If you follow us on Instagram or Facebook you’d be forgiven for wondering what on earth has been going on recently. There’s been posts from both Iceland and Jordan, from snow and frozen waterfalls to desert sands and floating in The Dead Sea plus no blogs for the last couple of weeks.

Long story short: we’ve been on holiday!

After a very frantic start to the new year with moving studio, teaching etc we decided that it was time for a bit of rest and recouperation! Terry went off to Iceland and I chose to cycle through Jordan.

Wherever we go the textile artist in us isn’t far behind.... This week you are being treated to some of my photographs from Petra and next time it’ll be Terry’s from Iceland.

So go make a coffee, sit back and enjoy!

Camels may have a reputation for being a bit grumpy,

but that aside, these ones had beautifully woven saddles (and were very well behaved!)

You enter Petra through The Siq, which in itself is an amazing walk and then you start to see glimpses of why you’ve come:

The Treasury, this is the view and why you travel to Petra.

But it’s the rocks that keep you mesmerised

and the resident animals which give it life and character!

Fascinating by day

and quite magical by night. Once I’d overcome my lack of exclusivity, Petra was the most amazing place to visit and move away from the Siq and Treasury there are some amazing delights waiting for you.

No coffee was being served, but

just look at the view, you feel as though you’re quite literally on top of the world.

It took my breath away.

In one week I managed to take over 1000 photographs (as well as cycle too!) so they’ll be sure to pop up in future blogs!

Wrap up warm for next time when it’s glaciers and frozen waterfalls....

Hazel & Terry

It has been a very busy week in the studio as we welcomed back the inspirational textile artist Debbie Lyddon for a two day stitched collage workshop.  If you've ever been on one of our Textile Adventures you'll know that as well as providing most of the materials we like to feed you too!  Morning coffee with homemade biscuits is ready to welcome you as you arrive in the studio and  one of our favourite recipes is  chocolate macaroons.

Anything which has coconut in it is sure to be a winner with Terry and I, but what makes this recipe really great is that I can adapt it to suit both gluten free and lactose free diets.

When baking gluten free recipes I have recently been using this flour from Cloud 9, which can be substituted weight for weight for regular flour in recipes.  I buy mine from the Costco here in the UK, but I'm sure if you search online you will be able to find it or similar.

The recipe I use is one I have adapted slightly from Sarah Leahey-Benjamin's The New Baker in The Telegraph:

MAKES
26 to 30 cookies
INGREDIENTS
4 large egg whites (I use pasteurised dried egg whites )
250g (9oz) granulated sugar
1 tbsp mild honey
210g (7½oz) unsweetened desiccated coconut
4 tbsp flour (substitute with gluten free if requitred)
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
200g (7oz) dark chocolate (minimum 70 per cent cocoa solids)

METHOD

1. In a large frying-pan mix together the egg whites, sugar, honey, coconut and flour with ½ tsp salt.
2. Place the frying-pan over a medium heat. Stir slowly but constantly to dissolve the sugar. Keep an eye on the bottom of the pan – when the mixture starts to stick remove the pan from the heat. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the vanilla extract. At this point the mixture can be left chilled, in an airtight container, for up to a week.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Line a baking-tray with baking-parchment.  Damp your hands with water. Scoop a spoon of the coconut mixture into your hands and form into a ball.
4. Place the macaroon on the baking-parchment and flatten with your hand slightly.
5. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. The macaroons should take on a fairly uniform golden colour all around. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes on the tray before lifting them on to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Gently melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a bowl of warm water, then dip in the base of each macaroon, place on baking parchment and leave to set.

To make the macaroons suitable for a lactose free diet simply miss off the chocolate or use a dairy free chocolate such as the type made by Double Spiral Chocolate.

Perfect to accompany any freshly brewed pot of tea or coffee!

Hazel & Terry

Before you get excited and think that this is a definitive tutorial on how to monoprint - it isn't!  More of a peek into my tentative journey in the technique.  

We've acquired* several large thick Perspex sheets and think that they'd be great for Monoprinting, but the only way to be sure would be to actually have a go.  We've dabbled with Monoprinting on and off over the years, mainly using old laminated sheets or small pieces of thin Perspex, and used a safe wash block printing ink form Seawhite,  this is a  great product and is easy to use - but isn't fast once dry, so you can't add further wet processes.

When we moved studio earlier this year one of the (many...) things we found were several tubes of  Caligo safe wash inks from Cranfield. Bought and forgotten (and how many of you have done this too?) However, having recently read an article on the Caligo inks it appears that these inks will become permanent on fabric and paper after a curing process; it was high time I tried them out.

How much ink to put onto the plate is difficult to gauge and only by actually having a go can you really get the feel.  Inking up is also really tricky on such huge plates, it needs to be spread much thinner than you'd imagine, as I found out with my first (paper) tries.  In fact I actually only inked the plate once the whole day (yes - that's how much ink I'd put on!)  and between prints just rerolled with the brayer to smooth the surface again.

My first attempts were very disappointing (but at least they didn't stick to the plate). To begin with I was using a very light pure greaseproof paper ('deli' paper) and it was only once I was happy that the plate was behaving did I moved on to fabric.

I used a cotton sateen fabric, which I 'floated' over the surface, letting it drop very gently onto the inked plate.  I nearly stopped breathing at this point, but as the fabric settled I could see that I had finally achieved the correct level of ink on the plate - the fabric settled but did not absorb ink.   As you can see,  this meant I achieved really clear marks and lines: I'm very pleased, and relieved!

In today's world instant gratification seems to be taken for granted - from ready made and fast food, the pinging of texts or emails on your phone to the  ever increasing ways to access online data.  We don't even need to stand in line anymore because more and more we buy on-line. 

But in the creative world it's good to travel a slower road, taking the time to play and experiment, to explore the 'what if's', celebrate our successes - and mistakes, because after all a mistake is just a creative opportunity! Often students roll their eyes at us when we say ' I don't know, have you tried making a sample?'  Terry and I are both firm believers in 'doing', having a go, trying things out.  It's only through the act of doing  will you ever find out what will work, and what won't, which techniques are suitable and which aren't.  Time spend in practical exploration is never time wasted - besides which, look at all the fun and joy you will have on the way.   

Meanwhile I have to wait patiently for the fabric pieces to cure and then I can start to add colour before layering up and stitching.  I'm so excited, and not a little impatient, to get started....

Hazel & Terry

P.S. You didn't think I'd be throwing away the over inked first attempts did you??  They've been put to one side to dry with the rest of my trials and will be added to the stash of creative papers ready for including into sketchbooks some day!

* as with many things we have in the InStitches Studio these had had a previous life and were heading off to the scrap yard!