A good week!!

This week has been a jolly good one!! It was my birthday on Tuesday which was great. I had birthday breakfast with Ann and Terry, which involved presents and cards as well as food! I will post pictures when the light is better. I got a recipe book for cakes, biscuits etc, some cookie cutters and the most amazing pink metallic teapot! This is a photograph must!

Chris got me The most wonderful book, 'The Gentle Art of Domesticity' by Jane Brocket, who has a wonderful blog called Yarnstorm, which you can find a link to on the right of this page. Aaaaah it is the most wonderful book, about all the most delightful things i savour in life - baking, sewing, knitting, quilting, reading, gardening. It is beautiful. He also got me a Momiji doll, and a bag and mug for my tea which are Momiji too. AND i got Russell Brand's autobiography and a picture of Alan Lee, my favourite Ipswich Town footballer. That was a novelty present!!



The rest of my week was spent as follows -

Wednesday - I had a migraine all day, couldn't concentrate and learnt hardly anything in my PGCE class then had to leave First Diploma Printmaking early to go home early to nap, then onto Chris' for yummy Shepherds Pie and falling asleep on his lap during the abomination which was the football.

Thursday - Foundation/National Diploma 2nd Year Textiles. The students got an amazing project which i want to do myself, i may even do that, and i learnt how to set up a loom and did a spot of weaving - Brilliant! A great day!

Friday - PGCE class in the morning then National Diploma 1st Year Fine Art for Fashion and Textiles class which was great, i'd worked with that group of students before and they talk to me well and worked brilliantly, even the boys were good and can't help but wear their unusual creations!

Last thing, we went to an exhibition at the Town Hall Galleries - interesting. I should have entered work.

And now to bed.

Textiles

Yesterday I was in Textiles with the First Year National Diploma's. They were screenprinting onto fabric they had dyed with natural and chemical dyes the week before.

I helped them with their printing and any other random questions they felt they needed to ask. Some needed a little more guidance than others which was fulfilling for me and i loved being in the textiles room, just being in that enrvironment is inspiring for me.

I loved the way their pieces of fabric pinned up on the line to dry looked like multi coloured flags.

Coming soon... Feltmaking!!

Being a Student Art Teacher

I've spent the last two weeks being in the Art Department at college observing introductions to the various courses, National Diploma Art & Design, Level 2 National Diploma Art & Design and Foundation Art & Design. There are well over 200 students in all and i need to try and remember who they are. I'm gonna go for trying to remember the ones that will apply to me (those doing Textiles & Printmaking)

This week just gone the Foundation students and ND@ students have had an introduction project. Each group of 7 - 9 were given a postcard of a well known painting and had to recreate it using themselves as the people in it, they had to make props, costumes and backdrops too!

The results were brilliant, all were of a shockingly high standard and of course, some better than others . All in all the amount of effort that went into the tableaus and the way the students mixed in with people they didn't already know was great.

Next week i'm in Drawing and Textiles, i can't wait!