A big thank you to Jane Mills and Janet Morsman for being such wonderful students this week and for helping test drive my Covid-19 safe studio. I was a little anxious about starting teaching again but it went well. The way I had laid out the studio worked and we were able to maintain social distancing …. albeit we cheated occasionally to go the wrong way around my one way system! Having to wear masks when walking around the studio wasn’t too bad as we each spent most of our time in our individual workstations where we didn’t need masks. And we were each able to make ourselves cups of tea and coffee in a Covid-19 safe way. There were little bits that need improving but overall I’m a lot more comfortable than I was.

It felt so good to get back to teaching and to be working alongside Jane and Janet. And we got to spend five days breakdown printing! I can’t think of many better ways to spend my time!

My Breakdown Your Palette workshops are full for this year but I still have three places left on workshops next year if you are feeling inspired!

I’ve spent the week getting my studio ready for my first students in over four months. It looks quite a lot different but we live in a different world now and we all have to adjust. I’m grateful that I can start teaching again - I have missed it badly. But it has been a strangely upsetting week. My studio is my favourite place in the world, it is part of my family home and feels like an extension of ‘me’. Putting up screens and taping out the floor space just feels wrong but I’m hoping that once my first couple of students arrive and the space is filled with laughter and creativity it will start to feel more normal.

I know that some of my students are anxious about coming into the studio so I have made a short video. In order to be able to embed the video in this post I have had to set up a YouTube channel (Urban Studio North). Which wasn’t something I was planning on doing but hey, maybe I’ll post more videos in the future!

I’m teaching my five day Breakdown Your Palette workshop so hoping for good weather! I’ll try to remember to post photos on Instagram through the week.

Needless to say that I haven’t made much progress on ‘the book’ …….

On Monday 20th July I will be teaching in my the studio for the first time in over four months. Life has changed in ways we couldn’t have imagined in that space of time and is unlikely to get back to normal for many, many months. So, in order to provide a safe environment for my students, and for me, the studio has to change.

I have made a start. I’ve cleared away most of the clutter and, with son Joes help, rearranged the student benches so that they all face my teaching bench. I’m only teaching two students next week but will be teaching four students at a time from mid-August. I have ordered protective screens and floor tape to mask off walk ways and to ensure safe distancing as we walk around the studio. I am elbow deep in hand gel, masks, anti-bacterial wipes and disinfectant sprays. I have brought extra tea towels and hand towels so nobody has to share. I have enough squeezy bottles so that every student can have their own set of dyes. I have laid awake at night trying to think my way through all the things that could go wrong ….

Over the next few days I will be giving the studio a deep clean. I’m even going to get rid of the cobwebs - a sure sign that these are extraordinary times. I’ll be completing risk assessments and printing appropriate signage.

And, in between, I’ll keep working on what the Higgins household is now calling ‘that difficult second book’. Yes, progress is slow.

Although I’m a little nervous about opening up I can’t wait to teach again and to have like minded, lovely people in the studio. And the best bit … I’m teaching my five day Breakdown Your Palette workshop which I love!

Bye for now, Leah

I have just updated my website with all the workshops that I will be teaching here at Urban Studio North in 2021. It is going to be a very busy year! Like many textile teachers I have had to cancel or postpone lots of workshops over the last four months and have rescheduled many for the first half of 2021. If you take a peek at my website you’ll see that I’ve put on extra Breakdown Your Palette workshops to accommodate students from 2020 and have 4 places still to fill. I know that a lot of my students are anxious about travelling and about staying in hotels at the moment but I’m keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that life returns to something approaching normality next year.

You’ll also see that I have a few places left on workshops in 2020. Including on workshops that were full a week ago. Life is challenging for all of us and individual circumstances change so I know that odd places are likely to become available at short notice. I guess we are all having to learn to be flexible right now.

And finally, this weeks teaser ….. I love bringing guest tutors into the studio and will soon be sharing the details of three stitch-based workshops with three wonderful tutors that will also run in 2021. So watch this space!

