After the handbags, I did two Textile courses at Open College of Arts – then distance learning courses. I loved the first course and learnt lots of new techniques. During the second course, I started my second series which at the time, I called Bodies. In some ways, it is probably not a true series. Whilst the theme and the basic shape remained the same, the techniques changed as I learnt more about surface decoration on fabric.

I experimented with bleach and here is the first one.It is behind glass so photographs badly. I made two of these and gave one to a friend.  I often get asked about using bleach – these are over 15 years old and still seem fine. They will outlive me.

I also did did some of my first screen printing. My nephew kindly made me a frame to use.

The Gold Lady was an improvement as my screen printing got better and the stencil didn’t disintegrate as it did with bleach.

Then the series  changed and I used very different techniques to produce the Fan Lady. The Fan Lady was my project half way through Textiles Two. The tutor did not want me to continue with my Bodies series for the rest of the course and wanted me to work on a very different theme – so I stopped the course and moved on.

I have a lot of small paper designs but only completed a couple more. However, I consider that the corsets I made on a C&G Historical Heirlooms course are also a part of the series – a bit of a stretch.