Material Landscapes

Description

Weekend Workshop // November 1st-2nd // 10-4pm // Beginner-Advanced // Cost: £235 // Places Available: 8 // Instructor: Siobhan McLaughlin & Cassandra Belanger

Join artist Siobhan McLaughlin and zero-waste specialist Cassandra Belanger to expand your creativity, learning both sewing and painting techniques to create a unique artwork. 

About this course

Embrace the exciting, experimental process of working with remnant fabrics and earth pigments to create a beautiful hanging painting. Paint made from earth pigments is layered upon your own unique canvas, patchworked together using remnant fabrics.

You are encouraged to bring memories of your favourite landscape experiences with you, as we develop continuous line drawings to inform the composition of your painting. 

Once the sewn textile base is sealed with primer, you will learn how Siobhan gathers earth and rocks to create paint, mixing some of these earth samples with acrylic paint to create your landscape painting. 

In this course you’ll learn how to create sustainability focused artwork that combines sewn textiles with earth pigment and acrylic painting. You will develop skills in simple sewing techniques, canvas priming, earth pigment grinding and landscape painting. 

Through this course, you will gain the tools and confidence to enhance your home by creating a unique artwork. 

Skill Level & Sewing Machines

This is a Pure Beginner level course, which means it's suitable for absolute beginners. No painting or artistic experience necessary, we will access your inner artist on the day!

The setting for this course is the relaxing, social atmosphere of The Stitchery Studio, which comes fully equipped with a sewing machine (Janome 230DC) for each student (you are welcome to bring your own if you like!).

Outcomes

• An A3 painted wall hanging, finished with a simple wooden hanging system
• Ideas of zero waste design and re-use of remnant materials 
• How to create abstract landscapes from your favourite memories of a place
• How to grind earth pigment to make paint 
• Use of earth pigment and acrylic paints to create a landscape painting

You Will Need to Bring

• A photograph of your favourite landscape memory for your painting
• Wear clothing and/or an apron that you don’t mind getting marked with paint
• Optional: Scraps of fabric to work with

Booking Your Place

To book your place on this course, you will pay a non-refundable Booking Deposit of £50 through this Eventbrite page. This Booking Deposit goes towards course fees however, the remaining balance is due no later that two weeks PRIOR to course start. Once you’ve booked a place on the course, you will receive the details to bank transfer the final amount. We do it this way to avoid additional external fees. Please familiarise yourself with our Terms & Conditions before making your booking.

You can pay by PayPal or any major debit/credit card. NOTE: You do not need a PayPal account to make a booking. Simply click on the link which says "pay with a debit or credit card". It looks like this. Please note that deposits are non-refundable.

About Your Tutors

Siobhan McLaughlin is an artist and freelance curator based in Glasgow. Combining experiences of walking with material exploration, her art practice utilises weaving, printmaking, painting and installation to explore themes of place, memory and ecology. Siobhan graduated in 2019 with First Class MA Hons in Fine Art at Edinburgh University. Since then she has received the SSA Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Award, Visual Art Scotland Cornwall Exchange Residency, RSA Residencies for Scotland award, and Stephen Palmer Travel Award to Orkney.

Recent selected exhibitions include The Land Will Call You Home, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Cornwall (2025); Art in a Time of Urgency, Grizedale Forest (2025); Pilgrimages, Hweg, Penzance (Solo, 2024); Elemental, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2023); HERE Between you and the World, POP Griffiths Gallery, Brisbane (2022) and the Gilchrist-Fisher Award, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London (2022).

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Cassandra Belanger (she/her) has 14 years of experience working in sustainable design, textiles and garment construction with a Masters in Fashion + Textiles focussing on zero waste design. Her work is an invitation to a more sustainable future and education is at the centre of her creative practice. She is the Founder of The Stitchery Studio, Co-Founder of the Zero Waste Design Collective and Founding Member of Sustainable Fashion Scotland. She was the Resident Sewing Instructor at the Central Scottish School of Craft and previously a Fashion and Textile Lecturer at Glasgow West College. Her research interests centre around sustainable fashion and textile design education and fashion systems for a post growth economy. Her design and teaching practice explores issues such as zero waste, waste colonialism, transparency, feminism, sizeism, and body image. Cassandra is committed to decolonising her teaching practice.

More Info:

• During class tea and coffee will be available.
• All of our classes are suitable for over 18s, younger crafters may be accommodated if accompanied by a participating adult but please contact us before booking
• If the workshop you were looking at is fully booked drop us an email and we’ll add you to the waiting list.
• If you need to cancel, we need at least two weeks notice. Please read our cancellation policy before booking.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

The Stitchery operates under a business model of full transparency. If you have any questions about how we cost our courses and what the breakdown of costs is, please feel free to get in touch for more information.

Cancellation & Course Fees Refund

Please be aware that there is a £50 non-refundable booking fee included in the cost of this ticket. This means that if you need to cancel your booking more than 14-days PRIOR to the ticketed session you will be able to receive a partial refund of £185. After that date, partial refunds are not guaranteed so please get in touch so we can discuss your situation.

If for any reason you change your mind and need to cancel your booking, please email us (info@thestitcherystudio@gmail.com) immediately so that we can release your place to someone on the waiting list.