Name: Create & Experiment with Textile Art
Start: 2026-05-30T14:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-06-13T18:00:00+01:00
Location: St Mary Abbots Centre

Dive into the world of textile art with hands-on workshops for both absolute beginners and experts.
About this Event

MASKS/THREADS: TEXTILE ART WORKSHOP

Join us in person for a fun and hands-on textile art workshop - learn, design, create and finish your artwork.

EITHER Start with a taster session on either Saturday 30/5 or Saturday 13/6, OR book the 2 Day workshop over both Saturdays.

Whether you're a complete beginner or just curious, this workshop - influenced by climate change awareness and refugee journeys - offers a great chance to get creative, learn some cool techniques, and meet fellow craft lovers. Don't miss out on experiencing the magic of fabrics and threads—come along and unleash your inner artist!

Materials and refreshments provided. The session is led by two artists with diverse backgrounds:

THREADS: Giovanna del Sarto

Since October 2015, Giovanna has worked across key locations of the refugee crisis, including Preševo, Belgrade, Lesvos, Athens, Idomeni, and Chios.During these journeys, she carried a Polaroid Land Camera, initiating A Polaroid for a Refugee as a way to document moments of transition. For each photograph, she gave one copy to the person portrayed and asked them to send her another once they reached safety.

In order to support the associations she volunteered with and raise awareness, she began creating limited editions of A Polaroid for a Refugee postcards, developing a series of small artworks that combine photography and embroidery. This process adds a new layer of meaning to the image, enriching it with an additional, intimate dimension through a reinterpretation that is immediate and accessible to a wide audience.

THREADS invites you to embroider your own image, to add your creative touch to an image meaningful to your journey, and share that with others.

MASKS: Aramatou Toure

A Graduate of Central St. Marten's Textile degree, with roots in Côte d'Ivoire, Aramatou's practice centres on a philosophy of Critical Hope through Meditative Action & Collective Making. She encourages reflection on themes such as climate change, mental health, collective wellbeing, and slow, repetitive weaving processes that encourage presence and calm.

Aramatou draws inspiration from the natural world, landscape, agriculture, fashion, waste, and everyday lived experiences. She explores themes connected to history, culture identity, memory and empowerment.

MASKS will teach you how to use a loom to weave diverse found materials together, using a variety of recycled and repurposed materials: Textiles, organic natural materials, and waste items, for example shells, wood, branches, stones, leaves, cloth, and donated fabrics. You are welcome to bring your ownfound materials!