- Suitable for ages 12+. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
- This workshop is £10 per person
- There are 12 places available each session.
- The workshops will last approx 1 hour 15 minutes
Learn how to make colourful tassels with a braided trim with artist Jenny Steele.
Tassel making is a form of passementerie, an endangered heritage craft that is used to create decorative trimmings for interiors, clothing and special occasions such as ceremonies.
Using a range of brightly coloured sustainable cotton, silk and polyester yarns, you will create 1-2 wound tassels that you can take away to use on textiles, hang at home or attach to clothing. Creating a multi-coloured braided trim, you will learn how to bind the tassel in different ways.
All materials during the session are yarns and ribbons that have been sourced from a recycled yarn agent, who sources ex industrial yarn that has been collected from Northern textiles businesses and mills, saving the materials from landfill.
Workshop Information
The workshop is taking place on the lower-ground floor of The Exchange (Blackburn’s historic Cotton Exchange) – access is via the main entrance on King William Street. The venue has a new lift operating to all floors of the building.
Please arrive at the venue 5 minutes before the workshop. Unfortunately your place may be allocated to a participant on the waiting list in the event of late arrival.
Advanced booking required.
Pricing Guidance
The National Festival of Making is delivered through a combination of public funding, partnerships, sponsorship and ticket income. This session has been partly subsidised by the National Festival of Making to provide a low-cost opportunity for people to try this technique at the festival weekend. You can chat to Jenny about other ways to experience her work, in exhibition or through one-off workshops at full rates.
To see what else is going on over the festival weekend, click here.
About Jenny Steele
Jenny’s practice uses heritage weaving techniques to create tactile, evocative and joyful sculptures, exploring celebration, grief and ritual. She is interested in how celebration can be an act of empowerment, a way to feel belonging and fulfil our innate need for uplifting warmth.
Jenny uses the processes of loom weaving, basketry & passementerie and her work highlights the tactual, sensorial and metaphorical qualities of weaving, experiencing it as a universal sculptural language, with familiar and accessible properties due to everyday use in interiors, dress and functional objects.