A great workshop for young and old with a real heart-and-soul maker, Tina Francis.

Making and memory are, for Tina Francis, intertwined. In her Saturday workshop you’ll be creating a fantastic piece of stitching using colourful tapestry wools and threads, to create a beautiful mandala pattern. All materials are supplied, including child-friendly blunt needles, and you’re invited to bring along any inherited wool to create a mandala memory to brighten up the future, share your skills and explore the stories of your making ancestors.

Tina was awakened to the power making after winning an box of embroidery transfers in an auction: “I opened it up to find it contained the complete life of its owner in knitting and stitching patterns.” From vacation outfits to matinee jackets and booties, school uniforms, home decorations and, finally, baby knits for grandchildren. “This unknown woman had spent her whole life showing her love through making – a true artist.”

I looked at other “home crafts” and found a whole army of women artists who did not see themselves as such because “its just something I do”. Tapestry needlepoint appealed to me because it included my loved of pattern and print and combined it with texture.

I have stitched on the shoulders of this unknown woman for 5 or 6 years now, exhibiting my work in galleries around the UK and selling my needlepoint kits at shows and markets. I believe that craft builds community.

This is ‘a pay what you feel’ session. The artist has chosen to pass all session payments to a charity that combats loneliness.

Making is…

…the ability to help, to fix what is broken and to make what is needed – Tina Francis