Textile Study Group

Floral Figures, with Vivienne Beaumont

Explore the fusion of figurative art and floral symbolism in textiles.

If you’re looking to add a figurative dimension to your textile art, join us! This workshop combines drawing, print, collage, and inventive stitching.

We’ll playfully explore faces, proportions, and composition, drawing inspiration from both historical and contemporary art, while also working with contemporary textile techniques like assemblage and relief using the sewing machine.

Develop personal projects with new ways to tell your stories.

Although the emphasis is on using a sewing machine (experience is preferable) hand stitch is an option.

Vivienne creates figurative textile art, using machine embroidery and print to explore personal and universal narratives, often through mythological themes. She is a member of the TSG, Prism, and The Society of Designer Craftsmen, and her work has been showcased in a variety of exhibitions, including the Knitting and Stitching Shows.

Draw Design Create, with Bobby Britnell

William Scott (1913 ~ 1989) is a huge inspiration for me in my artist pursuits and it is from some of his work that we will be drawing inspiration for this course.

By creating some intriguing compositions through drawing and design and working through several planned activities, the course should equip you with plenty of your own source material to work from and develop in creating cloth pieces. We shall be considering composition, scale, and different effects for translation onto cloth using hand-stitched marks.

As often on my courses we will investigate other past masters to learn and understand from their methods as this can cement your own personal ideas as well as offering further insights.

Bobby runs and teaches courses from her studio in South Shropshire and attracts students from all over the world. She also brings in the best UK tutors. She exhibits and teaches all over the country and abroad and was a tutor on the BA (Hons) programme for the Julia Caprara School of Stitched Textiles. She published her first book in 2013, which has been reprinted in 2021.

Sumptuous Articulated Colour, with Ruth Issett

This course will be packed with colour, using paint, collage, fabric compositions and even stitch! A vibrant inspirational floral still life will be the starting point, plus detailed colour observations & colour mixing. By selecting and recording differing colour palettes, students will make a number of personal colour collections. Transparent, translucent and opaque surface qualities of both paper and fabric will be investigated to give light and depth. Students will then use their paper and fabric collections selectively to build compositions working with different aspects of the still life. These compositions could explore a variety of different interpretations, in paper or fabric, and could be further embellished with stitch. A lively course, giving students a chance to explore colourful ideas with a variety of methods and materials. All paper will be provided and some fabrics; however, students will be advised to bring a selection of suitable coloured fabrics and threads.

For many years printing and dyeing was central to Ruth’s practice, as well as colour and stitch. She taught a number of accredited courses, wrote several books as well as delivering courses throughout Europe, USA and Australia. She is now happy to limit her travelling and spend time in her Suffolk studio focusing on the use of colour, through fabric and paper compositions.