Stay well, Leah

So ‘the book’. Yes it is still too soon for me to reveal all but I can tell you that it is a more complex beast than Breakdown Your Palette. It has a broader subject and, whilst there are lots of ‘instructional’ bits, there are also lots more ‘wordy’ bits. Bits that require me to strung together coherent sentences and even coherent paragraphs. Bits that require a plentiful supply of coffee, biscuits and chocolate. (I save the gin for really bad days). Bits that some days get the better of me. Darn those bits!

There are definitely days when I wonder how I managed to finish my first book and what on earth possessed me to start a second. Let alone one that is about … nope, it is still too soon.

On the plus side though I have the perfect excuse for walking away from my computer. Samples. Dyeing samples. Printing samples. Constructing samples. Photographing samples. Surrounding myself with lovely, lovely colour. I’m just hoping that I can extract all the wordy stuff out of my head and into my computer before I run out of samples to make! There are only so many hours a day that I can bang me head on my desk. I’m also hoping that I can remember how to use InDesign as I haven’t opened the software since I finished the breakdown book 17 months ago. I suspect there will be even more coffee, biscuits and chocolate (and gin) needed.

I love it really. And I think I can tease you with a couple of shots of my studio and my design wall taken this week ….

Although nothing can be certain it looks likely that recreational and leisure businesses, such as Urban Studio North, will be allowed to open up in July provided we comply with strict hygiene and social distancing rules. There are no longer restrictions on lengths of journey in England and local hotels are planning to open from 4th July.

In light of this, and after a great deal of thought, I am currently planning to start running workshops again from 20th July onwards. None of us know when life will return to the old normal. Instead we all need to adjust to a new normal. So, to ensure compliance with social distancing, and to reduce demand on shared facilities such as the bathroom and sinks, I will be restricting class size to a maximum of 4 students for the rest of 2020.  I have already contacted the students affected by this change. I am making lots of other changes in the studio and in how I run the workshops. I have written a detailed COVID-19 UPDATE which I urge students, and prospective students to read. This is, of course, all subject to change should government advice change in the coming weeks and months.

I have had to cancel and reschedule lots of workshops over the last few weeks and months which has meant slotting some additional workshops into 2020. I am continuing to take bookings for workshops this year and have the following spaces left:

Breakdown Your Palette, 7th to 11th September - 1 place left on this 5 day dive into breakdown printing - find out more here.

Introduction to Surface Design, a day a month for 10 months starting on Saturday 26th September - 3 places left. Aimed at absolute beginners and covering a really broad range of surface design techniques. Ideal if you live locally to Manchester, you can find out more here.

Books for Textile Artists with Ruth Brown on 10th to 13th October - 2 places left. Because of the class size we are running two workshops back to back. The original dates are full but there are two places available on the workshop running from Saturday 10th to Tuesday 13th October. Ruth is a great teacher and with a limit of 4 students per class you’ll get lots of her time. You can find out more here.

Simply Screen Printing, 7th and 8th November - 1 place left on this two day introduction to screen printing. You can find out more here.

Print, Stitch, Go!, 9th to 13th November - 1 place left. We spend the first half of this workshop screen printing and dyeing fabric and the second half using that fabric - yes, I will make you cut into your lovely printed and dyed fabrics! Aimed at people who have never printed or dyed fabric before this is a really fun five days. You can read more here.

Although I’m a little nervous about opening up again I am really, really looking forward to teaching again. The studio has been too quiet for too long!

My lovely husband is coming home this week after 12 weeks or so shielding with his dad. This feels like such a big step forward for us and we have all our fingers and toes crossed that the situation in the UK continues to improve. Every country has different levels of restrictions right now but I hope that many of you are now able to spend a little more time with family and friends.

Stay well, Leah

I may have been quiet on social media for the last couple of weeks but I have been busy in the studio working on my next book. The world outside is still an upsetting mess but life in the studio has been a calm, colour filled oasis of gentle productivity. There is still a very long way to go but I have been playing with my Procion MX dyes. Exploring them individually, mixing them to create hundreds of new colours and dyeing fabric. Life feels good.

