The WOWbook is born

The new version of Workshop on the Web is here at last – the book is ready and the members’ club on the WOWbook site (www.wowbook.d4daisy.com)  has its doors wide open. It seems to have had a very long gestation period – how long is it for elephants? We all feel that it has been so well worth it – the book is great and the site is looking good, too.  I would like to say a big thank you to all our artists in the book and in the members’ club (you will all love Sherrill Kahn’s article here). The chance to have videos to expand the techniques in the book is a whole new series of opportunities.

In the book, I think we chose the contributors well and all the sections have something different to offer. Hilary Beattie writes as only Hilary can – so much information, delivered in such a generous fashion. Laura Edgar covers both hand and machine stitching and lots of it without buying expensive materials. Caroline Bell demystifies eco-dyeing and I love the results on paper, wonderful when combined with simple stitch. Amo House gives a concise article on water-solubles of all sorts – and there is this Maggie Grey person who has had great fun with a vessel (there will be more on the latest version of this in future blogs). To pick one article in a random fashion to demonstrate that there are so many alternative avenues to explore: Angie Hughes covers everything from transfer painting to glitzy fabric shedding – with a side trip through machined cords that is worth an article on it’s own. In the pic below you can see her machining her transfer dyed felt.

Then there is the lovely effect of the shredded organza.

Here is a detail of one of the cords. That is just one of the sections – so many ideas.

I am already preparing the course that I will be running in the members’ club. This will carry on through subsequent books and I expect to post two or more sections for each book. It seems the ideal way to run a course – I will be able to take time with it and I hope everyone will join in, showing results and experiments on the Members’ Facebook site.

See you in the members’ club when you get the password , which is contained in the WOWbook.