Making the going easy

As I speak, if you are reading this on Weds morning I am on my way to Glasgow courtesy of Virgin trains, due in at Glasgow Central at 11.14am, with plenty of pastries and coffee to lubricate the journey. After 11.14 I will be the one running around like a headless chicken, dashing to SECC, trying to track down my missing tables, standing with my hands on hips making SERIOUS stand design decisions, or sneaking off for yet another coffee refill. Shows aren’t just thrown together you know!!

This year I am taking a few pieces handmade by yours truly, either some small (very small) handmade books using some of the meshes etc that I use in my other work, some small felted, post-it note pockets and for those with a slightly more generous budget, some wall pieces, all under £25.

Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts SECC Glasgow 8-11 March 2012

I am just trying to decide which of the things that I need to take to Glasgow that I am going to forget. Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we could nominate in advance something that we were going to forget, then we could choose something that isn’t needed!!

This year, I have been invited to give a demonstration for Prima Magazine, everyday at 3.30pm. I will be taking a look at printing regular fabric through a basic inkjet printer, as well as few other creative techniques to take this idea a little further. Best of all they are free.

The perfect (techno) storm!!

Just when I had got around to the idea that technology could be useful I was caught up in the perfect techno-storm. My mobile phone failed, my wi-fi connection lost its connection and couldn’t be resolved before I left Cambridgeshire AND my USB cable/connection to my phone is on the blink.

So somewhat belatedly, here is a pic from one of my two Zeelon workshops. Suffice to say, there were more pictures and information planned, but this is mostly a summary of what I snatched from the jaws of defeat. I’ll try harder next time.

The show itself was very brisk, especially on Friday. I think most of East Anglia’s textile folk go shopping here. And it lives up to its name, exhibitors and traders are focused on textiles. A good one for the diary in 2013.

Textiles in Focus 2012 – T-minus 1

 

Arrived in Cottenham earlier today after a (thankfully) uneventful journey.
Everyone is buzzing around as I just left putting the finishing touches to their various stands. Particularly worth a look are this year’s special exhibitions including Fibre Fusion in the annexe hall as well as Fen Edge Textiles group.

The picture above was taken at last year’s event as yours truly keeps forgetting to take pics. So just look at the above image and try to imaging lots of people milling around.

Anyway, hope to see everyone tomorrow, although I won’t be on my stand between 10 & 12 as I am conducting a workshop. Otherwise I’ll be the one with the caffeine drip attached to my arm!!

Textiles in Focus – preparation

Well the time has come to load up the car ready for my sojourn to Cottenham for Textiles in Focus (17-19 Feb), and as usual there is too much to fit. So a little regrouping is necessary. This year I will be taking much more goodies with  me, much more varied and hopefully, not crossing over too much with other suppliers. I’ve always tried to stock unusual items or hard to source items, and this year as I am streamlining the business there will be quite a few bargains to be had eg Lots of current books at HALF the marked price. Lots of spunbonded and more unusual fabrics, dyes, pigments, threads etc etc.

Hope to see everyone there, and I hope to update my visit on a daily basis, just so that you can get a snap shot of the event.

Textiles in Focus 2012

I have just been sent the advance publicity for Textiles in Focus which is held annually at Cottenham Village Collage, Cambridge every year in February half term. Most of the owrkshops are now sold out but you maybe able to bag a space if you are quick.

I will be in attendance for the three days (17-19 Feb) and am holding a workshop using Zeelon on Friday am and Sunday pm. I will endeavour to take a bit of everything with me to sell especially the spunbonded fabrics, but there are lots of other goodies that I will be selling the remains of, particularly those which are going to be deleted from the catalogue – at bargain prices!!

Last year was very busy most of the time, but with lots to see, and buy, and the food comes recommended too!!

See you there.

Gallery Textiles – last few days of the sale

This is just a last call for orders to be placed at Gallery Textiles with up to 75% off some items, the books are especially good buys as books as a selling line are going to be discontinued.

Click o n the link on the right or click here

Photoshop for textiles

I am currently taking opinion on setting up a course loosely called Digital Imaging for Textiles. This could mean all things to all people, but in essence I am looking a delivering a set of about three linked workshops, looking at how Photoshop (Elements) can be used to creative decorative images that can be created easily  for use on fabric.

Historically, Photoshop was a very hefty software package that required much learning and understanding, and to be fair, was developed as photo editing packaging ( ie editing photos by digital means rather than darkroom means). Full fat Photoshop still is, but that is what you get for your 00′s of pounds investment. However, Adobe recognised that truism, that people use 20% of the capability of software 80% of the time and issued a slimed down version, that deals only with images created as screen images (RGB) as opposed to images that printing companies have to convert to printing plates (CMYK). And that is where the massive saving on cost is obtained. Photoshop Elements – I think the current version is 9 – costs around £80. Even better, most of what PSE delivers can be obtained with much older version. I use PSE3 which is currently obtainable for around £5-£10 – bargain!!

I digress. The difficulty with delivering a computer based workshop, is that for everyone that enrols, they have a different starting point/ experience/ expectations/ hardware/ and not to mention ‘age’ – by this I mean that for people of a certain age, IT was not a world that we grew up with. TAKE HEART if you think I am striking a chord. Using IT is  skill to be learned. Some of use learn it faster than others, some are more interested etc than others, but remember; if you are a driver, how did learning to drive feel?

Back to my point.
I will be listing a Digital Imaging for Textiles (for more detail click here) over a  series of three sessions, but with an extra session for those who may need to be brought up to speed/ basic IT skills/ file management – nothing too onerous, just a session to give you confidence, and so that you get value for money from the sessions, and whilst on the topic of value for money, you WILL need to practice in between sessions,as a follow on session will become pointless.

Transfering Found Images

This is a workshop looking at old, or what I call ‘kitchen sink’ recipes, ie what we had to do before technology came to our aid. All of them are little uncertain in the image they produce, but if you are a fan of distressed looking images or just like the  directness of transfering an ‘original’ images, then this one is for you. We will also be tackling some of the issues that arise when using these techniques.

Transfering a laser photocopy has its own issues, made doubly challenging because all toner is different, and some solvents attract health & safety issues, or as in the case of nail polish remover, acetone is the active ingredient to transfer a photocopied image, but is no longer an ingredient in ‘better’ nail polish removers.

Using images torn out of a magazine can be difficult as the type of paper used for printing magazines is become more environmentally friendly, but not much use for image transfer methods.

However, all is not lost, we do cover some interesting methods eg a transfer methods than can become a collage technique very easily.

If you fancy a go at these interesting method, click below

Alphabetica

In this second workshop information, I have chosen to highlight another project based workshop called Alphabetica featuring a small cushion as the vehicle although the piece of finished could be made into any object or as a book cover.

The background fabric is plain white in this example. This is good place to start as even a coloured piece of fabric will introduce colour combining, which for a beginner, only muddies the water. This fabric is then stabilised on a piece of paper, and simply printed through an inkjet printer laying some black text onto the background. For issues surrounding inkjet printing onto fabric, it is covered in my book, Spunbonded Textile & Stitch (published earlier this year by Batsford Book, and retitled Lutradur & the New Fibers published by Interweave Press) or, is also covered as a topic in this workshop.

All other embellishment lies over the top of the printed surface. The blue areas are dyed (not painted) Bondaweb and fused to the cotton, and the coloured fleur-de-lys shapes are created by using a foam stamp and metallic fabric paint, although acrylic paint will do just the same.

This is piece I am currently working on, in the perhaps vain attempt to create a picture quilt (???).