Busy, busy, busy....

I've tried to post a couple of times in recent weeks but out here, in the land where broadband is a myth, the connection has been a struggle. Coupled with this I have been busy in the workshop getting on with my projects.

My friends and I met last week and went through our samples we'd worked on. There were some amazing pieces. Now we're all going to produce a completed piece of work by mid July. I'm already thinking through some ideas based around either the culture of drinking tea or focussing on the trials of being left-handed.... watch this space.

In the meantime I've been progressing my papier mache dress form and I've done four layers, sanded and primed it, finishing with a final layer of collaged painted papers. The flesh areas are white on black and vice versa for the dress as you can see here.

After finishing the collaging the idea was to paint the flesh and dress using a glazing medium with acrylic paint but the medium did not work as I expected it to. So, I've used a transparent red oxide acrylic paint for the body and will now have to see how it dries as well as have a re-think on how to colour the rest of it. Alternatively, I might just paint it over and do something else entirely different. I can be that unpredictable, so who knows. I've also been making printing plates, going to the Textile Festival in Stroud (very good) and preparing for a machine embroidery workshop tomorrow. On Tuesday we're popping down to Radstock and Glastonbury to see a couple of textile exhibitions. I'll report back!