3D Textile Exploration with Broken//Makeshift artist Isabel Fletcher

Using magnifying glasses as a key tool, you will examine surfaces in detail, discovering how textures expand into unexpected shapes and forms.

Through a guided series of activities, you will begin with observational drawing and paper sculpture, capturing these new perspectives before translating them into experimental textiles. Midway through the workshop, you will visit the on-site materials store Scrap to source unusual and inspiring resources for the final stage of making.

Building on your initial studies, you will create a dynamic collection of three-dimensional textile samples using a wide variety of materials, yarns, and threads. The final body of work will combine drawings, paper sculptures, and 3D textile samples, encouraging an expanded approach to textile thinking and stitch.

Participants are asked to bring their own basic sewing kit (pins, needles, scissors, thread) as well as a selection of textiles, plastics (ie packaging) and yarns to use alongside the materials sourced from Scrap.

Course Level: Beginner (some stitching experiance)

Artist bio:

Isabel Fletcher is a textile artist who explores the way overlooked production offcuts can act as portals into the craft of their industry. Reframing disregarded offcuts as glimpses into the craft of making, she aims to increase empathy for possessions and encourage a reduction in consumption and waste. Isabel’s work promotes a reconnection with materials and celebrates human skill at a time when daily life is becoming increasingly automated and detached from craft.

Working intuitively by responding to the nuanced properties presented by offcuts, Isabel’s sculptural works take on ambiguous forms. She is fascinated by materials and their transformation from 2D to 3D. Stitching, draping, gathering, tensioning, separating, layering, cutting, joining: these are processes Isabel utilises when critically interacting with her materials as she seeks to identify their three-dimensional possibilities. The abstract nature of the work opens space for the imagination, encouraging viewers to think beyond the now-normalised systems of take, make, waste.

Isabel lives and works in London. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art and has exhibited her work at spaces including; the Design Museum, Somerset House, London Craft Week, London Design Festival, Brompton Chapel, London Art Fair, Salts Mill (with the 62 Group of Textile Artists).

Broken / Makeshift is an exhibition that celebrates contemporary craft by finding the beauty in everyday objects and explores how our emotional attachment to them can survive a break, fracture, or tear.

The show and surrounding programme will highlight modern and historic methods of mending, inviting a conversation about how our relationship to things has changed since the popularisation of mass-production and the recent resurgence of upcycling, repurposing, and repair.

When attending a workshop you can receive 10% off within the Gallery Shop on the day of your session.

About the venue

Sunny Bank Mills is an inspirational cultural destination in the heart of the local community of Farsley, Leeds. Founded in 1829, these glorious Mills are being regenerated by the sixth generation of the family owners, creating a wonderful blend of work, leisure and culture.

Course terms and booking conditions

Workshop and course bookings can be cancelled and refunded up until 7 days before the scheduled start date. As materials and equipment are ordered in advance, we regret that refunds cannot be offered less than 7 days before the workshop date. Please note that Eventbrite’s booking fee is non-refundable.

If we need to cancel the course for any reason your ticket will be fully refunded.