Tutor Profiles
Tessa Barnes
All my life I have loved trying out new skills. In 1990 I attended a silk painting summer school, because
I didn't know what it was. I have been experimenting ever since.
I qualified as an occupational therapist in 1959. I have worked for many years in large psychiatric hospitals.
In 1993 I left the N H S and started teaching silk painting at home, in my studio. I thoroughly enjoy teaching.
I also take commissions, give talks with slides and do 'have-a-go' evenings for clubs.
I shall be trying new things on silk for ever. I use steam-fix dyes most of the time, but also fibre-reactive
dyes and iron-fix paints, with wax, gutta or metallic resists, or various freer techniques. My speciality is
finding the techniques that will encourage each particular person to develop their own style.
It is a medium offering endless possibilities and many moods. There is something to suit everyone.
I was selected to teach a workshop at the 'First World Congress of Silk Painters' in Washington in August in 1998,
and again in 2002. I taught at the national meetings of the Guild of silk Painters in Cambridge in 2000, in
Durham in 2001 and in Essex in 2007.
For my own work I take inspiration from nature or use curving abstract designs. One of the fascinations of
silk painting is that the painting is semitranslucent and can move, which means that colours are seen through
other colours and shapes drift and change. Silk painting has many moods.
Melinda Berkowitz
Australian born, but having lived in Israel for many years, Melinda has been involved in studying and working with textiles for over twenty five years.
Melinda is a founder member of E.A.S.T, as well as a member of several other textile based organisations. She regularly lectures and provides study days for specialist groups all over the country. 
By using the exciting medium of fabric and thread, Melinda endeavours to achieve a vibrant and exciting quality to her creative work with design sources often originating from her multi – cultural background.
Silk painted fabrics feature in Melinda’s work often combined with surface embellishment to convey an evocative message.
Viera Billson and Janet Jones
Viera has been a member of The Silk Guild for almost 9 years. She is Chairman of South Birmingham Branch and is interested in a variety of crafts as well as silk painting. She teaches crafts to various groups and is also involved in doing craft work with Brownies, both at shows such as the NEC and also when they take the Brownies on holiday.
Janet has also been a member of The Silk Guild for almost 9 years. She is currently Treasurer of South Birmingham Branch and is also interested in a variety of crafts. She has been both a Brownie and a Guide Leader and organises crafts for them at the NEC and various other venues.
Sue and Rachel Castle
Sue and Rachel Castle are a mother and daughter team who enjoy doing several textile activities together, including Silk Painting, Beading and Feltmaking.
Sue is a semi-retired midwife, but has had a lifelong interest in textiles in one form or other, and she must have passed on these genes to Rachel, who teaches Art and Textiles to GCSE and ‘A’ level in the Midlands.Sue completed a City and Guilds in Silk Painting, and more recently ventured into Feltmaking City and Guilds Levels 2 and 3.
Rachel also took City and Guilds in Feltmaking with Sue, and was awarded a Medal of Excellence for her level 3 work last year.
Both Sue and Rachel have a love of colour, and enjoy combining silk with wool in their feltmaking which enhances the tactile quality of the felt, and gives more opportunity for surface patterning.
Margaret Dunning
I have always been passionate about textiles and the construction of clothing but I came to silk painting in the latter part of my life.
A combination of a trip to Germany and Mary Day aroused my interested about 15 years or so ago and I have been
obsessed ever since. Patience, study, experimentation and several City & Guilds textile qualifications have
given me many opportunities to give silk painting and devorč workshops in various
locations.
In the main, I now spend time travelling, supporting Staffordshire and Shropshire Branch and organising
voluntarily textile workshops with the U3A, which is proving to be a great way of spreading knowledge
of silk painting and the Guild.
Jean Haste
I have been silk painting for about 11 years, and have run workshops with many people, including children as young as 4 - exploring the fabulous qualities of painting on silk.
I am involved in a craft co-operative in Northumberland, along with another fourteen artists, where my silk painted goods are on sale 7 days a week.
I work with another silk painter and two felt makers in a new business venture called 'SilkPlus', - supplying hand crafted goods to businesses in the local area.
Sue O'Hea
Sue O’Hea started silk painting about twelve years ago at a taster day and was immediately hooked on the brilliant colours. She remembers buying her first set of silk paints when the small amount of money came through from a backdated pay rise. She greatly enjoyed being a member of the City and Guilds course run by Mary Day at Suasions in Riding House Street, central London.
In recent years Sue has pursued her passion for art and crafts by completing a pre-foundation art course at the Mary Ward Centre.
After taking early retirement from her career as a School Nursing Sister, she had time to take the textile foundation and advanced textile courses at Morley College where she discovered a passion for working with recycled materials. 
Sue describes herself as a “workshop junkie”. She loves meeting new people and trying
different techniques, working with colour and texture.
As Chairman of the Guild of Silk Painters she is keen to encourage newcomers to get started and experience the magical way in which such vibrant colours can lift the spirits. Sue is a keen volunteer for disability Essex, taking silk painting into care homes and with mixed ability groups in the community.
Denise Hopper
Denise qualified as a teacher of Art and Design in 1967 at Bingley College, Leeds University. After teaching in London she became Head of Art and Design in a large comprehensive school in the Midlands.
In 1989 she moved to Stockport and developed textile design in the Art Department at Marple Hall School.
