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/

Making:50 at Farnham

Making:50 at Farnham

The Textile Study Group marked its 50th anniversary in 2023. For half a century, this group has been at the forefront of innovative making, teaching and textile art practice, and we are still going strong. We are celebrating this milestone, and our achievements, with a significant exhibition of new and exciting work from our current membership: Making:50. The exhibition continues until 27th April at its third exhibition location: The Crafts Study Centre, Farnham. 

On Thursday 4th April there will be an opportunity to ‘Meet the Artists’, with six of our members in conversation with Dr Stephen Knott, Director of the Crafts Study Centre. 

On Tuesday 23rd April there will be an online closing event, with Julia Triston, Siân Martin and Mandy Pattullo in discussion with Stephen Knott about their own work, the impact of the Making:50 exhibition and future plans for the group against a backdrop of increased interest in textile research and practice. 

Event booking is via Crafts Study Centre website.

The beautiful, limited-edition publication we commissioned to accompany the exhibition is available from the Crafts Study Centre or you can order it for posting anywhere in the world from our online shop.

Alice Fox, March 2024

Making:50 Workshop with Sarah Burgess

Making:50 Workshop with Sarah Burgess

To celebrate the Making:50 exhibition and Ltd Edition publication at The Ropewalk, Barton, the gallery are holding a day workshop led by TSG member Sarah Burgess.

Saturday 21st October, 10.30- 3.45pm Duration 5 hours 15 mins.

You will explore simple print techniques on semi-transparent materials to create layered experiments with print and stitch. Participants will create a series of experimental pieces to develop further in their own time. 

Suitable for enthusiastic beginners or more experienced participants.

Cost £70.00 Limited places are available, please contact the Gallery for booking and details tel 01652 660390

Mary Sleigh & Julia Triston, Making Conversation

Mary Sleigh & Julia Triston, Making Conversation

Don’t miss the next in our series of ‘Making Conversations’, on Monday 2nd October, with Textile Study Group Members, Mary Sleigh and Julia Triston.

Making Conversation is a series of six online events. In each session, two Textile Study Group members reflect on and share their own experience of creating new work for the Making:50 exhibitions.

Initial ideas and inspiration, frustrations and successful parts of the creative process, together with images of the artists’ work, are included in each conversation. Join us for an opportunity to have a peek over their shoulders and ask questions.

Sessions will be held via Zoom starting at 7pm (UK time) and will last approximately 1 hour.

Ticket price is £7.50 per talk. Available to book at our shop. 

Each ticket purchase is for one person to attend the talk.

Ticket sales will close 24 hours before each session.

No refunds.

Session invitation links will be emailed out on the morning of each talk.

Talks will not be recorded.

Visit our website for more information on each artist’s practice: MEMBERS