Fragile Forms-Deconstructed

Fragile Forms-Deconstructed

TSG member Jean Draper talks about our recent Continuing Professional Development workshop with Amanda Clayton:


The weekend was doubly important to me because, due to illness and Covid, it was my first face to face meeting with the group for a long time. There had been zoom meetings which, though good, are only a substitute for real contact with friends and colleagues.

Fragile Forms – Deconstructed. With Amanda Clayton

The workshop began on Friday evening with a very informative talk by Mandy in which she outlined her development as an artist from an early age through to the present day. It was very pleasing to hear her mention and acknowledge family members, teachers, other artists and colleagues who influenced her. I was specially interested to learn of her collaborations with medical and academic people to research and provide information on health issues to others, including NHS consultants. The resulting work was published in medical/academic journals.

Amanda Clayton, Loss. Photography: Dawn Jutton



Using the natural forms of our choice as starting points, and using a variety of white and neutral materials, on Saturday our work began with a series of fairly brief, but challenging, ‘tasks’ set by Mandy. Beginning with observation and representation and moving towards abstraction, each task was carefully structured and supported by a full explanation and an informative hand-out which included a possible visual vocabulary. We were encouraged, as we worked with delicate materials, to record our ideas in photographs and notes and to consider the relevance to our personal experience and skills. Each day every member had individual tutorial time with Mandy.

We were treated to an amazing display of Mandy’s beautiful, obsessively hand-stitched work, numerous samples and a huge variety of threads and fabrics to supplement our own. Throughout Mandy generously shared her methods and use of materials.


Jean Draper.

Shelley Rhodes, TSG member, workshop investigation

Summer School 2025

Summer School 2025

The theme for our 2025 Summer School is Materiality.

This is a residential summer school tutored by Textile Study Group members and open to everyone with workshops led by Textile Study Group members Alice Fox, Sue Green and Mandy Pattullo

Summer school is held each July at Hillscourt Hotel, Rose Hill, Rednal, Birmingham B45 8RS.
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 July 2025.

The three workshops will use materiality as the springboard for the creative process. It will be an opportunity to play with materials gathered, explore the touch and feel of old fabrics and experiment with deconstruction and reconstruction ideas.

Your experienced and inspirational tutors will guide and support you in developing your ideas and creating a fun and exciting experience. Choose from the following three workshops:

Here and Now with Alice Fox: The detail that surrounds us can be fascinating, if we just allow ourselves to take it in. This course aims to open our eyes to what is around us, finding the potential in the ordinary. Led by the place and the material available, an experimental approach is encouraged. With a focus on objects and marks collected on short walks from the studio we will explore different techniques, making use of what we find and exploring ways of developing visual ideas on paper and cloth. This will be a chance to explore some alternative approaches to mapping, developing individual personal records of place.

Unmaking-Remaking with Sue Green: This course will explore the concept of ‘unmaking’ using cloth to retell new narratives. Experimental print and stitch processes will be explored responding to traces and memory.

Students should bring along an item of cloth or clothing with a personal connection but not something precious as it will be taken apart to reveal the hidden stories within and used to print from.

Outcomes will be facilitated through individual discussion and will form a series of samples to further develop independently.

Textile Collage with Mandy Pattullo: This gentle hand stitching course encourages you to bring together your own stash of old fabrics, lace and garments, that may be flawed through wear and tear, and transform them through textile collage techniques to find in them a new beauty.

Together we will deconstruct, layer and rearrange materials to create patchworked surfaces, which will be enhanced with stitch. You will develop a personal stitch language which might be based on pattern making with traditional stitches, refer to stitch conventions of other cultures or invent new ways to draw with stitch on to fabric.

Full details are all available on our website and bookings open on 14th October.

Summer School 2024

Summer School 2024

Hillscourt Hotel, Rose Hill, Rednal, Birmingham, B45 8RS
Monday 15 – Thursday 18 July 2024

Each July we run a Summer School led by a rotating trio of tutors from our membership.

This year our Summer School theme is ‘Travelling Lines’ with tutors Jane McKeating , Polly Pollock and Dorothy Tucker.

There are still a few places available on Polly’s exciting course: Shape, Form, Basket. Polly has been making and teaching basketry for many years. Her long basketry journey began with an interest in textiles, her work having gone through many transitions. For the past 15 years Polly has worked increasingly with paper, exploring more personal themes, most recently in her work ‘Kitchen Drawer: Emergency Home Repairs” for the TSG Making:50 exhibition. 

Polly Pollock. Making:50 stitched and woven structures.

Shape, form, basket:

Lines joined up form shapes. Shape and lines intersecting in space create form. Form becomes basket.

After considering the qualities of lines through drawing and mark-making, you will explore how materials can represent these. Baskets are created by linear materials interweaving. You will experiment with materials, colour, scale, density, surface, stitch… Your work might be materials/technique led, or informed by a more personal theme, like tracing the steps of a familiar walk.

Basketry is a slow and meditative craft, allowing time for contemplation and experimentation; it is rooted in ancient traditions, with enormous potential for experimentation and innovation. You may focus on a single piece, or a small collection of exploratory samples to develop further in your own time.

Further details and booking via our website: https://textilestudygroup.co.uk/courses/summer-school-2024/

Be a STAR!

Star Project Award text, brightly coloured embroidery and thread

We are delighted to be able to offer a biannual award of £1500 for a Star Project.

Apply for this award to share your passion for contemporary textiles through leading a project for a group you know or would like to set up. Many of us are changing the way we share our knowledge and skills, and we want to reach out to wider audiences.

A Star Project could take place online or in an informal setting such as a village or religious hall, library or community centre or gallery, school, college or adult education centre, or in an outdoor setting.

Applying for the award could enable you to research and develop ideas, source materials and equipment, and devise a learning experience which is inclusive and creative. Please find further information and the application form on our website –Closing date for applications is 31 May 2024.

Please visit our Star Page for more details.

Star Project Award text, brightly coloured embroidery and thread
Star Project Award