I was also delighted to receive my copy of the Contemporary Quilt newsletter. It is a special addition focused on the theme of colour and I’m proud to have written one of the articles entitled Colour and Breakdown Printing. The front cover is from the very talented Alicia Merrett. Maggie Jarman and Annie Henderson-Begg have done a splendid job under difficult circumstances and it is much appreciated …. receiving the newsletter through the post felt like a return to normal. Even if we all know that normal is going to be different.

Stay well, Leah

I am very pleased to say that I have now started shipping internationally again. Postal services seems to be working better although there may still be delays shipping to some countries as they struggle to cope with Covid 19.

To celebrate I have decided to add my new Absolutely Darling Hand Dyed Fabric Packs to my webshop. Each pack contains 6 fat quarters of lovely hand dyed cotton poplin fabrics. Each piece is approximately 50cm x 50cm and the packs contain a mix of textured multi-coloured pieces and ‘nearly solid’ coloured pieces. Each pack is totally unique. These are fabrics that I had been dyeing for sale at this summers Festival of Quilts. With FoQ cancelled and no idea of when I will next be exhibiting at a show I thought I would make them available online.

I have also been busy printing fabric this week and have added some lovely new Wonky Print Inspiration Packs to my shop. And, as I promised I would, I have taken some of the yummiest bits of fabric and made bookmarks that I am selling to raise funds for the The Trussell Trust. The work that The Trussell Trust do to support food banks in the UK and to fight food poverty is more important than ever as we face a prolonged period of high unemployment due to the corona virus. I have made 12 bookmarks each in three lovely colourways and am selling them for £5 each. There is no postage on these and every penny will be donated to the charity.

And finally, when I set up my webshop I was only selling my book and set the postage rates accordingly. Since March I have been selling a much wider range of products. Some are heavy, some are light, some can be posted large letter and others need to be posted as parcels. I’ve spent some time looking at what the actual postage has been and tried to figure out a better, fairer system. So, for UK customers, I am pleased to say that I have been able to reduce the postage and packaging rates on larger orders with a cap on postage at £10. Postage and packing rates are unchanged for international shipping but I will review these in a couple of months time.

Stay well, Leah

It has been a better week. Not out there - out there the infection rate and death toll is still too high and our politicians …. well, don’t get me started!

But here in the Higgins household, in my studio, in my head and in my heart it has been a better week. Thanks in no small part to the support and generosity of this wonderful textile community. There has been the odd ‘moment’ but most days I have put in some solid work on my next book and on my latest quilt.

It is still too early to say too much about the book. I’ve got about a third the words out of my head and in rough draft and I have a solid outline for the remainder. The list of samples I need to make, and processes I need to break down and photograph is looking a bit daunting at the moment. But if I can work at a steady pass I hope to have the book ready by the end of the summer.

I have been working at the computer each morning and afternoon but by about 4pm my brain starts leaking out my ears and I need to switch to something less challenging. And this week that activity has been quilting the second piece in what I guess I should call my Covid 19 series. I wonder how many Covid series are being worked on by artists around the world right now? I have finished the quilting on both pieces, trimmed them to the same size and added facing strips. I just need to sew those strips down and they will be ready to photograph. I think the two pieces would best be described as companion pieces as they both relate to the same day in April. I don’t think they work as a diptych because of the shift in scale between the two. I haven’t decided which juried exhibition to enter them into yet so I’m only showing a shot of some detail right now. Once they have been rejected (or more hopefully accepted) I will be free to share them with you!

Tomorrow should have been my first day teaching my 5 day Breakdown Your Palette workshop this year. It is so sad not to be welcoming new students into the studio but life is what it is and we just have to get on with it. But I am not going to miss out completely. My post 4pm, less challenging activity this next week is going to be breakdown printing fabric for sale on my website. My week will be full of colour!

As always, I hope you and yours are still OK, stay well. Leah