I have worked with students from Frankley Community High School this week, it was great. They are very enthusiastic and interested in learning new skills and processes. They all wanted more time exploring hat making so I hope to return to work with them again, they really are a credit to their tutor Caroline Howells and their school. The course that they are studying is a BTEC diploma in Art & Design and their current project or one of them is: Alice In Wonderland, some of the students have made hats for the Mad Hatter so it is just right that they should be exploring hat making at this time. All of them were keen to know about the hat making process and even keener to try on a range of hats. Great fun was had trying on different hat shapes to see which suited them. More photos of this to follow soon.

I showed them some ideas for decoration then they all made a decorative brooch pin using a variety of fabric, silk flowers and brads ( a type of decorative split pin). The students decided to pin them onto their jackets, jumpers and hats.

Every brooch was different and will be on show in the exhibition at the end of the residency from Thursday March 24th - Sat March 26th.

I have been working in my reflective diary it has helped me to remain focussed and to plan and organise my time. it was useful to record my training when I visited the City Learning Centre based at Frankley Community High School. I was able to use the Brother Super Galaxy S2100 ewing Machines and discuss using the laser cutter. This has had an influence on my work, I plan to go back again this week for some more training. I am working on a new range of felt hat/head decorations and being able to cut multiples using the laser cutter and to decorate them automatically using the Super Galaxy will really develop my work.

The image here is of a photograph that has been laser cut into denim, the detail is very fine. The sewing samples are what I did during my training on the Super Galaxy 2100 sewing machine very basic but I can really see the potential especially using my own imagery, decoration and words that have been scanned in first.