We held our Textile Adventures Exhibition in the Cromer Studio Oct 22-28th. 2011. It was pretty busy and we had a really wide range of work. Brigid Warner, Justine Williamson and myself shared this space. These are some professional photographs for a change taken by John Worral.

Another busy year - this year we returned from holiday on September 30th with 3 days to prepare for the K&S show!! All got finished and set-up on wens 5th October. It was another really good show - this year I included some knitwear on the stand. Doll supplies still very popular and I shall be starting on a new book very shortly. This should be out summer 2013 and will be on fantasy dolls. Next week we shall be holding a week's exhibition in the shop/studio in Cromer as part of the local Arts Week. More of this end of October.

Recently I spent a considerable time on a hanging in 3 panels. It is 2 sided i.e. can be viewed from either side. It was made specifically to submit to the ERTF exhibition to be held in Dragon Hall in Norwich in September this year where free hanging pieces are particularly suited. Unfortunately, I was unable to submit this piece as the list of duties I would have had to agree to were beyond my availablility. This hanging is 1mtr long by .75 mtr wide. It is composed of many pieces of cotton fabric I had dyed and printed. The structure is based upon Louise Bourgeouis' textile pieces which I had spent sometime copying how they were made. These are in a previous blog I wrote about a year ago. I was moderately pleased with it.

I have also been working on some knitted silk and cotton in white/natural and then dying with procion dyes. I think this has a lot of possibilities and exciting progressions to come.

Long time since I last blogged - as usual I'm afraid!

Some progress with the new studio - I have added new blinds and also work names on our window. my new working name is 'Textile Adventures with Jan Horrox' which will encompass what ever types of textile work I am involved in. I have started knitting again and shall be posting images of new work shortly. I am preparing for the 'Knitting and Stitching' Show at Ally Pally as well as our local Arts Festival in Cromer where Justine Williamson, Brigid Warner and I will be showing all kinds of textiles in My studio - Oct 22-28th as well as doing some taster workshops.

Visited the BCTF for the first time for 10 years or so. We used to show knitwear here for may years. It is now in a different venue at the Yorkshire Show Ground. My good friend Clare Cox had a stand there with her wonderful multicoloured velvet cushions and throws. It was a slow show this year due to the general downturn but some excellent work.

We made a 5 day visit to our good friends Paul and Linda who have a beautiful house in Rodia near Carcaussanne in the S. of France. We had rather grey weather but a lovely trip thanks to Paul and Linda's great hospitality.

Note the 'mad hat' gallery. Hundreds of hats in a strange nissan hut in the middle of nowhere!!

Following my earlier post a couple of weeks ago I can now say that I have moved into the new workshop in West St. Cromer and today have spent my first day working there. its all comming together well - I still need to collect a duplicate of various tools and equipment as I am still stitching at home as well. Next week I hope to get a knitting machine up in there - haven't touched one for 6 years - and incorporate a bit of knitted textile with other work.

I have been experimenting and producing a quantity of procion dyed and screen printed fabrics during the last few months. I mainly dye 3 metre lengths of silk crepe de chine, silk chiffon and silk velvet. These fabrics have a beautiful drape and take the colour fantastically well to give rich and vibrant tones. I am also screen printing single images onto the dyed fabric with discharge or pigment dyes. its a whole world of techniques to master.

I have recently signed the lease on a shop premises in Cromer - which I shall use as a textile studio. I am having an 8' x 4' print table built which can be used for screen printing and painting lengths of fabric as well as work shops and all manner of artistic type activities. It would be nice to start a local textile group and have some weekend sales etc. All very exciting. Here are a few photos of the outside and inside before we start work. We are at 26 West Street in Cromer.