Textile Study Group

Be A Star! The Textile Study Group is delighted to offer a £2,000 award for a special Star Project. This is a unique opportunity to share your passion for contemporary textiles by leading an inclusive, creative project for a group you know or a community you wish to create. The award supports research, development, materials, and equipment. Your project can take place anywhere: online, in a community centre, gallery, school, college or adult education centre, a library, or even outdoors. Please find further information and the application form on our website – Closing date for applications is 31 May 2026 #textilestudygroup #starprojectaward #tsgstarprojectaward

Nest by @alicefoxartist “The nest (probably a blackbird’s) was found on my allotment around the time I took the plot on, in autumn 2017. I kept it in the shed ever since, waiting for a suitable way of exploring and celebrating it. Unmaking the nest felt reminiscent of dissecting owl pellets, to identify what the owl had eaten. Now I could see what materials this bird had used. On sorting through and deconstructing the nest, categories of material were identified, leaving some loose and fragile debris. Material strong enough was re-constructed to form a kind of ‘flat pack’ version of the nest.” ‘Nest’ is now on show as part of Wonder of Birds at the Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford. Alice will be making new work as a response to ‘Nest’ for the Stoud iteration of Unmaking. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ UNmaking is a thinking process. It is an act of revealing and understanding. As a community of curious, inquisitive makers, we believe in sharing ideas about process with intention. UNmaking offers an opportunity to review, reflect, and refine our work, allowing us to pause and interrogate why we create. The works in this exhibition will deliberately evolve over time and across venues. By presenting artworks at different stages of the making and unmaking journey, the exhibition embraces change as an integral part of practice. As the artists continue to develop their work, the exhibition itself transforms, expanding the possibilities of a touring show and ensuring that each iteration is distinct and responsive to its context. Unmaking: An Exploration of Process and Practice Museum in the Park, Stroud GL5 4AF 12 September – 8 November 2026 #textilestudygroup #unmaking

‘The hardest thing of all is to see what is really there’ by Janet Edmonds (Title from J.A. Baker’s ‘The Peregrin’) “As a former cartographer and frequent walker, I have used the roads, railways, footpaths and other networks found on maps to create a series of connecting lines. I cut out all the spaces in between ending up with a grid. This led me to think about all the different building blocks of life and seeing them as a series of connections. I began to knot together criss crossing lines and created a range of different grids that I have made three dimensional. I could take these in any number of different ways. I have grouped some of them together and shone light through them to cast some complex images. Our lives are a matrix of layers of connecting grids and I propose to use this idea to implement further work.” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ UNmaking is a thinking process. It is an act of revealing and understanding. As a community of curious, inquisitive makers, we believe in sharing ideas about process with intention. UNmaking offers an opportunity to review, reflect, and refine our work, allowing us to pause and interrogate why we create. The works in this exhibition will deliberately evolve over time and across venues. By presenting artworks at different stages of the making and unmaking journey, the exhibition embraces change as an integral part of practice. As the artists continue to develop their work, the exhibition itself transforms, expanding the possibilities of a touring show and ensuring that each iteration is distinct and responsive to its context. Unmaking: An Exploration of Process and Practice Museum in the Park, Stroud GL5 4AF 12 September – 8 November 2026 @edmonds2275 #textilestudygroup #unmaking

Thicket by Jean Draper Relief construction from layers of sinew-wrapped willow and open mesh, hand stitched with Japanese paper threads. “All my work is developed from research in the form of visits, drawing, photography and extensive sampling of ideas. In recent years the content of my work, both 2D and 3D has been derived from studying extreme, barren rocky landscapes in the UK and other places visited, especially the American SW and Western Australia. Although at first appearing empty, these places abound with arresting detail and dramatic sculptural features, whose shapes and textures are often caused by the effects of time and harsh conditions. Regeneration, recovery and growth are recurring themes I consider, having seen the aftermath of devastating forest fires.” Jean has been a member of the Textile Study Group since 1989. Find out more about Jean’s practice and all our members on our website - link in bio #textilestudygroup #textiles #finearttextiles#stitchedtextiles #printedtextilesmixedmediatextiles artistsandtutors ideasimaginationandskills

Introducing our newest member: Eleanor Burkett “Robust, malleable or delicate, paper in all its forms is at the heart of my practice and I use textile and paper processes interchangeably. It is a medium I have been fascinated by since witnessing handmade rag paper being made at Hayle Mill in Kent many years ago. Subsequently I went to North East Japan, where I studied and researched traditional textile and paper processes and my work is best understood as a contemporary response to paper-textile techniques honed during the years I lived in Japan. Outcomes are process-led whether this is making paper, slashing and rolling paper ‘thread’, exploring script, layering and mark-making or shaping paper into three-dimensional form. At times I collage, stitch and fuse disparate elements together or form and recycle new surfaces from the waste of hand-made and machine-made paper processes.” Image: detail of Autumn Persimmon 📷 by David Brunetti @ellieburkett_london #textilestudygroup #newmembers #artistsandtutors #ideasimaginationandskills

