I’m delighted to let you know that I have worked with TextileArtist.org to create a workshop for their Stitch Club members that goes live on Monday 30th June.

For those of you who don’t already know TextileArtist.org is a fabulous online resource for all things textile. Their Stitch Club delivers a wide variety of short mostly stitch based workshops with the occasional workshop on adding colour, mark and shape to cloth.

I loved the challenge of creating a short workshop based on breakdown printing (my favourite technique) that included worked samples of how the printed fabrics could be used to create hand stitched and machine stitched outcomes. I tried to keep it simple and, frankly affordable, so it is ideal for those want to try out a little bit of screen printing on their kitchen table without spending a fortune on stuff they might not use again. That said, breakdown printing is addictive!

The workshop is video based, supported by a detailed workbook. There will be an ebook of what I hope are inspirational images of my work. Importantly I will be providing online support for Stitch Club members for the first two weeks after the workshop goes live.

To get the ball rolling TextileArtist.org have posted an interview with me that you can find here.

Exciting times!

I may have already mentioned that September is going to be an exciting month for me. I have a solo exhibition at the AhHaa School for the Arts in Telluride and will be teaching two five day workshops there.

Telluride is a beautiful town located in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado at 8,750' elevation. It was formed during the Colorado gold rush in the 1870s. Notoriously difficult to access one local legend says the the town was named after the phrase ‘To Hell You Ride’. More likely it was named after the telluride minerals found there. Silver, gold, copper and mercury were mined in the mountains and there were some amazing feats of engineering over the years to aid processing and transport. All the kind of stuff that gets me excited!

Today Telluride is renowned for its skiing in the winter and arts and music festivals in the summer. Ah Haa was founded in 1991, and the state of the art facility was completed in 2021. The School has amazing teaching spaces as well as a gallery. You can find out more here.

My exhibition will be there for the month of September. It is called Beneath Our Feet and will feature some of my coal mining and cotton mill pieces including the 4 metre long Ruins 12: Beneath Our Feet that I made for my exhibition at Salford Museum and Gallery in late 2023. It’s great that this one will get another outing! I’m also creating new pieces for the exhibition including four abstract pieces inspired by Tellurides mining past.

I will be teaching two workshops. The first, Simply Screen Printing, runs from 25th to 29th September and is suitable for beginners. There are still places available and you can find more details here. The second, Luscious Layers, runs from 2nd to 6th October and is aimed at students with prior knowledge of using dyes to add colour to cloth. You can find out more here.

It is very exciting and a little scary. And it will almost certainly coincide with the sale of the house and our move to Scotland but who wants a quiet life!

Unfortunately the number of sign ups has been low since I launched the workshop just over a year ago. Even when offered at a reduced price. So I’ve decided to change how it is offered moving forward.

Originally offered with 12 months access and support via monthly Zoom meetings it is now going to be offered with lifetime access but without support via Zoom. I will continue to support students via email.

And the great news is that I’ve reduced the cost from £300 to £120! You can find out more details here.

(I will be running Zoom meetings for existing students until the end of April 2026 and will continue to add the recordings to the workshop so they will be there for new students to watch).

In other news ….. the house will go on the market in the next few days, I’ll post again when it is available to view online.

Happy New Year, I hope you had a good Christmas and are looking forward to a creative New Year. I certainly am!

Because of the move to Scotland this year I have changed my teaching practice. I’m no longer teaching in my own studio but will be teaching in other studios through the year as well as taking my studio stuff out to visit groups. I’ve listed my teaching schedule below. Some of the courses are already full but have waiting lists. (I also have a couple of online workshops that you can sign up for at any time - you can find details here.)

16th to 20th June - Breakdown Your Palette at InStitches in Wokingham. The workshop is currently full but you can find details here and ask to be put on the waiting list.

25th to 29th September - Simply Screen Printing at the Ah Haa School for the Arts in Telluride, Colorado, US. You can find full details and book here.

2nd to 6th October - Luscious Layers at the Ah Haa School for the Arts in Telluride, Colorado, US. The workshop is already full but you can join the waiting list here.

27th to 31st October - Breakdown Your Palette at InStitches in Wokingham. Booking is not open yet but you can sign up to receive an email when it opens here.

22nd to 24th October - 3 day Luscious Layers at Littlheath Barn Studio in Bromsgrove. The workshop is alreadu full but you can join the waiting list here. I’ll also be returning to Littleheath Barn Studios in April 2026 details to be confirmed.

Yes, I’m going to be teaching in the US this year. I’m very excited because I have so many friends and online students there and can’t wait to spend time with them. I will also have an exhibition at the School in September. Telluride has a fascinating history. Today it is an artsy tourist destination in the summer and a ski resort in the winter but it used to be a silver mining town. So I will be exhibiting some of my coal mining and cotton mills pieces alongside new works created for the exhibition.

On top of all this I will have my usual stand at The Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow from 6th to 8th March. And will demonstrating in (and helping to organise) The Creative Textile Studio at Festival of Quilts in August.

Looks like I’m going to be very busy but not as busy as I would be running a teaching studio etc so I will have plenty of time to make art (and move house). At least that’s the plan!

My online Breakdown Printing workshop will soon be 4 years old and I’ve loved meeting students from all over the world. But the number of new sign ups has reduced significantly over the last year so I’ve decided to change how it is offered moving forward.

Originally offered with 12 months access and support via monthly Zoom meetings it is now going to be offered with lifetime access but without support via Zoom. I will continue to support students via email.

