'Finding Your Creative Focus', my book on getting round creative blocks. They will be available from me during FOQ, and I'll be selling them through the Other Blog, as we did with the CDs (which will still be available).

The bad news, or the less good news, is that Exquisite Evolon is not going to be ready for this year's FOQ, though it will be ready by mid September, according to my printers. Part of the reason for that is that I'm working with a wonderful photographer, Haydn Rodgers, who has introduced me to his friend, designer Terry Symonds, who has created amazing covers for Lovely Lutradur's printed version, as well as 'Finding Your Creative Focus'. He is now going to work his magic on Exquisite Evolon; I'm sure you'll find it will have been worth the wait! In the meantime, feast your eyes on a couple of Haydn's photos for Exquisite Evolon, showing the jacket that is one of the projects in the book. There is layer upon layer of surface design on the jacket, and there are step by step directions on how to achieve this look, as well as the construction methods. Hope you like it as much as I do!

Workshop Fun

...and transfer dyeing is great fun, especially when there's a group. This was last week's workshop in full swing, working with transfer dyes and lutradur. A good deal of hilarity masked the fact that everyone was actually working pretty hard. We discovered lots about transfer dyes, and about lutradur, too, which, considering I was squashing elements of two different one day workshops into one two hour session, was possibly not surprising. As you can see, the dog was the only one who was completely disinterested in the whole affair; Lucky is a sweetie, but she doesn't do art....she does, however, enjoy the biscuits at coffee time.

It's interesting to run workshops in a gallery space; when you are looking for examples of good design, or a particular approach to work, there is always something to refer to on the walls. Or you can use them as inspiration, as you can see from one of the images here, which is a drawing of one of my totem dolls on a piece of lutradur. I thought, myself, it looked like Tina Turner in full flow... And if you want to refresh your memory about transfer dyeing, there's a post about it here

We're focussing on words this month... last night, we worked with found text, next week, we're making little translucent paper bowls with individual words trapped within them. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out!

Collage...

was always something I avoided. Recently, though, I've been making quite a few... and this is the most recent, made as a sample for my class on Wednesday at The Gallery, Dereham. It's amazing how much can be done with such a limited palette, and really not many materials. We'll all be making something using those principles tomorrow night.

When I do teach workshops, I rarely ever provide a 'pattern' or a specific set of instructions. Instead, I make suggestions, show what is possible, or at least, what I think is possible at this point; you might find there's yet more you can do with what I'm showing you. And that's the joy of teaching workshops in this way; if you provide six people with the same materials and the same instruction, they can produce six completely different pieces of art. Of course, if you want to copy what I've made, you can...but I'm pretty sure that yours will turn out with a different 'feel' to mine. Why not try it?