She now concentrates on silk painting using dyes and threads to produce evening bags, scarves, ties, cushions and mirror frames, as well as pictures. Her work has been influenced by travels in Africa, Asia, especially Indonesia, China Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and India.
Previous exhibitions of her work have been held at Quarry Bank Mill, Styal; Stockport Hat Works and Staircase House Museums; Bramhall Hall; Buxton Visitors Centre, Bollington Arts Centre and Stockport Art Gallery.
Denise is an active member of the Guild of Silk Painters and Silk-n-Threads ( a group of local textile artists based in Marple, Stockport. Her most recent work has been a collection of individually designed textile necklaces.
Tricia Neve
Tricia trained as a creative pattern cutter and worked for companies such as Susan Small, Berkertex and Wallis as well as a part time lecturer at Harrow Fashion College. 
She spent many years in Italy working in fashion houses in Rome and Florence as well as working as a freelance designer.
She became interested in silk painting on her return to Britain and has now incorporated silk painting withher designs and art work, using hand painted sheer fabrics, threads and embroidery to give texture to many of her designs and paintings. Her work covers a vast range, from ready made / made to order original garments and accessories to interior design and textile art.
Wendy Riddick
Wendy Riddick was born in Shrewsbury but gained her degree in Textiles at Goldsmiths in London. After completing her degree she lived in Worcester and worked as an archaeological illustrator drawing Iron Age pottery. In 1982 she returned to Shrewsbury and began working at Belmont Youth centre running craft workshops.
For the last twenty three years she has worked at Shrewsbury College teaching a range of courses including art and design, City and Guilds embroidery and silk painting.
Currently her teaching includes the Foundation Degree for the Creative industry, the National Diploma in Fashion and Clothing as well as Art and Design and NCFE Life Drawing. She has taught many private workshops and given lectures about her work to guilds and schools.
Wendy has always continued to produce her own art work, predominately using silk and has taken part in many exhibitions including being selected to exhibit at the Knitting and Stitching Show in the tutor’s exhibition. Recently from May19th- June 9th Wendy has had a solo exhibition at the Qube Gallery in Oswestry titled ‘A Natural Selection’ showing nearly fifty panels and hangings as well as silk painted scarves and ties and has also been demonstrating and exhibiting silk painting at the West Midlands Show.
Thelma Russell
Thelma Russell has been painting silk for a number of years. Having accumulated a large collection of silk scraps that she couldn't bear to throw away, one day she started stuffing them into plastic tubing, and discovered to her surprise that the most unpromising bits could be used to make attractive bangles - suddenly all those failed pictures and ghastly colour combinations had a new life !
With the addition of glitter or beads they are excellent quick bazaar makes, and children like them.
Anethia Sellars
After 20 years of teaching ceramic decoration from my own studio, I decided it was time to sell up and sample ‘Early Retirement’! However, as we all know, teaching tends 
to run in the blood and a love of colour, shape and form cannot be repressed.
I soon moved on to other mediums, and within a short space of time I undertook training to work in stained glass; so much for ‘Retirement’. 
I now design & produce large and small, Modern and Art Deco style stained glass pieces, with several commissions selling overseas last year.
Finding the Shropshire & Staffordshire Branch of the Guild of Silk Painters right here on my own doorstep has both enabled, and positively encouraged me to share in a huge range of creative activities, including experimenting with ways of combining both of these elements. The resulting glass vases and table lamps incorporate the finely decorated panels of hand painted silk and lead work for which I am now recognised.
Mandy Southan
President of The Guild of Silk Painters and author of bestselling 'Beginner's Guide to Silk Painting', 'Painting Flowers on Silk', 'Flower Designs', Silk Painted Greetings Cards' and recently published 'Shibori - Designs and Techniques'.
Mandy has a degree in textile design and has been painting on silk for over 30 years. She is an experienced teacher and is known for her striking use of colour.
She finds inspiration in nature and explores light effects and natural pattern through a range of media.
She collects Japanese textiles and went to Japan to further her study of traditional kimono painting and dyeing techniques.
Kim Thittichai
Kim Thittichai is a popular textile artist and tutor based in Brighton. She specialises in teaching layered surfaces with heat tools and creating original designs.
Kim taught at City College Brighton & Hove for ten years delivering her Experimental Textiles course. This 30 week course is the subject of her second book due to be published by Batsford in August 2009.
Now totally freelance, Kim offers a wide range of lectures and workshop and delivers these all over the U.K. You can see Kim at several shows this year including Festival of Quilts and The Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.
Isabella Whitworth
Isabella Whitworth works from a strong design background. She trained as a graphic designer and illustrator and then worked in the publishing and toy industries as designer and editor. After travels in India and Indonesia in the 1980s she "discovered" textiles and began a new phase of life - as an exhibiting textile artist.
At first she worked with acid dyes on silk, using the classic "serti" technique. Over the years her unique style has developed and she now uses wax as a preferred resist. Drawing and design skills are very much at the heart of her work.
Isabella spends most of her working time closeted in her Devon studio but emerges to teach several times a year! Her courses and workshops are run at Denman College, and through various branches of the Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers.
She gives workshops on creative thinking and drawing and teaches the elements of design as part of her longer courses - on which she especially welcomes students who think they have no artistic skills. It is always such a joy to prove them wrong!
Isabella's work is sold in galleries throughout the country and at shows such as Art in Action and the Contemporary Craft Fair. She is a member of the Guild of Silk Painters and the Batik Guild, and she is a selected member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen.