Course Description

Take a close look at a special place, this could be sea and shoreline or reflections on landscape, trees, water and woodland. Respond to your chosen landscape, note colour combinations, lines and textures which inspire you.

During the course explore the colour in your chosen landscape to create a sense of place. Develop personal visual language creating a selection of cloth and paper surfaces using painterly print and mark making. Fragment the surfaces created, work intuitively through a random system of placement creating arrangements of small abstract collages to work into with hand stitch. Take time to let the work unfold; add layers of harmonious or contrasting colour combinations with hand stitched thread creating subtle textural effects. What would happen if the surface were folded or pleated; over-stitch edges, insert stitch into the ground cloth; follow your own creative pathway to inspire imaginative outcomes.

Suitable For

This course is suitable for beginners and those who enjoy the challenge of intuitive experimentation, exploration and extension of creative boundaries who have an open mind and a desire to explore. Amanda will guide you through intuitive development of your work with the support of inspirational resources in the form of personal sketchbooks and examples of her work.

Requirements List

• A piece of cotton or linen in a neutral shade, this could be white, off white, cream, beige or grey to use as a backing for collage. It is important that the cloth has a handle and weave suitable for working hand stitch, avoid dense high thread count cloth. ½ a metre is more than enough to allow for flexibility in shape and size of work
• Extra pieces of cotton or linen cloth for painting and print; small pieces of white or neutral cloth e.g. muslin, lightweight calico, fine turban cotton. Bring cloth from your collection suitable for hand stitch
• Needles for hand sewing
• Sewing kit, pins, scissors
• A select choice of threads in appropriate colours and neutrals; less is more!
• A no 12 Daler Rowney Graduate round brush and 2.5cm Langnickel bristle brush or similar for painting and mark making (a limited number of brushes will be available to use if you wish)
• Pritt stick type glue
• Apron/overall, please wear suitable clothing
• A sketchbook/notebook for working notes and ideas

Material costs

Tutor will bring samples and sketchbooks to use as starting points for ideas.

There will be a charge of £5 to cover the cost of materials listed below. This is payable directly to the tutor.

• Papers- newsprint, wet strength tissue, tea bag paper
• Cloth scraps (include coloured and sari silk)
• Cotton scrim
• Print blocks
• Sticks for mark making
• Acrylic paint
• Box of brushes/ water pots/paint palette