And the great news is that I’ve reduced the cost from £240 to £120!

You can find out more details here.

(I will be running Zoom meetings for existing students until the end of August 2025 and will continue to add the recordings to the workshop so they will be there for new students to watch).

Last week I had the wonderful Amanda J Clayton teaching her four day Quietly Composed workshop in the studio so I was able to spend some time figuring out what my online shop will look like as I move forward. My core offering will remain my books, my workshops, dyes + auxiliary chemicals, screens and squeegees but other items will be dropped.

So I’m having my first clearance sale with more to follow as I work through the studio. I have reduced the cost of textile inks from £6 to £4 and the transparent extender used with the inks from £7 to £4.50. I have also reduced the price of acrylic shapes and thermofax squeegees by 50% or more. You can find the details by clicking here.

Now back to Amanda …. she arrived with the most amazing collection of finished pieces, samples, fabrics, threads, papers and ephemera. The six students were absolutely delighted … even when the drawing exercises took some of them outside their comfort zone! Amanda comes very highly recommended! Enjoy the eye candy below …..

With the big move to Scotland planned for next spring I’ve started my last ‘run’ of teaching in my studio. Which is kind of sad as I love teaching but also a good thing as I’m impatient to start the next phase of my life.

Last week I taught Breakdown Your Palette for the last time. This remains my favourite 5 day workshop and I’ve taught it 20+ times in my studio in the last 6 years. I will be teaching this workshop next year at InStitches from 16th to 20th June. The workshop is already sold out but if you’d like to learn more and be put on the waiting list click here. If you’d still love to learn how to breakdown print but can’t get to study with me in person you might want to have a look at my online Breakdown Your Palette workshop. This is an on demand workshop so that you can work at your own pace with support from me via monthly Zoom meetings and email. The discount code BYP20 gives a 20% discount up to end of August.

This coming week I will be teaching Luscious Layers. It is a full class but I still have places on the final Luscious Layers workshop on 23rd to 27th September. You can find out more here.

September will see me teaching my final Simply Screen Printing workshops. I still have 2 places left on the 5 day workshop that runs from 2nd to 6th September. You can find out more here. Alternatively I also offer an online version of this, you can find out details here. Again it is an on demand program with support from me via Zoom and email. Using the code SSP20 before the end of August will get you a 20% discount on the cost.

And I will finishing teaching in my studio with Colour Your Palette on the 7th to 11th October. This is my somewhat niche workshop that is a deep dive into colour theory and colour use when working with Procion dyes. This is probably the last time I will run this workshop and I have places left. If you’d like to find out more please click here.

In amongst all this I’m giving a couple of talks and taking workshops to a couple of groups, including a trip to Kilkenny in Ireland to teach screen printing for three days. It is all going to whizz by .

And then the packing begins!

Until Festival of Quilts opens! Preparations are going pretty well although I do have a small mountain of fabric to rinse, wash, iron, cut and fold into Wonky Print Inspiration packs and Absolutely Darling Hand Dyed packs before we travel to Birmingham on Wednesday. I’m on stand E26 and you can find me in Hall 8 close to the Christine Chester gallery and the Quilt in Action area. I’m also close to The Creative Textile Studio.

To celebrate the event I am offering a 20% discount on my online workshops throughout the month of August. Use the code BYP20 to reduce the price of my Breakdown Your Palette workshop from £240 to £192 and the code SSP20 to reduce the cost of my Simply Screen Printing workshop from £300 to £240. Both workshops are ‘on demand’ so that you can work at your own pace. They each feature of 24 hours of videos, detailed notes and support from me via Zoom and email. (Codes are valid from 1st to 31st August.)

I’ll be screen printing and breakdown printing on my stand and I love to see you there!

This week I heard that Ruins 9 Cottonopolis Revisited will be going to a new home after my solo exhibition at Salford Museum and Art Gallery ends on 5th May. Which is wonderful news although I will miss it. I make art for a couple of reasons; to get ideas and feelings out of my head and into a physical form and for the results to be seen, and hopefully appreciated, by others. Selling my art is a lovely bonus. An affirmation. That I am an Artist with a capital A. It banishes the doubts, the imposter syndrome moments. And makes me more determined than ever to reorganise my life so that I can make more art!

So, despite having a very long list of stuff that needs doing before my teaching season begins next weekend, I decided to treat myself. Initially I treated myself to a rather delicious custard slice. And then I gave myself the precious gift of time. Three days focused on making. Which doesn’t sound a lot but I hadn’t scheduled any ‘art time’ until mid-October. Too early to share images but I had a deeply satisfying time printing fabric and thinking about new constructions.

And now it is back to that schedule …. screens to varnish, fabric to soda soak, notes to be checked and distributed, requirements lists to be written, studio to be cleaned. This will be the last year that I will teach here in my studio in Manchester before we relocate and downsize (thus enabling me to spend more time making art!). Its shaping up to be a wonderfully busy one with the majority of classes either full or close to full.

The next four workshops each have one place left on them. I’m teaching my two-day Simply Screen Printing workshop (6th and 7th April) next weekend immediately followed by my, more comprehensive five-day Simply Screen Printing (8th to 12th April). There is then a break due to an extended holiday in Ireland before my five day Breakdown Your Palette workshop (13th to 17th May). And finally there is one place left on Clare Bullock’s Versatility of Felt workshop (20th to 24th May).

The year is going to fly by!