Update

  

To date the year has mostly been about sewing. The Sewing Bee at Hive has taken off and I'm taking it for the full year. I've also started teaching two sewing and textile classes at HFT Bradford working with adults with learning difficulties.This has been a very steep learning experience for me, and an opportunity to enjoy teaching and exploring the possibilities of  basic stitch and assembly with fabric.

I've enjoyed sewing and messing around with cloth since being a child, when I was about 10, Mum bought herself a new sewing machine, and one for me.

I used it to make dolls clothes and small projects. I soon grew out of it though and progressed to using Mum's machine. Here they both are; I've inherited Mum's machine and use it for the majority of my sewing. The toy machine still works, though noisily; it stitches with a proper lockstitch using a shuttle rather than a bobbin as in modern machines.

I've developed a "thing" for sewing machines and paraphernalia, especially if they are in need of a bit of TLC as in these before and after pictures of a toy Casige sewing machine.

                        

My ceramics classes at Hive have started this term with Egyptian Paste. Over the last two Saturdays the class has found about about Egyptian Paste, got used to the peculiarities of handling it and produced a number of test pieces and moulds to use with the paste. They are in the kiln now and will be out and ready for the last class next Saturday.

Here is a selection of some I made earlier, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of the kiln next week and working with my class helping them make their final Egyptian Paste pieces. .