LUBUGO 1 & LUBUGO 9 By Bobby Britnell @bobbybritnell Bark cloth from the Mutuba tree from Southern Uganda is reputedly the world’s oldest non-woven material. This natural cloth has held Bobby’s creative focus for several years, and she experiments with it as a surface for colour, print, mark and stitch. This work for UNmaking involved unpicking bark cloth from previous compositions and reassembling it as new original artworks. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ UNmaking is a thinking process. It is an act of revealing and understanding. As a community of curious, inquisitive makers, we believe in sharing ideas about process with intention. UNmaking offers an opportunity to review, reflect, and refine our work, allowing us to pause and interrogate why we create. The works in this exhibition will deliberately evolve over time and across venues. By presenting artworks at different stages of the making and unmaking journey, the exhibition embraces change as an integral part of practice. As the artists continue to develop their work, the exhibition itself transforms, expanding the possibilities of a touring show and ensuring that each iteration is distinct and responsive to its context. Unmaking: An Exploration of Process and Practice Museum in the Park, Stroud GL5 4AF 12 September – 8 November 2026 @museuminthepark #textilestudygroup #unmaking

It’s the last week to see UnMaking @textilesgold We’ll keep posting about the work as it develops before its next iteration in the autumn. Manes - Log Cabin and Manes - All that Remains By Gillian Cooper @gilliantextiles “In Ancient Rome, Manes were the souls of ancestors worshipped as benevolent personal deities. My Manes are the spirits of earlier artworks, exploring questions of continuity and remembrance through unmaking. Literally, as the solid substrate on which they are constructed is washed away; unmaking the present, leaving only fragments and traces of stitches. They emerge as ghost versions made from scraps saved from the original projects; in the case of Manes - Log Cabin, the first quilt I made 25 years ago. Fragile, transparent, insubstantial, they are a shrine to those pieces which made me the artist I am today.” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ UNmaking is a thinking process. It is an act of revealing and understanding. As a community of curious, inquisitive makers, we believe in sharing ideas about process with intention. UNmaking offers an opportunity to review, reflect, and refine our work, allowing us to pause and interrogate why we create. Unmaking: An Exploration of Process and Practice 16 February - 27 March 2026 Monday – Friday 1-4pm Constance Howard Gallery Deptford Town Hall London SE14 6NW @textilesgold #textilestudygroup #unmaking

Samples from members made during or ‘Connected Threads’ workshop with @cwellesleysmith Hand stitch, couching, piecing together in response to various prompts and generating gentle conversations. #textilestudygroup #artistsandtutors #handstitch

The Textile Study Group gathers twice a year to learn together, plan our Summer School and exhibitions. This time we’ve had a wonderful weekend workshop with guest tutor @cwellesleysmith exploring hand stitch and ‘connected threads’. We’ve enjoyed seeing and hearing about Claire’s daily stitching practice and relished the feel of thread and cloth. #textilestudygroup #artistsandtutors #sharingideasimaginationandskills #handstitch

Made, Unmade, Remade By Penny Burnfield @pennyburnfield “I am interested in the rubbish we leave and what becomes of it. My work takes the form of assemblages which use collected debris - animal, vegetable, mineral - items found in my garden and my surroundings. All have been Made in some way, then they have been discarded - Unmade, and now they are Remade as a work of art.” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ UNmaking is a thinking process. It is an act of revealing and understanding. As a community of curious, inquisitive makers, we believe in sharing ideas about process with intention. UNmaking offers an opportunity to review, reflect, and refine our work, allowing us to pause and interrogate why we create. Unmaking: An Exploration of Process and Practice 16 February - 27 March 2026 Monday – Friday 1-4pm Constance Howard Gallery Deptford Town Hall London SE14 6NW @textilesgold #textilestudygroup #unmaking

Deconstructed Left Sleeve By Alice Blackstock @aliceblackstockstudio “The blue shirt is a staple in many wardrobes. It’s a versatile item but also a complex one. As an artist I am interested in really looking at an object, understanding and capturing it. In Unmaking this shirt, I studied the individual components of the sleeve by gently unpicking each of the 15 bits of sewing that held it together. The original colour, diluted through wear, light exposure and 40 degree washes along with two red threads in the cuff and side felled seam were revealed. Through deconstructing this I hope we can appreciate what goes into constructing a shirt.” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ UNmaking is a thinking process. It is an act of revealing and understanding. As a community of curious, inquisitive makers, we believe in sharing ideas about process with intention. UNmaking offers an opportunity to review, reflect, and refine our work, allowing us to pause and interrogate why we create. Unmaking: An Exploration of Process and Practice 16 February - 27 March 2026 Monday – Friday 1-4pm Constance Howard Gallery Deptford Town Hall London SE14 6NW @textilesgold #textilestudygroup #unmaking

‘5th September, No Choice’ & ‘Wounds Heal Well’ from ‘Under Repair’ By Lois Blackburn @artistloisb “Under Repair is a series of artworks based on my experience of spending three weeks in hospital following major cancer surgery. Forming a snapshot diary of being unmade and slowly remade, the work was created during my recovery and chemotherapy, when the act of making became a lifeline — a quiet, tender way to reclaim my body and sense of self. Using fragments of WhatsApp messages written to my family, the work holds pain, fear, humour and fleeting joy. Inspired by illuminated manuscripts, the stoma bag covers respond directly to surgery, exploring concealment, celebration and reclaimed agency.” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ UNmaking is a thinking process. It is an act of revealing and understanding. As a community of curious, inquisitive makers, we believe in sharing ideas about process with intention. UNmaking offers an opportunity to review, reflect, and refine our work, allowing us to pause and interrogate why we create. Unmaking: An Exploration of Process and Practice 16 February - 27 March 2026 Monday – Friday 1-4pm Constance Howard Gallery Deptford Town Hall London SE14 6NW @textilesgold #textilestudygroup #unmaking