First of all, she's got a dog ( all round big brownie points from Whippet X and me on that one) and second of all, does she ever sleep? 

Sleep, or rather the lack of it, is close to my heart! Last week was probably my worst ever insomnia session ( I won't bore you with the details - but trust me, it was bad!) and that knocks me out for about 2 days.  Consequently my own art has been rather lacking of late. 

So how does Jenny manage to pack it all in? I'm pretty certain she has a day job but she creates these amazing and generous tutorials. 

So have a look at this one where she is making print blocks from wool and have also a look around her blog.  She is not so much a fabric gal, but she still has a lot to offer.

Enjoy!

I never win anything! I'm one of those people who just never win a thing - raffles? Never! Lottery? You must be joking! 

So just imagine my surprise when I had the following message on Twitter. 

Now it's not wholly clear in my mind quite what I did here.  I think I retweeted something from Shirley at HandprintedUk.  Or did I vote for her for some award? I cannot remember. 

But what I do know is that, after having a good old browse around her website, I received a package. 

Lots of brown paper to recycle at some point. 

Ditto, the bubble wrap. 

And just look what is inside! 

Well, she dropped by my blog the other day and mentioned that  her class would be doing printing with foam blocks this week. 

So for Iz and all her students ( and I have no idea if any of them drop by here) I rummaged through my tin of foam print blocks and assembled some of them artfully on the work table and took a photo. 

Iz - hope you and they can get some inspiration. 

And last of all a detailed leaf pattern from the C&G courses couple of years ago. 

Some of them required intricut cutting. I use small sharp scissors, a craft knife and, sometime, a soldering iron to burn in detail .  But this gives off a nasty smell so you can only do that in a very well ventilated area. Not really recommended. 

I use pva glue to stick them down, and if just stick them to recycled card (dog biscuit boxes come in very handy). 

I love my foam print blocks. 

And two more print blocks ( I cut the funky foam with scissors and sometimes a craft knife and stick it onto the card with PVA.  Some people use that mounting block stuff that framers use, but I must admit I find card works just fine). 

Hmm - not so sure about these. 

Now today I have the pleasure of doing a bit of online shopping at  http://www.handprinted.net.  I will report back with my purchases. 

Personally I can do without the mending, but the fabric manipulation caught my eye - principally because it is a technique I have used to great effect, though not in my own work.

A couple of years ago Son no 1 had to complete his graduate collection.  At the time I blogged about the silk collars I had to make. 

Well, I also got roped in to some fabric manipulation. 

It is difficult to see from these photos, but it was those jackets. 

Basically we used silk chiffon and silk habotai. The chiffon was marked out with a dot every two inches.  Around each dot a ring of gathering stitches was created and when gathered up the dot was then anchored to the habotai with a Swarovski crystal. The white jacket, which was longer, shows the technique most clearly, though actually Kit and his partner wear the black one now quite a lot. 

It took hours! ( understatement) 

My memory is a bit hazy now, but I think this was the reference book we used. 

A fascinating, but not wholly commercially viable, technique. 

Looking good. 

Needs a bit of cleaning up. 

When I've cracked today's to do list ( wish I just had a clear day, but there you go! No rest for the wicked etc.) will see where this leads. I have the destination in mind, but the journey to get there is an adventure in itself. 

And we're on our way.